Nutritional Disorders & Wellness Diets Flashcards
What is Pruritis?
Itchy the skin cause it’s itchy
What are symptoms of food sensitivities?
Pruritus, self-inflicted alopecia (ie neurodermatitis) eosinophilic plaques, indolent ulcers of the lip in some cats
DT: vomiting, small bowel diarrhea, large bowel diarrhea
Clinical signs: 4-24 hours after eating consumption of food with offending antigen (what they are allergic to)
Food allergens are GENERALLY large proteins
Beef, dairy, fish, gluten intolerance, lactose intolerance
How do you diagnose food sensitivity?
- Feed an elimination diet and demonstrate a decrease of elimination of clinical signs
- Challenge the animal with the original diet and observe returning signs
- Feed select ingredients to see which dietary component the animal is allergic to
- Select a diet containing novel proteins and carb sources - feed elimination diet for 8-10 weeks and notice elimination of symptoms. Cat: Lamb and barley, Dog: duck and potatoe Horse: timothy
- If the elimination diet reduces clinical symptoms, slowly introduce the original diet - if symptoms reoccur, then there is a definitive diagnosis of food sensitivity
How can food allergens be identified?
Add a SMALL amount of suspected allergen to the elimination diet - observe the return of clinical signs
How do you lifelong manage food hypersensitivities?
Feed diet that is exclusive of the food allergens the animal reacts to, and is complete and balanced and feed this diet exclusively without extra human foods unless they are known to be free of the food the dog is allergic to.
What are some NON allergen diet considerations?
- Add reduced amounts of a novel, highly digestible protein source. Or a protein hydrosylate (with smaller pieces of protein in di/tri peptides (because free amino acids and peptides make poor antigens) - ALSO want 1 animal protein and 1 plant protein)
- Avoid protein excess (don’t overfeed protein if have protein allergy :)
- Avoid additives / vasoactive amines (ie tryptophan etc protein derivatives)
- Feed a balanced nutritionally active diet for animals life stage / condition
What is suggested for home made elimination foods?
- Choose 1 carb and one protein source
- Cat: Lamb, baby food, lamb rice and rabbit
Canine: duck, potatoe, lamb fish, rabbit, venison and tofu
What is the most common form of malnutrition in companion animals?
Obesity
20-44% cats obese
25-44% dogs obese
25-45% horses obese
What were some changes to domestication for horse, dog and cat? (ie what did they use to do before they got so lazy)
Cat: Mouser in the barn
Dog: working partner
Horse: grazing in fields (free range grazing)
Wat is the definition of overweight
Animals 1-9% over optimal = above optimal
10-19% - overweight
>20% - obese
What are some risk factors for obesity?
- Breed - high incidence in labs, golden retrievers, sheltandsheepdogs, labs, cocker spaniels
- Gender / gonadectomy
Females more at risk (less lean body tissue vs males)
Neutering k9 / cat - BMR decreases 20-25% - due to increased energy efficiency, increased appetite and decreased voluntary activity - Age - middle aged cats most at risk (kittens/young cats have an increased activity levels)
decreased energy requirement
Older K9/horses - Activity level
Daily energy expenditure
Playful vs outdoor cat vs sedentary
Work vs sedentary dog
Pasture horse vs exercising horse
Temperment of each individual animal - Type of diet
=caloric consumption of foods they are being fed
Highly palatable diet
- can lead to overconsumption of calorically dense food that is rich in fat
Also free choice feeding of sedentary animals leads to higher BCS
THE OWNER IS IN CONTROL!!!
How do you figure out how much to feed to lose weight?
calculate the energy required for the DESIRED weight and feed at this requirement
Why should obese cats be fed a commercial diet formulated for weight loss?
Because restricting normal maintenance diets may result in nutritional deficiencies
How do commercial diets provide fewer calories
Decrease fat content (but still provide fat to be pallatible)
SLIGHTLY Increase complex carbs to makeup for energy lost in fat decrease
Increase in digestible fiber
-increases bulkiness but decreases digestibility of the diet
Increases defecation
May not decrease energy consumption (voluntary)
Why are indigestible fibers good to add to the diet? And why dont we just add a TON?
Because indigestible fiber adds bulkiness to the diet while decreasing overall digestibility. Causes cascade of incretin signalling of satiety when microbes ferment and produce SCFA. Also poor pallatability
Why do WL diets have more complex carbs added
Complex carbs are lower in energy and highly digestible. Also no increase in defecation as with highly fermnetable diets (fiber diets)