“If you’re not communicating about nutrition with your pet owners, someone else is”, warned Megan Shepherd.
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Image: Tatyana Gladskih / Adobe Stock
Speak with clients about nutrition before they get their information from elsewhere, VMX delegates were urged.
Vet and Royal Canin scientific communications nutritionist Megan Shepherd addressed attendees at the veterinary conference in the session “Modern pet diets: risks, rewards and real talk”.
She encouraged veterinary professionals to “serve as the guide” for pet owners and emphasised the importance of discussing clients’ nutrition goals for their animals.
Owner goals
Dr Shepherd said: “Knowing what the owner’s goals are can help you contextualise the suggestions or the guidance that you’re providing.”
She added: “For example, if I have a pet owner who says their goals for their pet is to minimise the risk of joint disease and optimise longevity, then when we’re talking about the importance of maintaining healthy weight, I can let them know.
“I can bring in their goals and say, ‘Hey, maintaining healthy weight in your pet is really important for achieving your goals and minimising risk to joint health and optimising longevity’. So, knowing the owners’ goals up front is really important.”
Nutrition assessments
The vet argued clinicians should conduct nutrition assessments and take diet histories with their clients.
She said: “If we’re not taking a diet history, we might be missing out on conversations that we really should be having; like the owner that’s feeding raw, we need to make sure they’re aware of the risk; the owner that’s feeding homemade, we need to get them on the right track with a homemade diet; or someone who needs help navigating the fresh pet food market.
“I encourage you to be the guide. So, the pet owner has the ultimate say on what they feed, and our role is to guide them with the factual information we have.”
Finding time
Dr Shepherd acknowledged that vets often have trouble finding the time for conversations about nutrition with clients and may also struggle with navigating misinformation or resistant pet owners.
“If you’re not communicating about nutrition, know that you’re not alone,” she said.
But she added: “If you’re not communicating about nutrition with your pet owners, someone else is or something else – like AI – is.”
