Nutritional Management
July, 1998
My most recent article (April ’98) gave an overview of
canine nutrition with a description of the basic nutrients. This
month, we’ll discuss feeding as it relates to different
situations. life stages and disease conditions.
Puppies have higher requirements than mature dogs in several
nutrient categories. More protein is required for qrowth of most
body tissues. A higher energy requirement is usually met with an
increased fat content. Calcium and phosphorus requirements are
increased primarily for skeletal growth. All of these
requirements can be met by feeding a good quality puppy food.
Supplementation with human foods is unnecessary and, as mentioned
previously, the use of mineral supplements during growth can be
detrimental. Feeding in separate meals, rather than free choice,
is advised. Each feeding, the puppy should eat all he wants in
15-20 minutes. If he doesn’t want to eat much at one meal.
it is best to pick up the food until the next scheduled meal,
when he’ll probably be hungrier. Limiting the intake in this
way can help prevent obesity as well as some skeletal problems,
such as hip dysplasia. Small puppies can be fed 3 times a day
and, at about 6 months of age, cut down to 2 times a day. At
10-12 months, once a day feeding is sufficient. An adult
maintenance diet can be started at that time. The proper amount
to feed an adult dog varies a lot. Label recommendations are a
starting point, but monitoring the adult dog’s weight will
be a good indication of when to increase or decrease the amount
fed.
Pregnant dogs have an increased demand for protein and energy
that can also be met by feeding a good quality puppy food. This
is most important during the last 3-4 weeks of pregnancy, when
intake should increase by 20-40%, and during lactation, when she
may need 1 1/2 - 2 times her normal amount of food.
Each day, a normal adult dog requires around 30-40 calories of
energy in his diet for every one pound of body weight. This
requirement may be increased by 20-40% for extreme physical
activity, such as hunting. ~ good quality “performance”
diet usually accomplishes this with a slight increase in
carbohydrate content and a dramatic increase in fat content, up
to 20% or more. Hunting dogs probably do not require the high
protein levels found in puppy food. Dogs that are relatively
inactive during the off season should probably be fed a regular
adult maintenance diet to avoid becoming overweight.. You can
start to change back over to the high-energy performance diet
about a month before a major increase in activity.
Dogs that spend a lot of time outdoors in cold weather also have
an increased energy demand, just to produce body heat. This can
be met simply by increasing intake by about 25% or by adding fat
in the form of vegetable oil at a rate of about one tablespoon
for each cup of dry food.
Geriatric or “senior” diets are usually recommended for
dogs over 7-8 years. The diets reflect the older dog’s
decreased need for calories, phosphorus and several minerals,
most notably sodium. A marginal amount of a high quality protein
is important for reasons discussed in my September 1997 article
on protein nutrition. Hunting dogs that remain very active as
they get older may be better off staying on their performance
diet longer and when they are switched over to a senior diet, it
can be supplemented with vegetable oil to meet the energy demands
of hunting.
Dietary management is helpful in treating a number of disease
conditions. Obesity is the most common nutrition-related problem
of dogs and is usually unnecessary. It can increase an animal’s
risk for a number of diseases including heart disease, arthritis
and some cancers. Just as in humans, the number of fat cells in
the body is determined at a young age, and this is one reason
already mentioned for limiting a puppy’s intake. Activity
level is a major factor in weight gain, and this is why most
hunting dogs are not overweight. Castrated males and spayed
females have a higher incidence of obesity, but this is a poor
excuse for not performing these surgeries on all dogs not
intended for breeding. When the activity level cannot be altered,
weight loss is always accomplished by decreasing the number of
calories ingested. This can be done by simply decreasing the
amount of food offered. However, for those individuals with a
very slow metabolism, feeding the required low number of calories
to cause weight loss may not supply adequate levels of other
nutrients. Use of lower-calorie dog foods can be helpful, but it
is important not to overfeed these diets. Most dogs we see in
practice already on a “light” dog food are still
overweight. The foods that are the most severely restricted in
calories usually contain a large amount of fiber as a filler.
This way, the dog can eat a normal amount of food, feel
satisfied, and still take in a low number of calories.
Urolithiasis, the presence of stones in the urinary tract, is not
a rare occurrence in dogs and represents another condition where
dietary management is important. Bladder stones are much more
common than kidney stones. The most common type of stone,
struvite, has the potential to be dissolved completely by feeding
a special calculolytic diet. Most other types of uroliths need to
be removed surgically. In both cases, dietary management can help
prevent recurrence.
Simple gastrointestinal upsets can also be helped with dietary
manipulation. When vomiting is seen, both food and water should
be withheld for 12-24 hours, then only water is offered for
another 12-24 hours. With a simple diarrhea, water can be
offered, but food withheld for 12-24 hours. In both cases, after
this period of GI rest, a highly digestible diet should be fed
for a while. This can be either a prescription diet or a
home-made diet consisting of boiled chicken and rice or ground
beef and rice. ~ more recently developed prescription diet uses
certain fatty acids to help decrease inflammation and a special
carbohydrate source that attempts to promote the growth of “helpful”
intestinal bacteria and inhibit potentially “harmful”
bacteria.
Dietary management also plays a role in treating problems
associated with diseases of major internal organs, such as the
heart, liver and kidneys. Prescription diets, available from
veterinarians, are usually recommended after hospitalization and
treatment have stabilized the animal. With heart disease, the
main dietary consideration is a low sodium level, which helps
reduce blood pressure and the work load on the heart.
Prescription diets for treating kidney disease have reduced
levels of protein (but high quality protein), phosphorus and
sodium, because the diseased kidney does a poor job of excreting
these. They also contain extra amounts of B-complex vitamins,
which tend to be lost through the diseased kidney. A more
recently marketed prescription diet is aimed at increasing
excretion of nitrogenous waste (from protein metabolism) through
the intestinal tract to make up for the lost kidney function.
Dogs with liver disease are frequently fed these same diets
designed for kidney disease.