Användning av dietfoder till hundar och katter på Smådjurskliniken vid SLU
During one week (9-13 May, 2005) the use of veterinary diets for the hospitalised patients att the University clinic was registered. The animal owners were interviewed by telephone six months later about the feeding after coming home.
Four out of ten animal owners answered yes to the question if the veterinarian had asked what food their animal normally consumed.
Out of 35 animals, 15 (43%) were prescribed to a veterinary diet. Among cats it was 8 out of 14 (57%) and among dogs it was 7 out of 21 (33%).
Four animals out of ten were recommended a veterinary diet when going home, but 20% did not follow the recommendation all the way through and stopped feeding their animal the veterinary diet. Reasons that were given was that the diet didn't last the entire period, that the animal didn't need the diet anymore according to the owner and one dog that became to lean when fed the diet. The diagnosis for these three dogs was vomiting, foreign body in the digestive system and bloody diarrhoea. The two first dogs ate Royal Canin Digestive Low Fat and the last one got Hill's i/d.
An important conclusion of this study is the importance of selling an amount of food large enough of the recommended diet when the owner is taking the animal home from the clinic. The best scenario would be that the owner takes home such an amount of the diet that it's enough for the whole period, or alternatively half of the period for the very large animals if the cost is to high to buy everything at once. It is more likely that the animal will be fed the recommended veterinary diet during the entire period of time if there are enough amounts of the diet at home.