Nutrition and Diet
While advances in veterinary medicine have been able to provide pets with longer and healthier lives, good health still requires proper nutrition. A good time to discuss your pet’s nutritional needs or ask questions about special veterinary diets is during your pet’s twice-yearly pet wellness visits.
Good nutrition also starts with making sure that your dog or cat has access to sufficient water for proper hydration. The water bowl should be available to your pet at all times and should be cleaned frequently, with the water changed regularly. Also keep in mind that obesity is becoming a problem for pets as well as their owners and, just as with humans, obesity in a dog or cat can lead to serious health issues later in life.
During your doctor exam, we will determine a Body Condition Score. Four-Five is perfect, and anything over 6 is overweight. Nine is obese. This will shorten your pet’s life. Ask us about weight loss treatments for your pet.
NUTRITION – the first step in preventative care.
Good nutrition enhances your pet’s health through all lifestages, maintains quality of life, promotes therapeutic support following disease or injury and overall elevates your pet’s sense of well being.
Special diets are available for:
- Life Stage diets: Puppies small breed, large breed, Adult pets, – Senior Pets
- Heart Disease
- Kidney disease
- Bladder Stones
- Dental Disease
- Allergic problems
- Arthritis and Joint Disease
- Diabetes
- Obesity
Osteoarthritis
Joint pain is difficult to detect in most senior pets until they reach an advanced stage. Pets do not cry out in pain but try to hide signs of disease problems. There are several prescription diets designed to treat joint arthritis in pets, including Science Diet J/D, Royal Canin Mobility and Purina Proplan Mobility. Signs of pain in pets:
- Decreased appetite
- Decreased activity
- Difficulty getting up and down
- Limb shivering
Many older pets are overweight. The first treatment for osteoarthritis is weight loss. Ask about special diets that can benefit your pet and aid in weight loss.
We ABSOLUTELY DO NOT RECOMMEND RAW DIETS!!!
