Feeding sick pets

Feeding Sick Pets If you don’t know what is wrong with your pet but you know it isn’t feeling well, visit your veterinarian for advice. In the meantime, here are some principles for feeding that gently stimulate digestion in a sick pet:

• Feed small amounts frequently rather than a large amount once a day.
• Encourage fluids: for the majority of pets homemade chicken broth is the best liquid. Canned chicken broth is a pale comparison.
• If your pet does well with chicken broth, offer a small amount of plain yogurt, or warmed, cooked sweet potato. Don’t add sugar, salt or spices.
• If your pet tolerates warmed, mashed potatoes, for the next meal, mix a little of the chicken used to make the broth in with the potato.

Feeding dogs and cats

Obesity is the single most common pet nutrition problem. Unfortunately, obesity predisposes pets to develop arthritis, Diabetes, pancreatitis, and skin problems.

Obese dogs: Some dogs are predisposed to becoming obese because they have genes associated with obesity: Labrador Retrievers, Cocker Spaniels, Cairn Terriers, West Highland White Terriers, and Scottish Terriers. Obese cats: Cats may also have breed dispositions to obesity, however, at this time, there are no difinitive lists.

Visit our Pet Health 101 section on Weight Loss to view tips on helping your pet lose weight. We recommend low calorie treats including Greenies and Freeze Dried Beef Liver Treats. If your veterinarian puts your pet on a diet, we recommend Vetri-Lean Plus, which blocks the absorption of carbohydrates in the diet.

Dogs food allergy, Cat food allergy

Many, many pets have a food allergy. Dogs and cats become allergic to foods if their immune systems mistakenly recognize the food as harmful causing them to overreact to it. Overreaction can manifest as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, or malaise. With dog food allergies, you will often get pruritus (itching) and inflammation of the legs and ears, progressing to chronic skin and ear infections. With cat food allergies, you will often get pruritus of the head and neck. These cats scratch themselves and develop eye infections when their nails accidentally scratch their eyeballs as they rub their heads.

Almost always, food allergies are caused by proteins, and these allergenic proteins are not destroyed by freezing, cooking, or digestion. Proteins from meat, corn, wheat, soy, potatoes, beets, and yeast commonly cause problems. In addition, a dog allergy or a cat allergy can come from chemicals, dyes, preservatives, and even to fruits and vegetables, including tomatoes.

One way to limit a pet’s allergic symptoms is to feed a limited ingredient diet—only 1-2 proteins and 1-2 carbohydrates at a time. Other pets benefit from hydrolyzed commercial diets that have proteins broken into such small pieces that they no longer trigger GALT cells to react. Hydrolyzed commercial diets are prescription foods available through your veterinarian. Another way to help allergic pets is to feed only high-quality, human-grade foods with no fillers. Many pets allergic to corn in cheaper pet food tolerate it easily in a high-quality organic pet food.

We recommend that all pets with allergies receive Omega 3 fatty acid supplements because these fatty acids decrease inflammation throughout the body. Excellent sources of Omega 3 fatty acids are Missing Link (flax), and Nordic Naturals Omega 3 for pets.

Feeding pets with Diabetes Mellitus

Dogs and cats develop Diabetes just as people do. Diabetes is a deficiency of insulin or a resistance to insulin so that sugars in the blood no longer enter the cells where they can provide energy. Instead, sugar remains within the blood stream, and laboratory tests show blood or urine glucose values that are consistently higher than normal.

Female dogs are more inclined to become diabetic than male dogs; and dogs of some breeds are at a higher risk: Miniature Pinscher, Miniature Poodle, Dachshund, Keeshond, Puli, and Cairn Terrier. With cats, a breed predisposition to Diabetes has not been found.

Pets with Diabetes need to be fed the same amount of food at the same time every day. Foods with complex carbohydrates are digested most slowly (vegetables such as sweet potatoes and carrots), and are more desirable than foods with simple carbohydrates (rice flour, wheat flour). Diabetic pets should avoid moist packaged foods that are high in sugar.

