Applied Veterinary Clinical Nutrition

By Andrea J. Fascetti, Sean J. Delaney

    Preface:

Nutrition is rarely the first thing the practicing veterinarian considers when making medical recommendations for their patients. Yet eating is one of the only activities every one of our patients does every day, thereby underscoring the importance of the right diet and feeding practices. In fact, appropriate food choices and feeding practices to maintain a lean body condition are the only things in veterinary medicine proven to extend life expectancy in dogs (Kealy et al. 2002). Given that overweight and obese cats are at risk of developing diseases such as diabetes mellitus and hepatic lipidosis that often shorten their life span, one can confidently speculate that this finding may apply to cats as well. However, as of this writing, only about half of the veterinary schools or colleges in the United States have a board-certified nutritionist as part of their faculty. This means that approximately half of graduating veterinarians never have consistent exposure to practicing nutritionists during their didactic and clinical training so that they can learn how to make appropriate nutritional recommendations to their patients. The objective of this book is to provide clinically applicable nutritional advice that can be used every day in practice. The foundation and science behind these recommendations is briefly explored, providing the reader with extensive references for further reading if desired. Most of the contributors to this text are nutritionists who are practicing day to day and providing practical solutions for their patients and referring veterinarians. We envision this text to be a resource not only for the veterinary practitioner but also for students and residents of multiple disciplines. Many veterinary schools and universities are now teaching a course in small animal clinical nutrition, and this text will make a nice complement to such lecture material. The book commences with an exploration of how nutrition can be integrated into everyday practice in a manner that benefits both your patients and your practice. The chapters that follow include a succinct overview of basic nutrition, energy requirements, and the basics of product guides, pet foods, home-prepared diets, and dietary supplements. The basic principles of these foundation chapters are then underscored throughout the remainder of the book, which addresses feeding principles and practices in healthy dogs and cats, as well as those in various disease states. The final two chapters provide guidance for assisted feeding in any patient using enteral and parenteral nutrition. We are extremely thankful to the editors and staff at Wiley-Blackwell for their constant patience and encouragement with regard to this textbook. We are especially grateful to Nancy Turner, Justin Jeffryes, Erica Judisch, and Carrie Horn of Wiley-Blackwell and copy editor, William Krol, for their efforts in seeing this book to completion. Without the contributions of many of our colleagues, this book would not have been possible. We consider our contributors to be the experts in their fields, so we are extremely fortunate that they have been willing to share their knowledge and experience through their respective chapters. None of this would have been possible without the love, support, and guidance from many of our mentors, colleagues, friends, and family throughout the years. Each of us would like to briefly acknowledge them.

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