Energy requirements and body surface area of cats and dogs

.Understanding whether energy requirements and othermetabolic functions vary with BW, metabolic BW, or BSAis crucial when carefully managing patients that vary inbody size (eg, dogs and cats). For example, use of BW oran exponent of BW that is too high will typically under-estimate the energy requirements of smaller animals andoverestimate energy requirements in larger animals.Overfeeding can be especially life-threatening for mal-nourished patients and will promote obesity in well-nour-ished patients. The relationship between size and func-tion may also yield insight into metabolic processes. The idea that heat loss from a warm-bodied animalshould be roughly proportional to BSA was first sug-gested as early as 1839.