https://www.vetnurse.co.uk/f/clinical-discussions/23603/weight-loss-clinics Hi I work in a clinic in Dubai UAE and we are finally setting up some nurse clinics. We want to start with weight loss clinics. I would appreciate any useful tips and information about starting these from scratch please. We only have access to Royalen-USTelligent Community 10https://www.vetnurse.co.uk/thread/148037?ContentTypeID=1Mon, 09 Dec 2013 19:41:07 GMT1a0763ec-3885-442c-853e-6cef656dfec5:f295ac71-88f5-4068-87b9-dc0ad1fc84ebMark Hedberg<p>Hi Victoria! Royal Canin AND Iams? You&#39;re luck - I worked for several years in Jeddah and we only had Royal Canin of a few varieties.</p> <p>And yes, we had some fat pets too. We didn&#39;t have any local reps, so our advice was very much in-house and on an as-needed basis. As a matter of fact, we didn&#39;t have any nurses either, so i&#39;ll concede mild envy here. <img src="http://www.vetnurse.co.uk/emoticons/new/Happy_smiley.png" alt="Smile" /></p> <p>One of the big things that helped was that at the beginning of every appointment the dog or cat went on the scale in the corner. Skinny or fat, didn&#39;t matter, it was the habit of the thing. Even if it was the same, got entered on the computer.&nbsp;</p> <p>In terms of caloric needs, the big thing about pets in Jeddah was that they were frequently not exercised enough. Indoor only pets don&#39;t do a lot of heavy moving, and the Saudi weather is really inhospitable between about 10am and 4pm, and that really restricted when your pets could get taken for a walk. You&#39;d get dedicated people who put their hour of exercise in, but a lot of pets just didn&#39;t get walked enough. (And in fairness, i&#39;d rather have a fat pet than one dead of heastroke!)</p> <p>Weighing the food was a biggie; clients were encouraged to but a cheap kitchen scale (say around SR20 in saudi, you could probably get a nice one for under 50 Durhams in your neck of the woods. Doesn&#39;t have to be a fancy one, but we found that many clients were overfeeding the pet - the food might say &#39;feed 80 grams&#39; but practically no client in Saudi (And in the UK, either!) was really capable of guessing how much food they were feeding. They&#39;d grab a mug, a handful, fill the bowl heaping like you see on TV, all in good faith, of course.&nbsp;</p> <p>So show the client exactly how much the required food amount is - they&#39;ll often be quite surprised how little food it is! They never remember that a small cat or dog has a small stomach; and so the absolute amount of food is similarly small.</p> <p>I&#39;d put the target weight and actual weight on an appointment card, and would do that at every appointment they were in.&nbsp;</p> <p>And yes, some listened, some didn&#39;t.</p> <p>Good luck!</p> <p>Cheers,</p> <p>Mark</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>