ANS 282 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Homeostasis, Thermoregulation, Synovial Fluid
Document Summary
Correct and adequate nutrition is one of the keys to a long and healthy life for your companion animal. Nutrition affects the immune system, it affects the growth and development of the animal, it affects the daily metabolism and homeostasis, it affects tissue turnover and repair such as wound healing, it affects reproduction, etc i. e. it affects everything. Several nutrients have been shown to enhance the immune system. These include vitamin e, selenium, zinc, beta-carotene, omega-3 fatty acids, and copper. Diets need to be formulated to match the life stage of the animal early growth, maintenance, activity, pregnancy, lactation, geriatric, etc. Animal food companies often try to mimic what the animal would consume in the wild generally small mammals for carnivores. There are many distinct physiological differences that exist among the many species of animals, but there are also many basic aspects of nutrition and digestion that are the same for all or nearly all the them.
