Five of the top, data-driven pet health insights of 2021

At Banfield, our goal is to provide high-quality preventive care to the growing number of pets across the U.S. The good news according to a survey we recently conducted of 1,000 pandemic owners is people are more committed to their pet’s health than ever before.?Ninety-five percent said they made their pet’s veterinary care a priority this year, and 44% admitted their cat or dog has been to more health care visits than they have in the past 12 months. ?

As part of the Mars Petcare family of brands, Banfield Associates are among the more than 85,000 Petcare Associates committed to improving the lives of pets through research and insights involving nutrition, veterinary medicine, transformational technologies, genotyping, and more. ?

For decades, Banfield has reviewed and analyzed data from our pet medical record database – the largest in the U.S. – to identify trends and provide information to support evidence-based decisions and share insights and tools with the veterinary profession as well as across the Mars Petcare ecosystem. Together, we are in a unique position to move the pet and veterinary care spaces forward – all in service of our shared purpose: A Better World for Pets. ?

As I reflect on the past year, I’m inspired by innovations and research led across our Petcare sister brands for their potential to positively impact pets, people, and the veterinary and pet care industries. Below are 5 of the many data-driven pet insights our teams led in 2021:

?1.????More than just bad breath: A?2021 study?from Waltham Petcare Science Institute leveraging Banfield data explored the association between periodontal disease onset and dog breed size, confirming?that smaller dog breeds were more predisposed than larger breeds to develop periodontal disease. According to the data, extra-small dog breeds (<14.3 lbs) were up to five times more likely to be diagnosed with periodontal disease than giant dog breeds (>55 lbs).

Looking at Banfield’s data, oral health issues are the most common diagnoses Banfield sees in dogs and cats, with 85% of adult dogs and 80% of adult cats seen at Banfield in the past year between the ages of 3-10 showing signs of dental disease (including dental calculus).

?2.????Growing pet obesity epidemic: A recent report from Banfield shines a spotlight on a concerning reality that many of us in the profession have been trying to tackle for years: diagnoses of overweight and obesity in cats and dogs have been occurring in epidemic proportions. Analyzing the health records of millions of pets seen at our practice each year, over the past decade Banfield saw a 108% increase in the percentage of dogs diagnosed as overweight or obese, jumping from 16% in 2011 to 34% in 2020. The increase seen in cats was even greater: 114%, jumping from 18% in 2011 to 38% in 2020.

?That’s why we teamed up with Royal Canin on a new?Pet Nutrition Advisor Program. Today, nearly 1,400 Banfield credentialed veterinary technicians are enrolled in the program to provide individualized pet nutrition advice for our clients.

?3.????Scratch that! Solving for itchy dogs: By comparing the scratching data of 358 dogs and the level of scratching noted by pet owners, the Pet Insight Project team at Kinship was able to successfully correlate scratching activity tracked by a Whistle activity tracker with owner observations. These findings further validate Whistle’s reliable method of detecting medically relevant scratching activity, potentially indicative of underlying skin conditions in dogs.

?The Pet Insight Project is another way Petcare is leveraging data to improve the lives of pets. When pet owners enroll in the project and take their dog to a Banfield hospital for comprehensive wellness exams, information about their dog’s health is collected and synced with the behavior data from Whistle. The goal is to detect previously unseen patterns that are early indicators of changes in wellbeing.

4.????What dogs can teach us about our own health: Leveraging data from the more than two million dogs genotyped worldwide by Wisdom Panel, their team of scientists discovered new genetic variants associated with inherited disease in dogs. These findings not only have a positive impact on the future health of our pets, but the research can also help further our understanding of related health conditions in humans.

?According to Wisdom Panel, the newly characterized canine models in their research not only enable additional studies of the conditions as they play out in the affected dogs, but also provide a deeper understanding of the biology of the disease and genes in question.

?With every puppy Optimum Wellness Plan package from Banfield coming with the Wisdom Panel Health dog DNA test, Banfield has delivered more than 293K tests this year, enabling our veterinary teams to better understand patients and provide more personalized care.?

?5.????The importance of getting cats to the vet: Cats unfortunately don’t see the vet as often as dogs. In fact, cats made up just 22% of the pets seen at Banfield in the past year, and?Royal Canin?found that?more than half?of all cats in the U.S. don't receive veterinary care on a regular basis. When cats skip out on the vet, they can miss out on important preventive veterinary care, nutrition advice from veterinary teams, and more.

?For example, over the past 10 years, Banfield saw a 22% increase in felines diagnosed with heartworms. This is particularly concerning because there is currently no safe treatment to remove or kill adult heartworms in cats, so infected cats can only be treated supportively and symptomatically. Heartworm infections in cats can also cause a syndrome known as heartworm associated respiratory disease.

?This is just one example of why regular veterinary care is integral to a cat’s overall health. Visit Royal Canin for more on the importance of #Cat2Vet.

?By combining the power of our data and scientific research across Mars Petcare, we believe we can continuously improve the quality of veterinary care and patient outcomes across veterinary medicine while positively impacting people and society. Together, we strive to lead the future of pet healthcare, sharing insights with owners and across industries.?