BSAVA Guide to Nutrition

An essential guide for veterinary professionals on appropriate nutrition for animals under their care.

Veterinary professionals are often called upon to provide guidance on appropriate nutrition for animals under their care. Nutrition is the cornerstone of all good veterinary care and should form part of the discussion with every pet owner seeking advice about their pet. Veterinary professionals should provide advice based on sound scientific evidence, whenever available, excellent clinical reasoning and informed risk management. Given the wealth of information available to pet owners, it is the responsibility of veterinary professionals to assist clients in making decisions about what to feed their pet.

Foreword

Preface

Section 1 – Introduction to nutrition

1 The importance of nutrition

2 Nutritional assessment

Section 2 – Diet types

3 Commercially manufactured diets

4 Grain-free diets

5 Home-prepared cooked diets

6 Raw meat-based diets

7 Plant-based diets

8 Alternative protein-based diets

Section 3 – Feeding for different life stages

9 Pre-conception, gestation and lactation

10 Kittens and puppies

11 Senior pets

Section 4 – Feeding for specific situations

12 Hospital nutrition

13 Critical care nutrition

14 Adverse reactions to food

15 Obesity care

16 Restricted activity

Section 5 – Feeding for specific diseases

17 Diabetes mellitus

18 Acute gastroenteritis

19 Kidney disease

20 Lower urinary tract disease

21 Liver disease

Glossary

Index

Author:

Georgia Woods-Lee

BSc(Hons) RVN CertCFVHNut VTS(Nutrition)

Institute of Life Course & Medical Sciences and School of Veterinary Science,

University of Liverpool, Leahurst Campus, Chester High Road, Neston CH64 7TE

Editors:

Marge Chandler

DVM MS MANZCVS DipACVN DipACVIM MRCVS

Lasswade, Scotland

Alexander J. German

BVSc PhD CertSAM DipECVIM-CA SFHEA FRCVS

Institute of Life Course & Medical Sciences and School of Veterinary Science,

University of Liverpool, Leahurst Campus, Chester High Road, Neston CH64 7TE

Veterinary professionals are often called upon to provide guidance on appropriate nutrition for animals under their care. Since nutrition is the cornerstone of all good veterinary care it should ideally form part of the discussion with every owner seeking advice about their pet.

As veterinary professionals, our advice to clients should always be based on sound scientific evidence, whenever available, excellent clinical reasoning and informed risk management.

Given the wealth of information available to owners, it is the responsibility of veterinary professionals to assist them in making decisions about what to feed their pet. As well as ensuring that minimum nutritional requirements are met, the chosen diet should ideally provide optimal nutrition.

The BSAVA Guide to Nutrition in Small Animal Practice provides information on a range of diets, nutritional requirements at different life stages and feeding in clinical settings, as well as nutritional management of diseases.

This new guide will be a welcome addition to any practice and is accompanied by a series of client information leaflets that can be downloaded from the BSAVA Library.