Description
Leading feline health expert, Sam Taylor, explores the importance of feline inappetence, how this often goes overlooked by owners and practices alike and why it shouldn’t be underestimated as part of diagnosis.
Inappetence is a common reason patients are presented to practice. To manage these patients, we need to look beyond just treating the underlying disease, as stress, nausea, pain and many other factors can play a role. Untreated inappetence has a very negative effect on recovery from illness and surgery, makes medicating cats difficult and may even hasten euthanasia decisions, so should be a priority for us as a veterinary team.
Learning Objectives
- Explain why early intervention can benefit feline patients presenting with inappetence
- Understand how to educate owners on the importance of food intake and appetite
- Describe why muscle condition score can be useful to measure with body condition score
- List management options in treatment of inappetent patients including nutrition and appetite therapeutics
- List some tips and tricks to implement in practice when seeing inappetent cats
