Patient Care Focus to help owners keep pets in good condition

HELPING owners to understand what a healthy body condition looks like for their pets is the aim of VetPartners’ first Patient Care Focus of 2026.

With many of Ireland's dogs and cats overweight, we’re aiming to educate clients about keeping their pets in a good condition from a young age and help them to understand that a healthy shape equals a healthy life.

Pets with a balanced body condition have more energy, better mobility and a reduced risk of disease.

With more than half of the UK’s dogs and cats overweight, we’re aiming to educate clients about keeping their pets in a good condition from a young age and help them to understand that a healthy shape equals a healthy life.

We want clients to know that a healthy body means their pets have a visible waistline, ribs you can feel but not see and good muscle tone.

The aims of the Body Condition Matters Patient Care Focus are:

•        Education: Explain to clients what a healthy body condition looks and feels like for dogs and cats.

•        Empower: Give owners confidence to assess their pet’s shape at home using simple visual and touch cues.

•        Engage: Encourage owners to work with the practice team to maintain and/or restore a healthy body condition.

•        Support: Provide tools and positive reinforcement for monitoring and improving condition over time.

If you’re running weight clinic consultations, a guide on how to run them can be found on our VetPartners Learning platform. Please book as ‘Nurse weight clinic’ on the PMS.

We recommend charging for these consultations as they usually require extended appointment times.

The Body Condition Matters focus also provides an opportunity for our practices to stock products that support overweight pets and encourage them to become more active and playful.

Products which you may want to recommend during body condition consultations might include interactive toys such as Kong or Likimats to provide mental stimulation and prolong feeding time, slow feeding bowls and toys, low calorie treats and grooming equipment such as brushes, combs and shampoos for pets struggling to groom themselves.

Campaign resources

Body Shape Matters kits, including posters, patient records and diet questionnaires, can be ordered directly from PawPrint. There are also certificates available on VetPartners Learning to print in-house as a way to reward clients.

There are also clinical resources, including a guide to running nurse weight clinics and guides for owners of cats, dogs and rabbits, are available on VetPartners Learning to print in-house.

CPD for the whole team

A variety of short webinars and Clinical Board resources are available on VetPartners Learning here:

Campaigns - VetPartners Learning

You’ll find plenty of CPD for both clinical and non-clinical colleagues to help the whole team get on board with the campaign.

Social media and PR

You can download a social media pack and information for TV screens here: https://we.tl/t-EkPYw9n3w9 

Our PR team can help you to promote stories from pets you have treated to raise awareness of the Patient Care Focus in your area. Please contact amanda.little@vetpartners.co.uk and jo.browne@vetpartners.co.uk

Article by Amanda Little, VetPartners PR and Communications Director. Email amanda.little@vetpartners.co.uk