WSU Veterinary College wants to examine overweight canines
Overweight humans can have unhealthy hearts due to excessive body fat, but do overweight dogs?
Maintaining an ideal body weight and fat percentage is important to human cardiac health, but is it important for the cardiac health of dogs?
Those are the types of questions Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine hopes to answer.
In an effort to answer those questions, veterinarian Melissa Tropf is looking for overweight canines to participate in the veterinary college’s study.
Not all pups carry extra pounds are eligible for the study, though. Dogs must be overweight for their size but weigh less than 25 pounds.
Accepted dogs will receive a free cardiovascular exam, echocardiogram, ECG, blood pressure measurement and complete blood and urine work-ups at the veterinary teaching hospital.
They’ll also be doing their part to help answer some rather interesting medical questions.
Owners of plump pooches can contact Raychel Fairchild at rfairchild@vetmed.wsu.edu or 509-335-3209.
Marissa Harshman
I'm the health reporter for The Columbian newspaper in Vancouver, Wash. I started at The Columbian -- my hometown newspaper -- in September 2009. Reach me at marissa.harshman@columbian.com or 360-735-4546.