Nutrition Service at NC State’s Veterinary Health and Wellness Center Ensures Proper Pet Diet

Specialists with the Nutrition Service at NC State University’s Veterinary Health and Wellness Center provide nutritional recommendations and feeding plans for the medical and surgical services at the Veterinary Health Complex, offer owners diet and nutrition support for their animals, and conduct research that informs both animal and human health.

The Nutrition Service works closely with the Critical Care Service in the Randall B. Terry, Jr. Companion Animal Veterinary Medical Center in providing various assisted and minimally invasive tube feedings, as well as intravenous nutrition. The  nutritionists also work closely with Internal Medicine, Surgery, Oncology, the Rehabilitation and Mobility Service, and other specialized services to provide state-of-the-art individualized nutritional plans for patients with various medical conditions.

Nutrition specialists also can work directly with owners to explain the best dietary options for the pet or animal, including commercial diet recommendations for patients, critical care nutrition for inpatients, customized weight loss programs, and nutritional consultation for metabolic diseases such as diabetes, kidney, and liver diseases or urinary stones.

Head of service Dr. Korinn Saker, associate professor of clinical nutrition and a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition, and her staff can evaluate an animal’s diet and, if necessary, suggest appropriate changes to ensure a complete and balanced dietary intake for the animal.  The staff can also formulate a complete and balanced home-prepared therapeutic diet if there are no appropriate commercial diet options or if the owner desires to prepare home-cooked food for the animal.

Nutrition consults–owners: Consults may be via telephone/ Skype, email, or in-person visit.  The nutrition specialists will work in conjunction with the local primary care veterinarian as well as with any NC State colleagues as appropriate.  Owner Consultation Request

Nutrition consults–veterinarians: The Nutrition Service offers telephone/Skype, or email consults to veterinarians for a variety of medical conditions such as kidney disease, heart disease, cancer, gastrointestinal disease, allergies, challenging cases with more than one medical condition,  or to support an owner with a keen interest in commercial or homemade diets. Veterinarian Consultation Request  (Online Vet Referral)

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Visit the Nutrition Service webpage for services, fees, and appointments or call 919.513.6999.

[section_subtitle] Dr. Korinn Saker, Nutrition Service in the news: [/section_subtitle]

• New York Times article on preparing home-cooked pet food;
• Ivanhoe Newswire medical report on what to look for in quality pet food;
• WRAL-CBS video report on pet food;
• WBTV-CBS video report on pet obesity;
• MSNBC report on contaminated food;
• UStreamTV presentation to Havanese Club of America;