Abstract
Nutrition is critical because nutrients affect every living cell in the body. The World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) recognizes that nutrition for cats and dogs requires the same attention to detail as that for all other species cared for by our profession.
Our companion animals are often fed a single source of nutrition — either pre-made or homemade diets. Careful assessment of their nutritional needs must be taken into consideration in order to maintain optimum health and performance, be part of a treatment regimen for a diseased state, or to maximize the quality of life in all animals.
To reflect the importance of this, our goal within the WSAVA is that a nutritional assessment and specific nutritional recommendation is made for every patient on every visit. This will become known as the 5th Vital Assessment (5VA), following the four vital assessments of temperature, pulse, respiration and pain that are already addressed on each patient interaction. To this end, the WSAVA has produced global guidelines for the nutritional evaluation of cats and dogs, which are published in this issue of JFMS. 1
The guidelines describe nutritional assessment as being a two-part process involving a screening evaluation followed, where indicated, by an extended evaluation. As discussed, a brief screening evaluation of nutritional status can be routinely and seamlessly performed during the history-taking and physical examination of every patient. An extended evaluation would follow if one or more risk factors is suspected or identified on screening. Nutrition-related risk factors could include age, changes in appetite, activity level, abnormal physical exam findings, body condition score, unexplained weight change and disease status.
The rationale for incorporating nutritional assessment into daily practice is simple — good nutrition enhances pets' quality and quantity of life
Client compliance with nutritional recommendations offered by the veterinarian, veterinary nurses/technicians and their clinic team requires everyone in the practice to believe in the critical importance of nutrition for their patients. A team approach to continuous nutritional education, implementation of appropriate protocols and focused client communication, utilizing the WSAVA Nutritional Assessment Guidelines, 1 will be key to reaching this 5VA goal. For its part, the WSAVA will encourage every veterinary teaching institution in the world to begin to formalize this approach in their curricula as soon as possible.