A Simple, Reliable Tool for Owners to Assess the Body Condition of Their Dog or Cat1–3

The aim of the current study was to assess the performance of the algorithm system in predicting body composition in dogs and cats, and to acquire preliminary data on how the system performed in the hands of both experienced and inexperienced operators. Aside from 1 cat (referred tor investigation of weight loss) and 4 dogs (referred for investigation ot jaundice, abdominal pain, chronic renal insufficiency, and poorly stabilized diabetes mellitus, respectively), all cases in group 2 were referred tor investigation ot orthopedic disease. The fact that scores more commonly agreed than disagreed implies that the algorithm system would be suitable tor obtaining large data sets on body composition from studies involving inexperienced operators (e.g., as in questionnaire-based surveys, or scoring at cat and dogs shows, etc.).