The Role of Nutrition in Sports Medicine and Pain Management

Do you find it really overwhelming walking down the pet food aisle? There are so many products and so many claims it’s hard to know what is best when feeding your companion.

While Dr. Mich is not a board certified veterinary nutritionist, part of her board certification training includes nutrition for canines. Based on this, we can share some useful guidelines and when more specialized care is needed you can find links to a curated list of board certified veterinary nutritionists (Diplomates of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition) at the end of this page.

OBESITY

Obesity is a major issue in dogs. According to a 2018 survey by the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention about 56% of dogs are overweight or obese in the United States.

A landmark study following Labrador retriever puppies clearly showed a correlation between obesity and health issues. https://newscenter.purina.com/LifeSpanStudy

Here is a scale for assessing body condition in your dog:

https://www.morrisanimalfoundation.org/sites/default/files/filesync/Purina-Body-Condition-System.pdf

PROTEIN REQUIREMENTS

Protein requirements change as dogs age and when they are recovering from injury. In order to maximize health Dr. Mich analyzes the diet of each patient as well as their organ health to determine a nutritional plan.

VETERINARY NUTRITION SPECIALISTS

Some patients require specialized nutritional counseling. For those complex cases Dr. Mich relies on the knowledge of colleagues board certified in veterinary nutrition ( Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition). ACVN.org