Nutrition & Weight Management

How do you pick the food your pet eats?

Choosing a food for your pet is about much more than just what tastes good. It’s about getting the right combination of ingredients to promote better overall health. For some pets, it’s about finding a balance that will keep weight down or manage certain medical conditions. This may sound complicated, but with the right team in your corner, it doesn’t have to be. Greenbrier Animal Hospital offers professional nutritional counseling as well as weight management services to keep your companion healthy and fit.

Dietary Recommendation

We’ll start by evaluating your pet to determine his or her unique nutritional needs. A thorough physical exam will be conducted, along with analysis of your pet’s species, breed, age, weight and health status. This information will help us to understand what type of food would be the best fit. We may recommend switching to a prescription diet food if we believe that your pet would benefit from these advanced formulas.

Current Concerns with Grain-Free & Boutique Diets

Summary:  Canine diets containing lentils, peas, other legumes, white potatoes, and sweet potatoes have recently been linked to a heart disease called Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM) in various breeds of dogs.  This heart disease is usually undetectable on physical exam, unless it progresses to heart failure which can be fatal.  Taurine deficiency can be a cause of DCM and is sometimes a component of this current issue. Grain-free diets contain the above ingredients at higher rates than traditional, grain-inclusive dog foods, so are more frequently causing disease.  Diet change is recommended immediately if your dog is on a grain-free diet or ANY diet containing the above ingredients.  Further testing may be warranted if your dog has any symptoms of heart disease (heart murmur, coughing, exercise intolerance, lethargy, etc) – please consult your veterinarian if you have any concerns.

How to choose a new food:
• Grain inclusive: Be sure to choose a diet that is NOT grain-free.  For the vast majority of dogs, grain-free diets are not medically necessary.  The push for grain-free diets was born in marketing campaigns from smaller, boutique companies to set themselves apart from larger, more established brands.
• Avoid implicated ingredients: Be sure to look at nutrition labels to be certain that the
new diet does not contain lentils, peas (or pea protein), other legumes (like chickpeas/      garbanzo beans), white potatoes, and sweet potatoes.
• Taurine addition not sufficient: Many diets that have been implicated in causing disease are now advertising added taurine.  This is NOT sufficient as many dogs developing DCM have normal blood taurine levels.
• Research and Veterinary Nutritionist:  Choose a diet that is manufactured with rigorous quality control and research behind the formulation.  The best way to ensure that your diet meets these recommendations is to follow the guidelines developed by a large number of the world’s leading experts in veterinary nutrition, WSAVA (World Small Animal Veterinary Association).  Please ask for these guidelines if interested.

Please be sure to let us know if you have any other specific questions, or if you need advice on specific foods or how much to feed after you transition.  We will continue to keep you updated on this issue as it develops and we learn more – research is currently underway!  For now, we don’t want any of our patients affected and would rather be safe than sorry!

Brands We Recommend (as very few of their foods are grain-free or contain implicated ingredients):  Royal Canin, Purina, Hills Science Diet, Eukanuba, Iams

Weight Control Advice

Is your pet looking a little pudgy lately? To the contrary, maybe he or she could better be described as scrawny. For companion animals, even a few pounds off in either direction can have a serious impact on overall health. Part of our individual analysis will include determining what weight would be the ideal target for your loved one. Then, we will work on developing a plan to help your pet lose or gain the appropriate amount of weight to achieve that goal.

Ongoing Maintenance

Just as with humans, our pets change as they age. To accommodate these ongoing changes, it’s important that we stay on top of their nutrition and weight management needs. To that end, we’ll revisit our approach at various life stages, such as the transition from adolescence into adulthood and again entering the senior years. Any modifications to diet and exercise level can be implemented, allowing your pet to continue to achieve optimum health over time.

Could you use a hand managing your pet’s nutrition and weight? Contact us today! We’ll provide the guidance you need to help your loved one flourish.