When 9-year-old Doji waddles across the floor, his distended belly rocks side to side and his restricted legs walk stiffly and bow-legged. Weighing in at 27 pounds, this snowshoe Siamese is not just big boned.

Owners John and Terry Cheatham adopted Doji at 3 months old, and he’s expanded ever since. Worrying over his weight gain, his owners had his thyroid tested, but vets found nothing wrong.

Over the past five years, the Cheathams have tried numerous attempts at putting him on a diet, but all eventually failed. Now, he gets ¾ cup of kitty food per day and snacks a couple of times a week.

At least Terry Cheatham doesn’t have to worry about Doji jumping on the counter for more treats.

“He’s not agile,” Cheatham said in her Redmond home earlier this month as she prodded Doji to get up.

Cheatham’s “gentle giant” can no longer jump up on the bed, and he is having trouble properly cleaning himself. As a result, Cheatham gives him regular baths and helps him crawl up on the couch to snuggle on her lap, which he overflows.

As American waistlines expand, it appears that our pets are following suit.

“Probably 75 percent of the patients we see are overweight,” said Bend veterinarian Janet Ladyga with Blue Sky Veterinary Clinic. “It seems to be rising every year.”

And just as with humans, carrying extra poundage can cause serious health problems for animals, Ladyga said.

“They can get really bad arthritis,” she said. “That extra weight is really hard on their joints.”

Another problem she sees, notably with cats, is type 2 diabetes.

Whether the animals sneak extra snacks from the neighbor’s trash or eat until the bowl is clean at home, vets say many factors contribute to an overweight pet, including the animal’s breed and body type.

“One of the biggest misconceptions I see in pet owners is they don’t think their pet is exercising enough,” Ladyga said. “It’s not necessarily that, it’s more a factor of (the pets) consuming (more) calories than they need.”

She said the biggest cat she’s treated weighed 28 pounds. She also sees a lot of overweight Labradors and beagles in her clinic. These animals are known for loving people food, she said. Pet owners may not be able to resist those puppy-dog eyes begging for more table scraps, but failing to control an animal’s diet can result in a shorter life for them, Ladyga said.

One study found that animals that maintain a healthy weight live two years longer and have fewer health problems than overweight animals, she said.

How to judge the pudge

Like Ladyga, Redmond vet Karen Laidley says she regularly consults with owners about overweight pets.

Laidley, of Cinder Rock Veterinary Clinic in Redmond, says the best way to judge the health of your pet is to take it to a vet.

She warns against only asking pet store employees for advice, because some animals are intolerant of certain diets. Instead, ask a professional who knows pet nutrition and has examined your pet.

Laidley has some additional tips for checking your animal’s size at home.

• For dogs, stand above them. You should see a defined waist behind their last rib. When you look at the animal from the side, you should see a slanted line moving up from the sternum to the pelvis. If the line of the animal’s belly is horizontal, it is probably overweight.

• Lightly put your hands over the dog’s chest and feel the ribs without applying pressure. If the ribs feel like speed bumps, the animal is too thin. If you have to apply pressure just to feel the ribs, the animal is too fat.

• Cats are more difficult. Some cats will have a paunch or mammary belly that swings a little, but that can be normal. Additionally, cats’ skin tends to sag as they age, which may make them look overweight.

“Unless the cat is obviously fat, it can be difficult to tell (if they are overweight),” Laidley said. “I typically recommend that people have their cat evaluated by the vet, where we can discuss their activity level and create a diet appropriate for them.”

Feeding

Most vets agree that the incidence of overeating in pets varies by the animal — they see it both in animals that were strays starving on the street, and animals that have grown up in a loving home.

If your animal can’t “free feed” — grazing out of its bowl throughout the day — and instead gorges, then you should be measuring out its food, Laidley said.

“Unfortunately, it’s up to us to regulate them,” Laidley said.

Ask your vet what your pet needs in a day and then use a measuring cup or spoon to give it the required food, she said. This goes for wet and dry food.

As far as the type of food goes, Laidley recommends Science Diet, Waltham foods and Purina Pro Plan, but added that each vet has his or her preferences for food.

She said some cats are finicky about their wet food, but high-quality wet foods can give them extra water they need in their diet. Owners should beware of the cheaper store brands, which add with salt and artificial fillers to the wet food and can lead to health problems.

“I’m definitely a proponent of better-quality diets,” she said. “Premium foods have fewer fillers, a better protein source and other things the animals need, like fatty acids and antioxidants.”

Low-quality foods, on the other hand, can be full of bone meal instead of actual animal meat and can hurt the animal’s urinary health.

“(Premium foods) don’t have those fillers, so your pet will likely eat less and poop less,” Laidley said. “That’s less poop you have to pick up and less food you have to buy.”

Positive change

Now that you’re watching your pet’s food intake, Laidley says you can evaluate how the pet is responding.

“Look at their outward appearance,” she said. “Is their coat nice and shiny, or dry and flaky? How is their energy level or stamina? Are they defecating more or less, or the same? Do they seem like they feel good or dumpy?”

The pet should be energetic and happy with a soft and healthy coat and skin that isn’t too flaky. They also should have regular bowel movements.

Finally, Laidley warns that if your animal appears healthy and happy on its existing diet, there’s no need to drastically change its food just because you heard a raw-food diet is better, or that high-protein, low-carb diets are better. Sometimes, those types of changes can hurt your pet.

“If they don’t ask the right questions (before changing the animal’s diet), they end up with problems,” she said, “and they end up spending money for us to fix something that didn’t necessarily need to be fixed in the first place.”

The biggest loser

Eight years ago, Bend resident Paul Robson visited a veterinary clinic to see about a rescue cat.

His dog had died three years earlier, and Robson was interested in owning a cat for the first time.

“All they told me was that he was special,” Robson said recently.

He went home that day with Sampson, a white cat that tipped the scales at nearly 30 pounds.

“He basically had like no neck,” Robson remembers. “His tummy was maybe an inch or two off the floor.”

Hoping to rid Sampson of the extra pounds, Robson went to Bend Pet Express to hunt for cat food. With the store’s help, he successfully put Sampson on a diet and got him down to 21 pounds one year later.

But Robson wanted to encourage Sampson to be more active, and the introduction of two kittens to the home gave Sampson new “toys” to play with.

Now, the 11-year-old cat is down to 17 pounds, Robson says, and is full of energy.

“He’s so much more active now that he’s lost the weight,” Robson said.