NOT that I am casting any aspersions on anyone or suggesting that there may have been recent overindulgence, gluttony or generally behaving in an excessive manner.

There is no substitute for greed, after all, but consider this: The single most preventable disease on the planet affects over one third of our dogs and more than one quarter of our cats.

Seven out of 10 vets agree that the condition is on the increase, yet more than 70 per cent of owners say their pet has never been involved. I am referring, of course, as you might have guessed, to obesity.

This medical condition (because that’s what it is) occurs all too often for simple reasons.

Owners feed too much food, they don’t exercise their pets enough, they can be ignorant of the normal shape of their animal (who can blame them when you see lardy Labradors jiggling and rolling around the ring around at Crufts), they feed treats too regularly (and, come on, you do that because you love the response you get, not because they are hungry) and they feed the wrong types of food (toast, crisps, biscuits, takeaways etc etc etc).

It is all merely a matter of more calories in than calories out and remember every item that can be ingested by dogs contains calories, with the one exception; and that’s water. Yup! Everything!

As a result, our animals are suffering needlessly from a variety of entirely preventable problems, including (but not limited to) heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, respiratory problems and pancreatitis. All are debilitating and uncomfortable.

So what do we need to do about it?

Here is a story. Many years ago, there was an extraordinarily fat Labrador. So fat was the Labrador that he struggled to get up the steps to our surgery and needed help to get in and out the car. Once he finally made it to the waiting room, he would lie, puffing and panting like an asthmatic beached whale, summoning his strength for the long and arduous trek from this position to the consulting room, some five yards away.

One day, he lay beside a skinny wee Collie (think Mo Farah physique), who could ran flat out for fun and was the only living thing that could catch a crisp bag that was blowing about in the wind.

Yes, you’ve guessed it. Three clients in a row came in to me and said what a poor wee thing she was! Not one of them mentioned her morbidly obese neighbour.

And there is the rub. What we need to do about obesity is actually start to recognise it as a significant problem.

We need to consider that being four kilogrammes overweight is every bit a welfare problem as being four kilogrammes under.

We should appreciate the medical conditions it predisposes our pets to and we should realise that, when we feed our pets, it is our responsibility to manage what we put in the bowl and relate it to what they are carrying about on their backs.

The sooner we understand that being 20 per cent over your bodyweight shortens your life, the better.