The Importance of Pet Nutrition
The right diet and appropriate exercise plan for your cat or dog can help support a longer, healthier life. Pets that receive a nutritionally balanced diet experience fewer stomach issues, less sensitive skin, and a healthier coat.
A good diet can also help to manage certain medical conditions such as diabetes and arthritis.
When you meet with our full-time Nutritional Consultant at Carlsbad Animal Hospital, we can:
- Help your pet reach their optimal health through dietary changes
- Resolve your pet's weight problem to avoid future health issues such as diabetes
- Create a plan and schedule follow-up appointments to ensure the plan is working effectively and make adjustments as necessary
Personalized Nutrition For A Healthier Animal
Animal Nutrition
While most pets do fine when fed a good quality commercial diet, there are times where nutritional advice from your veterinary nutritional consultant can help to transform your pet's health. If your pet is obese, underweight, suffering from allergy symptoms, or being treated for a serious condition, professional nutritional counseling could help.
Life Stage Nutrition
As pets age, their nutritional needs often change. Knowing the nutritional needs of your pet at every stage can help you make sure they stay happy, healthy, and fit throughout their lifetime.
Weight Consultation
Obesity in pets is strongly linked to many serious conditions, and can even make problems such as joint pain worse for your animal. Through nutritional counseling, your vet can help you find the best way for your pet to achieve a healthy weight.
FAQs About Nutritional Consultations in Carlsbad
Read our FAQs for answers to our most frequently asked questions about nutritional consulting at Carlsbad Animal Hospital.
If you have further questions about nutritional consulting, please feel free to contact us!
- How will a nutritional consultation help my pet? No one understands your animal's health concerns like your vet. Many serious health conditions can be treated or managed successfully with the help of a specially modified diet. If your animal is suffering from kidney disease, allergies, diabetes, or other serious health conditions, book a nutritional consultation at Carlsbad Animal Hospital.
- How can I tell if my pet is overweight?
If your dog or cat is a healthy weight, you should be able to see a waistline just above their hips if you look straight down at them from above.
You should also be able to feel their ribs when you run your hand along their side, and see that their abdomen is slimmer than their ribcage when viewed from the side.
If you believe that your pet is overweight, book a nutritional consultation to learn how to get your animal's weight to a healthy level while maintaining good nutrition.
- Will my pet enjoy eating a new diet?
While specially formulated prescription diets are created to address specific health concerns, they can't help unless your pet is happy to eat them. For that reason, manufacturers of all kinds of pet foods work hard to ensure that the foods they formulate are enjoyable for cats and dogs as well as nutritionally balanced. It may take a while for your pet to get used to their new food, but chances are that they will soon learn to love it.
- Will my pet need supplements?
Supplements can play an essential role in the healthy management or treatment of your pet's health condition, but they aren't always required.
Your vet will take the time to assess your pet's overall health and recommend any supplements they feel will help to improve your pet's health.
- Can pets get diabetes?
Cases of diabetes are on the rise in pets and are often linked to obesity.
If you think that your cat or dog is suffering from diabetes, see contact your vet right away to book an examination for your pet. Left untreated, diabetes in pets can result in serious complications.
- What are the symptoms of diabetes in dogs?
Common symptoms of diabetes in dogs include increased or excessive thirst, frequent urination, excessive appetite, and unexplained weight loss.
If the condition is left untreated, your dog may begin showing signs of visual impairment or blindness, still joints, reduced energy, poor coat, and chronic vomiting.
- What are the symptoms of diabetes in cats?
Some of the most common symptoms of diabetes in cats include increased thirst, increased urination, weakness, dehydration, vomiting or diarrhea, staggering or poor control of hind leg movements.
If your cat is displaying any of the symptoms above, veterinary care is essential.