News and Events: October 2010
PURINA VETERINARY DIETS® Feline Dry Range has been updated.
The PURINA VETERINARY DIETS® range of clinical diets has been created for veterinary surgeons, like yourself, to enable you to strengthen the effectiveness of your overall treatment protocol with targeted, science-based and proven effective formulas. Prescribed based on your expert advice, the range of PURINA VETERINARY DIETS® is designed to both help minimise the recurrence of the disorders you have diagnosed and treated, and to nutritionally support your patient throughout their complete recovery.
To help simplify your daily practice and recommendation, PURINA VETERINARY DIETS® has been specifically designed as a concise range of diets. Our range of clinical diets is comprehensive, in that it supports all the nutritionally responsive cat and dog disorders you may encounter in your clinic and is concise, in that the range encompasses just eight feline and nine canine products. Instead of having a number of diets offering different nutritional benefits, each diet within the PURINA VETERINARY DIETS® range incorporates a broad spectrum of nutritional attributes and benefits and thus can cover several medical indications. These clinical diets provide a proper balance of nutrients while meeting the special dietary needs linked to the patient’s condition.
Nestlé PURINA are now proud to announce that the feline range is even more effective- we have recently upgraded our entire* PURINA VETERINARY DIETS® Feline dry range to help prevent the development of FLUTD caused by struvite and calcium oxalate uroliths.
Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease (FLUTD) is extremely common in cats. Indeed it is known to affect approximately 3% of all cats seen in private veterinary practice. Factors known to increase the risk of FLUTD include obesity and stress. Obesity is seen in cats affected by other clinical conditions such as diabetes mellitus and stress has the potential to affect all sick cats thereby potentially increasing their risk of FLUTD.
It is for this reason that all dry PURINA VETERINARY DIETS® for cats* have now been formulated to not only manage the clinical conditions for which they have been primarily designed but also to reduce the risk of FLUTD caused by struvite and calcium oxalate uroliths occurring.
The Activity Product Ratio (APR), a dynamic and highly sensitive parameter has been used to evaluate the efficacy of the new upgraded PURINA VETERINARY DIETS® range for the nutritional prevention of FLUTD caused by struvite and calcium oxalate. Rarely used, except in human science, APR is a more vigorous test than RSS (Relative Super Saturation) and reflects more precisely the in vivo situation. Both of these advanced methods were used to evaluate each diet and measure urine mineral saturation and predict crystal evolution. RSS assesses the likelihood of urolith formation by using measurements of urine pH, volume and mineral concentration. Urine APR goes further and calculates the ratio of urinary measurements before and after urine incubation with pure crystals (struvite or calcium oxalate.) APR is therefore a more dynamic and sensitive parameter that precisely reflects the crystal evolution by assessing the cumulative influence of urine crystal growth promoters and inhibitors. The PURINA VETERINARY DIETS® feline dry range is the first to be evaluated with this more sensitive parameter and both the APR ad RSS values demonstrated a reduction of recurrence for both struvite and oxalate across the range.
To reflect this new benefit, “St/Ox” will be added to the name of each dry diet- thus Feline Gastroenteric EN™ will become Feline EN™ St/Ox, Feline Diabetes Management DM™ will become DM™ St/Ox, Feline Hypoallergenic HA™ will become Feline HA™ St/Ox and Feline Obesity Management OM™ will become Feline OM™ St/Ox.
Developed using the latest nutritional research and technology, the PURINA VETERINARY DIETS® feline dry range incorporates complementary nutritional strategies for long term reduction of risk of both struvite and calcium oxalate urolithiasis. The range offers a highly palatable and efficacious nutritional solution to assure successful management of the patient’s primary clinical condition as well as allowing peace of mind that the cat’s risk of struvite and calcium oxalate is also being reduced.
Nestlé PURINA’s PURINA VETERINARY DIETS® range is the concise, comprehensive and effective solution to cats’ nutritional needs.
* not Feline NF™
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Introducing FortiFlora® for GI Conditions
The latest nutritional breakthrough from PURINA VETERINARY DIETS® is the launch of FortiFlora® canine and feline nutritional supplements containing a probiotic proven to help promote intestinal health and balance in dogs and cats of all ages. FortiFlora® is the only probiotic supplement for dogs and cats to contain the strain of the lactic acid bacterium Enterococcus faecium SF68®, which has proven efficacy in numerous studies, including the dietary management of diarrhoea and the support of immune function.
