Nutritional Support Service
As proper nutrition has been recognised as an important component in the recovery of many ailments affecting our patients, the Queen Mother Hospital for Animals is the first veterinary hospital in the UK to have a formalised clinical service dedicated to ensuring adequate nutrition support of hospitalised patients.
The Nutritional Support Service provides consultations to other specialists at the QMHA, advising and sometimes especially formulating diets for hospitalised patients. In patients that cannot be fed orally, special forms of nutritional support, such as special feeding tubes or formulating nutrition to be administered intravenously are provided by the Service.
The Nutritional Support Service now offers nutritional consults for referring veterinary surgeons. Formulation of home-made diets for animals with special dietary needs can also be arranged. Other functions of the Service include teaching and training of undergraduates, training scholars and nurses in the different modalities of nutritional support. The Royal Veterinary College is also the first UK University to train a Senior Clinical Training Scholar in Internal Medicine and Clinical Nutrition.
Veterinary surgeons interested in the services provided by the Nutritional Support Service may direct their inquiries to nutrition@rvc.ac.uk.
Special Interests:
- Nutritional support of critically ill patients
- Nutritional support of patients with severe gastrointestinal dysfunction
- Nutritional support via special feeding tubes
- Manipulation of disease processes via special nutrients (e.g, omega-3 fatty acids, special amino acids, anti-oxidants)
Key Clinicians
Dan Chan
Dan is a Lecturer in Emergency and Critical Care and Clinical Nutrition at the Royal Veterinary College. He is Co-Head of the Section of Emergency and Critical Care and Head of the Nutritional Support Service. He is also Director of the ECC Senior Clinical Training Scholarship (Residency) Programme.