Nutritional Assesment

Question 1

Describe the techniques used to assess the nutritional status of an animal

Answer 1

1. Assess the animal
2. Assess the diet
3. Assess the feeding management
4. Reassessment (how do you determine reassessment when changing diet->client involvement)
5. Client/Producer should be involved in the plan of action

Question 2

Assessing the animal

Answer 2

Animal should be assessed on initial presentation and monitored after nutritional intervention to determine whether feeding changes have met the established nutritional goals

• Obtain accurate history and review the medical record, signalment, drugs/therapies, physiological state
• Conduct a physical examination (body weight, body condition scoring)
• Conduct necessary laboratory testing (metabolic profile, anemia and iron deficiency, milk fever, hypocalcemia)
• Estimate the nutrition requirements of the animal via the BMR=70*bw(kg) to the 0.75 power
• Medical diagnosis
• General appearance of animal (hair coat, fecal quality)

Question 3

Assessing the diet

Answer 3

• What is it? (commercial vs. home made)
• Energy estimation of the food- precise determination requires feeding trials (ME-dogs,cats,birds; DE- horses; TDN-sheep, cattle; Net energy lactation- dairy cattle)
• Physical evaluation of the food (storage issues, contaminants)
• Lab/tag evaluation
• Determine the feeds/food nutrient content
• Compare the diets nutrients with the animals nutrient needs

Question 4

Assessing the Feeding Management

Answer 4

• Feeding route (voluntary or assisted)
• Amount fed/how much is consumed
• How the feed/food and water offered (free choice vs meal fed)
• Feeding competition (eating in presence/absence of others)

Question 5

List the factors that affect the physiological state of an animal

Answer 5

Internal and external factors that can influence the animal’s physiologic state (animal can be at maintenance, reproductive status, geriatric etc.)

• External: temperature, stress, competition
• Internal: gender, lactation, work, gestation or disease
• Intact males have lower body female than intact females
• Disease causes increased needs (via diarrhea, wounds, head trauma, burns) need more for increased requirement and loss
• Some diseased may need less- decreased movement, inability to utilize nutrients (vomiting), save energy spent on digestion

Question 6

Describe the three step iterative process used in the nutritional assessment of an animal

Answer 6

Feed->Person feeding->Animal
Ex. “I have a new puppy, what should I feed it,” “should I put a grazing muzzle on my horse?” “the feed mill wants to add wheat to the ration, what do you think?”

Question 7

Describe body condition scoring

Answer 7

1-9 in most animals
1-5 in dairy cattle
-SUBJECTIVE
-Estimate of fat cover and potentially muscle mass, but reasonable estimate of an animals body composition