Hugo, a 13 year old male neutered DSH, highlights the potential medical considerations that may be needed, when managing nutrition of our patients.
Hugo attended the clinic to help manage his suspected Hip Dysplasia, and had always been fed RCW Neutered Male cat food. 
However, he was then diagnosed with Triditis, following a prolonged period of general malaise and auto-immune clinical signs,  which meant that he was switched onto an exclusion diet – ZD.

Since starting on ZD his general clinical condition and demeanour greatly improved but his owners noticed that his overall body condition score (BCS) was not back to where it was prior to his illness, despite putting on (maybe a little too much) weight. His muscle mass in his hindlimbs had significantly reduced and he struggled to build this back up.

Using an exclusion diet was vital to maintaining Hugo’s health and as such using a dietary component to increase the level of accessible (high quality) protein was not an option. As such, looking at altering his home exercise plan to better target his hindlimb muscles was our alternative option. 

We wanted to use his case as an example of the dietary restrictions we may face when trying to manage our patients nutrition and BCS and how important it is to consider this alongside, and in conjunction with, our overall treatment plan. If one fails, the other will no doubt be less successful.

Hugo is sadly no longer with us, after succumbing to a separate illness last year, but he was maintained on ZD and the above described exercise inputs up until that point, and was a very happy cat.