Getting the balance right is vital

Sustainability is a vastly important factor in the way that we all conduct our activities.

It's becoming common place these days for people and businesses to become environmentally responsible and minimise the impact that they make on nature. Sustainability is a vastly important factor in the way that we all conduct our activities if we are to provide future generations with a healthy planet.

As vets, we have an added responsibility to consistently review and refine our practices so that the healthcare of our patients encourages their long-term health and well-being as opposed to simply treating and managing symptoms.

One of the greatest investments that an animal owner can make toward their animals health is to provide good quality nutrition.

Vets have come to rely on various commercial foods to provide the balance that science has carefully evolved, to ensure that all the nutrients we know to be important for health are included in the correct quantities.

There are advantages to this, especially when we can't be sure that an animal owner will feed the correct nutrients and their dog develops rickets, for example, which was a common health concern years ago.

These days we see more and more health conditions in our domestic animals which are multifactorial in nature and are very difficult to cure with traditional methods, ie allergies, cancers, auto-immune conditions, resistant infections, etc. As vets, our strategies for treating these conditions have been aimed at managing symptoms and in some cases prescribing drugs to help alleviate the negative effects of medications that the animal becomes dependent on, which is often a vicious cycle.

Mounting evidence, and my experience with these difficult cases in clinical practice, suggest that a substantial contributing factor is what our animals eat. The presence of chemicals and preservatives, as well as fillers and a deficiency of optimal amounts of vitally important nutrients such as omega 3 fatty acids, vitamins and anti-oxidants, play a large role in the development and progression of most of the disease conditions that prevail today.

It never ceases to amaze me that, when the body gets the nutrients that it needs, it works wonders to restore health. When an animal's diet is changed to include natural (wholesome and with optimal amounts of bioavailable nutrients) well balanced foods, animals, generally, show an improvement in their condition, their performance is enhanced and often, chronic ongoing health problems begin to resolve.

More and more people are recognising the impact of poor nutrition on their own health and are becoming acutely aware and responsible about what they eat. Animal owners are also beginning to think about what their pets consume and since many commercial products are bulked up with chemicals and preservatives, grains (not ideal for cats and dogs that are carnivores), fillers and animal by-products, they're adopting well balanced raw food diets for their pets and seeing the immense importance of natural goodness, a quality which can't be easily understood or quantified by science.

Nature knows best and, by respecting natural principles, feeding our animals with food that their bodies have evolved to eat over thousands of years, we will not only help to ensure that we are rewarded by our loyal friends living long and happy lives but we will also have peace of mind knowing that we are contributing to the well-being of our environment and helping to sustain a healthier planet.