A highly diverse intestinal microflora population is indicative of a healthy gut environment, facilitating nutrient absorption by colonic microflora and lowering the potential for sickness, diarrhoea and intestinal inflammation. The balance of the intestinal ecosystem can be affected by a number of factors including health issues, aging, stress associated with travelling and boarding, changes in diet and the use of wide-spectrum antibiotics. If an imbalance occurs, a safe, efficient and effective way to help re-populate the beneficial bacteria is to use a nutritional supplement containing a probiotic, like FortiFlora®.
FortiFlora® guarantees that a viable level of bacteria arrive in the digestive tract by utilising a proprietary micro-encapsulation process. The protective coating prolongs the shelf-life of the bacterium and aids its transition through the digestive tract, before completely dissolving in the intestinal tract to release the bacterium. Well controlled in vitro and in vivo tests demonstrate that SF86® survives the acidic conditions of the GI tract in pets.
FortiFlora® is extremely palatable and is available in 1g daily dose sachets for sprinkling over regular food, wet or dry. To ensure pets feel the full benefit, FortiFlora® should be fed once a day for 30 days, even if the problem appears to be resolved.
Benefits are many, including:
- Reduced levels of potentially pathogenic bacteria in healthy dogs
- Increased levels of beneficial bacteria in puppies
- Improved faecal consistency in cats with chronic diarrhoea
- Reduction of natural occurring diarrhoea in kittens
- Improved immune function in young dogs at both mucosal and systemic levels
Find out more about FortiFlora® »
Reg. trademark of Société des Produits Nestlé S.A., Vevey, Switzerland;
except SF68® owned by Cerbios-Pharma S.A, Barbengo, Switzerland
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PURINA VETERINARY DIETS® launches Feline EN™
A clinically proven solution for all feline diarrhoea cases
With the launch of Feline EN™, we’re delighted to announce a breakthrough in the treatment of gastrointestinal conditions in cats and kittens.
A clinical proven efficacy:
Cats diagnosed with severe and chronic diarrhoea - and unresponsive to other diets and standard treatments - were fed with Feline EN™ in a cross-over study. In some cases, the cats had suffered diarrhoea for several years: yet after less than 4 weeks of being fed Feline EN™ these cats showed, for the first time, a significant improvement in their faecal consistency scores.
A formulation to support the compromise gut:
Feline EN™ contains the latest science and knowledge regarding the nutritional support of feline GI cases.
- A limited number of protein sources significantly reduces the antigenic load. With GI symptoms being present in 10-15% of feline food allergy cases and 35-50% of Inflammatory Bowel Disease cases in cats likely to be food related, total clinical resolution of some cases will result purely by feeding new Feline EN™ if the offending dietary allergen is avoided.
- Pure inulin, a prebiotic proven to stimulate the growth of beneficial bacteria and improve intestinal microflora balance also nutritionally supports the colonocytes through being fermentable by colonic bacteria to produce short chain fatty acids.
- High energy levels help promote weight gain during GI convalescence and ensures exceptional palatability. Until recently no data was available to support dietary fat recommendations for cats with chronic, non specific diarrhoea. However, Nestlé Purina has demonstrated in a double-blind clinical trial with cats with chronic diarrhoea comparing the effects of low fat (24% of calories) versus high fat (45% of calories) that dietary fat content does not affect the outcome. This finding is very important since the digestibility of the diet is a critical factor and increasing the fat level reduces the dependency on carbohydrate calories, thus increasing overall diet digestibility.
Feline EN™ for kittens too
As diarrhoea is second only to respiratory disease in treating kittens, Feline EN™ has been formulated to provide a nutritional solution for kittens with diarrhoea too.
Now, Feline EN™ offers you, the vet a clinical diet formulated to nutritionally manage all feline GI cases - adults and kittens – with proven efficacy even in the most challenging clinical trial!
PURINA VETERINARY DIETS® is currently the only veterinary diet range to provide a full complement of products to support feline GI problems. As well as Feline EN™, the range includes Feline HA™ a hydrolysed diet for diagnosis and management of true food allergies and severe IBD cases and FortiFlora™, a probiotic supplement proven to promote intestinal health and balance in cats.
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