DOI: 10.36347/sjmcr.2016.v04i11.002

Pages: 800-814

Appropriate nutritional management is indispensable to ensure the quality of life in animals suffering from heart diseases. Complementary feeds, still little used in veterinary medicine but increasingly employed in humans, represent a worthwhile option for the nutritional management of animals with heart diseases. Nutri-Plus Gel® is a complementary feed composed of high-energy ingredients (glucose syrup, soybean oil and cod liver oil), hydrolyzed animal proteins, vitamins and oligo-elements. Due to its high-energy content and excellent palatability, Nutri-Plus Gel® is used for nutritional recovery and convalescence in dogs and cats. It is also used during periods of high-energy requirement and intense physical effort (e.g. hunting season, sled-dog races…). This collection of cases illustrates 5 routine clinical situations encountered in veterinary cardiology in which the use of a palatable high-energy complementary feed is of practical value. These situations include facilitation of restraint during an examination (e.g., echocardiography), promoting treatment compliance (notably during long-term multitherapy), and providing nutritional support during periods of lack of appetite associated with advanced heart diseases and post-operative recuperation. In any case, complementary feed should always be used as a complement to the appropriate diet, rather than a replacement of the later.