Comparison of various methods for estimating body fat in dogs

Obesity is considered one of the most common forms of malnutrition occurring in dogs. Laboratory methods of evaluation of body composition in live dogs have included dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) and deuterium oxide (D2O) dilution. Clinical methods of evaluation include assigning a body condition score (BCS) based on visual observation, palpation, and morphometric measurements. This study used these four methods to evaluate 23 healthy, adult, client-owned dogs. Good correlation (coefficient of determination [r(2)] = 0.78) was found between measurements of percent body fat (% BF) determined by the D2O dilution method and the DEXA scan. Percent body fat can also be estimated using BCS (r(2) = 0.92 comparison with DEXA) or by using morphometric measurements with simple calculations (r(2) = 0.92 comparison with DEXA).