Why is nutrition important?

Nutrition is a broad subject, so this workshop looked at why nutrition is important and how veterinary nurses can weave nutrition into every conversation that they have with their clients.

Good nutrition can help to prevent problems, help with the management of certain conditions, help to increase life expectancy and promote good wellbeing and growth. In contrast, poor nutrition can create disorders, such as cleft palates, can impair the immune system, which means that recovery and healing can take longer (whether it is a broken leg, major abdominal surgery or kennel cough), and can lead to toxicities, deficiencies (such as rickets and scurvy) and illness.

In the UK, there are lots of technicalities about the terms which are used, so nutrition and nutritional supplements cannot be used for the treatment of conditions, but they can be used to help in the management of conditions.

An example is a renal diet. Controlling phosphate levels for renal patients can help extend life, on average their life-span is 2.7 years, so it is really important in this group to increase life expectancy. This is also the case for cardiac patients, cancer patients or obese patients – keeping these animals lean and promoting good wellbeing, good growth and a good body condition score can increase life expectancy. Good nutrition is really important in the overall health and wellbeing of the animal.