Underfeeding leads to energy deficiency, weight loss, and hunger. Overfeeding leads to excess energy, weight gain and obesity. Deficiency diseases, caused by a lack of specific components in the diet. Toxicity, caused by an excess of a specific ingredient, such as a certain vitamin or a certain mineral.

Norfolk Terrier

​Nutritional bone disease:

1.Rickets (Rickets) is vitamin D deficiency. Dogs cannot properly utilize calcium, their bones become weak and bent, and their joints swell. This disease is seen in dogs that grow rapidly but do not receive nutritional supplements in their diet.

2.Osteoporosis is caused by a diet low in calcium and high in phosphorus. The bones appear normal but are fragile and easily broken.

Hypertrophic skeletal dystrophy (bone scurvy):

A strange disease, especially seen in tall dogs. Osteoscurvy causes pain and swelling around the growth plates of long bones. It is generally believed that this disease is caused by vitamin C deficiency caused by rapid growth and excessive vitamin D supplementation.

​How to treat:

Proper diet can prevent these diseases, but if you suspect that the above conditions have occurred in your dog. Consult your veterinarian, who may give you intravenous vitamins or a special diet.

​Obesity:

The normal distribution of body fat in dogs includes: a thin layer of fat under the skin, a layer of fat between the abdominal wall muscles, and abdominal fat deposits.

Unless sick, the ribs may not be visible in smooth-coated breeds, but they are easy to feel. A fat layer above the ribs exceeding 5 mm indicates obesity. Don't let your dog get too obese, because being overweight can easily cause osteoarthritis, make veterinary examination more difficult, increase the dose of anesthesia and the risk of surgery.

​Obesity treatment:

The only way to treat an overweight dog is to feed less. Increase the amount of exercise, but this does not completely solve the problem. In addition, it is necessary to follow the following principles: do not eat biscuits, do not eat fat, use a canned diet for weight loss instead of a canned meat diet, use wheat bran as a hunger food, use cooked vegetables as a hunger food, try a (weight loss diet) canned food (from (available from your veterinarian), use therapeutic multivitamins for dogs on restricted diets.