Some diabetic pets benefit from diets that are high in protein and low in carbohydrates, rather similar to the Atkins Diet for humans. Many diabetic pets also benefit from diets high in dietary fiber. Fiber prevents blood glucose levels from surging shortly after eating, and fiber also helps pets produce short-chain fatty acids that are used by the liver to control blood sugar levels. If a diabetic pet has hyperlipidemia (high blood lipids or fats), it will benefit from a diet with fats below 10-12% of their total diet.

To treat Diabetes, your veterinarian will prescribe insulin: PZI Vet Cat Insulin (Rx), ProZinc Cat Insulin (Rx), or Humulin N Insulin (Rx).

We recommend that all pets with Diabetes receive antioxidants and Omega 3 fatty acids, such as those in 1-800-PetMeds Super VitaChews for Dogs and 1-800-PetMeds VitaChews for Cats. If your pet prefers a powdered supplement, we recommend Missing Link, which contains antioxidants.

Visit our Pet Health 101 Section on Diabetes Mellitus for more tips on helping diabetic pets.

Feeding Pets With Dilated Cardiomyopathy

Dilated (swollen) cardiomyopathy (heart muscle disease) is a condition where the heart is large but the walls are thin and flabby so that the heart does not contract efficiently. This condition often leads to a heart that is overworked and a pet that dies of heart failure.

There are several reasons pets develop dilated cardiomyopathy, and one of them is faulty nutrition. If the amino acid taurine is not present in sufficient amounts, pets, especially cats, develop dilated, weak hearts. Most modern diets have been formulated with enough taurine to prevent this disease.

If a pet has dilated cardiomyopathy, veterinarians recommend supplementing with taurine to prevent the disease from progressing to congestive heart failure.

In addition to taurine, pets with cardiac disease benefit from receiving antioxidants, and we recommend 1-800-PetMeds Super VitaChews for Dogs and 1-800-PetMeds VitaChews for Cats because they contain antioxidants and taurine. If your pet prefers a powdered supplement, we recommend Missing Link, which contains antioxidants.

Feeding pets with Hip Dysplasia and 0steoarthritis

Dogs, and some cats, develop hip dysplasia, which is an arthritic disease of the coxofemoral (hip) joint. To prevent hip dysplasia in pets, especially in those with the genes for hip dysplasia in their families, do not overfeed the pet while it is growing. Also, keep the adult pet on the light side so that its joints are not stressed.

We recommend three categories of medications for pets with hip dysplasia: nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID), chondroprotectives (joint cartilage protecting), and Omega 3 fatty acids.

• NSAIDs that may be prescribed for hip dysplasia: Rimadyl (Rx), Deramaxx (Rx), Metacam (Rx), EtoGesic (Rx), Etodolac (Rx), and Vetrin.
• Chondroprotectives that may be prescribed for hip dysplasia are Adequan (Rx) and Legend (Rx). Nonprescription chondroprotective medications include 1-800-PetMeds Super Joint Enhancer for dogs, 1-800-PetMeds Joint Enhancer for cats, 1-800-PetMeds Joint Flexor, Glyco-Flex, Cosequin, and Missing Link with Glucosamine.
• Omega 3 fatty acids that may also be used for hip dysplasia. We recommend, Missing Link, Derm Caps, 3V Caps, Lipiderm and Nordic Naturals Omega 3 for pets.

For Pet food recall information, please go to the FDA site.

The articles here were answered by a variety of pharmacists and veterinarians   Date Category Topic 08/21/09  Pain/Inflammation  Inflammed Testicles And Odor 03/29/09  Skin Care  Mange? 07/02/08  Other  My Old Poodle 02/27/08  Other  Making My Dog Gain Weight 02/25/08  Other  Problems With My Cat... 02/21/08  Other  Sick Dog 10/18/06  Digestive Care  Intestinal Bacteria 10/12/06  Digestive Care  Constant Upset Stomach 08/26/06  Digestive Care  Vomiting After Eating 08/03/06  Digestive Care  Vomit Even After Giving Antibiotics 01/19/06  Digestive Care  Need Help With Vet Advice With My German Shepherd 01/04/06  Digestive Care  What To Feed Him 12/05/05  Digestive Care  Greenies 11/30/05  Allergy  15 Year Old Cat Losing Weight 10/05/05  Other  Licking, Eating Feces, Excessive Eating

 

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