Today's Veterinary Practice provides comprehensive information to keep every small animal practitioner up to date on companion animal medicine and surgery as well as practice building and management.
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A special section to Today's Veterinary Practice | May/June 80 PREVENTION W ith so many brands and types of foods available (pet food sales exceed $24 billion in the United States, with Nestle Purina PetCare, Mars PetCare Inc, Big Heart Pet Brands, Hill's Pet Nutrition, Diamond Pet Foods, and Blue Buffalo accounting for approximately 70% of the market), owners, veterinarians, and veterinary nurses can have difficulty interpreting ingredient labels, assessing the quality of diets, and understanding pet food regulations. As a result, members of the veterinary healthcare team may be reluctant to make specific recommendations. Veterinary healthcare teams are familiar with recommending veterinary therapeutic diets (VTD) for management of chronic disease states, but many of these diets are suitable for adult maintenance and growth. VTD have accessible information on caloric and nutrient profiles, may address inflammation with specific nutrients, and have higher digestibility and less contamination than over-the-counter (OTC) diets. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN OTC DIETS AND VTD The term "therapeutic diet" has no legal definition; however, the Food and Drug Administration has guidelines for the labeling and marketing of canine and feline diets intended to diagnose, cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent diseases (BOX 1) . These Nutritionists' View: Over-the-Counter Versus Therapeutic Veterinary Diets Donna Raditic, DVM, DACVN Joe Bartges, DVM, PhD, DACVN, DACVIM Dr. Raditic received a BS in Animal Science at Cornell University and her DVM at Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine. She has been a professor of nutrition and integrative medicine at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Raditic is an author and coauthor of textbooks and research in nutrition and integrative therapies. Her interests are nutritional therapies in small animal diseases, supplements, integrative therapies in disease states, metabolomics, translational research, and One Health. Based in Athens, Georgia, she currently does consulting on nutrition and integrative veterinary medicine. Dr. Bartges earned his DVM at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine and PhD at the University of Minnesota. He has served as an interim department head at the University of Tennessee as well as an internist and nutritionist at Cornell University Veterinary Specialists. Currently, Dr. Bartges is Professor of Medicine and Nutrition at the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine. He is on the editorial boards of 5 journals, a consultant for the Urinary and Nutrition boards with Veterinary Information Network, and a member of the Blue Buffalo Veterinary Advisory Board. ABOUT THE AUTHORS Donna Raditic, DVM, DACVN Joe Bartges, DVM, PhD, DACVN, DACVIM CONSTANT CRAVING Calories consumed per day is the best common measure across all diets. shutterstock.com/Sidarta