Mundelein Animal Hospital
Diet & Nutrition
Proper diet and nutrition can help your pet fight against disease, maintain a proper weight, and promote the overall well-being of your pet.
Overview
Maintaining a healthy body weight is a very important aspect of a pet’s overall physical health. Good nutrition can help provide your pet with a happier, safer, and longer life. There are many nutritional supplements that can help fight against disease, maintain a proper weight, and promote the overall well-being of any animal.
Why is maintaining a healthy weight important?
Obesity is a common problem among pets, as it can be easy to overfeed a pet that knows how to beg. Being overweight is a serious problem for animals, and can cause health problems as they get older. With proper diet and exercise, all pets should be able to meet their dietary needs and be within a healthy weight range. The best way to make sure your pet’s needs are being met is to consult with us about a specific diet for your pet and their lifestyle. Our staff will help your pet battle unhealthy weight gain and counsel you on the best nutritional options available.
When is a diet change needed?
Pets should be fed a balanced wellness diet based on a number of factors, including their life stage, their breed or size, activity level, and any health issues they have. Diet changes are recommended when they enter a new life stage. For example, transitioning is recommended from puppy or kitten to adult, or from adult to senior, which is usually around age seven. Diet changes may also be recommended if your pet develops any issues that could be treated with a prescription diet, such as obesity or a food allergy.
How diet & nutrition can help your pet
We will help you make the right dietary changes for your pet so that they can stay on track living their happy and healthy lives. A healthy diet and good nutrition can reduce or even eliminate:
pet allergies
itching and scratching
dull coat
arthritis
joint and hip problems
intestinal disorders
Skin and coat supplements are a great way to keep your pet looking and feeling their best. Arthritis and joint supplements can be helpful for many pets as they age.
Additional Facts
At this point in time, we are not certain of the exact causal relationship between grain-free, boutique, exotic ingredient, and/or high legume diets in atypical dog breeds with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Taurine deficiency of these pet foods does not appear to be the primary issue in these DCM patients as we have found normal taurine levels in many of these pets with DCM. However, in some breeds such as the Cocker Spaniel and Golden Retriever, we have found low plasma taurine levels.
At this time, if there is not a clinical reason (i.e. food allergies or gastrointestinal upset) for use of a limited ingredient, unique protein source (kangaroo, alligator, bison, etc.) diet, we would suggest diets such as Iams, Royal Canin, Purina, or Hill’s. Consultation with your primary care veterinarian should be considered. As the FDA and Veterinarians continue to investigate the link between the increased incidences of dilated cardiomyopathy in atypical canine breeds with grain-free diets, we hope to ultimately determine the definitive issue but, for now, we currently do not have that answer.
