Preventive care and healthy body weight help pets live longer, expert says

Brennen McKenzie, MA, MSc, VMD, director of veterinary medicine at Loyal, a biotechnology company focusing on extending the healthy lifespan of dogs, shares the most effective, ‘low-tech’ strategies for longer, healthy lives in animal patients. He highlights how maintaining a lean body weight reduces risk of metabolic dysfunction, which is a key component of the aging process. Routine diagnostics and parasite prevention also contribute to healthy, long lives in pets, notes McKenzie.

The following is a transcript of the video, lightly edited for clarity and cohesion:

McKenzie: Hi, I'm Brennen McKenzie. I'm a small animal veterinarian and I am currently both part-time in private practice, where I've been for almost 25 years now, and the director of veterinary medicine for Loyal, which is a biotechnology company based in San Francisco, [California]. Our mission is developing medications to try to extend the healthy lifespan of dogs.

dvm360:What steps can veterinarians take to help delay disease onset and extend a dog’s healthy lifespan?

McKenzie: For now, the things that are available are, not super high-tech and complicated, but they're still very impactful. One of the most important is encouraging and helping and supporting our clients to maintain a healthy body weight in their pets.

Obesity and overweight are very significant drivers of metabolic dysfunction, and they stack on top of the dysfunction that goes along with aging to make it even worse. So, we know very clearly from the scientific literature that if we keep animals at a healthy, lean body weight, they're going to feel better, they're going to have less disease, and they're going to live longer.

Other than that, routine preventive care. We found that people who bring their dogs in regularly for vaccinations, who are consistent with their parasite prevention, who do regular, appropriate screening blood work and things like that, have pets who are healthier and live longer. My job is to hopefully develop some new tools, but those are the things that vets can do right now to maintain healthy life as long as possible in their patients.