Keeping pets healthy can prove more challenging than many owners realize. Even such a basic issue as feeding your pet presents a variety of questions. What nutritional balance does your pet need? How often and how much should you feed him? If you’re scratching your head over these and other concerns, don’t worry — bring your pet to our four-vet team at Antelope Creek Veterinary Healthcare Center P.C. Your veterinarian in Lincoln NE can provide all the education, advice, specialized dietary prescriptions and other nutritional services you and your best friend will ever need.
How to Feed Your Pet
The sheer variety of pet foods available on the market is enough to confuse many pet owners — but don’t obey the temptation to make things easier by feeding your cats and dogs out of the same bag of “chow.” These two animals (and other animals as well) have their own specific nutritional requirements. Cats, for instance, need meat as a source of certain key amino acids that dogs’ digestive systems can manufacture from either plant or animal sources. Your individual pet may also do better with wet food instead of dry food, or vice versa, depending on factors such as dental health and degree of appetite. Your veterinarian in Lincoln can help you choose the right kind of food for your pet’s everyday needs.
Dogs and cats love human foods such as table scraps, but you need to keep these “treats” away from your pet. A great many foods that we can consume without harm have toxic or otherwise dangerous effects on animals, including grapes, raisins, chocolate, onions, garlic, avocado, and any products that contain caffeine. Even non-toxic human foods are likely to offer far too much salt, sugar, fat and other unhealthy elements, without the nutrient balance your animal actually needs.
Expert Pet Nutrition Advice, Diets and More
Our vet team can evaluate your pet’s individual nutritional and dietary challenges. An annual wellness exam is an ideal opportunity to weigh your pet, ask about his calorie intake and discuss his activity level. It’s critical that we take every measure to prevent obesity, a serious epidemic in the pet community that leads to joint damage, heart disease, organ failure, cancer and other dreaded ailments. If your pet needs to lose some pounds, we may put him on a low-calorie diet, reduce his portion sizes, and/or recommend an exercise program.
Special health problems often demand special diets. We can prescribe diets specially formulated to help manage diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, kidney failure, chronic inflammation and other conditions. We can also create a hypoallergenic diet to help your pet avoid common food allergies.
Learn More at Antelope Creek Veterinary Healthcare Center P.C.
If you want to optimize your pet’s health, comfort and longevity, let’s start with what’s in his food bowl. Call (402) 488-0993 to learn more and schedule nutritional services at Antelope Creek Veterinary Healthcare Center!