Small herbivores are highly susceptible to diseases. Due to pain and discomfort they often stop eating. In that case, they may get into a critical phase, such as hypothermia or shock, within as quickly as 24 hours. Therefore, continuing to eat is vital for these animals.
Recovery nutrition is an important part of the treatment. Critical patients often stop eating but require more nutrients to recover. Not eating causes delayed wound healing, reduced resistance and impaired organ function, resulting in an increased risk of infection. Proper nutrition can help in the recovery.
Administering the recovery diet is not always easy, because the patient is weakened and the administration causes a stressful situation. A recovery diet is thus often formulated in order to be easily dissolvable in water, in order to be administered with a syringe.
There is a big difference between ‘regular’ nutrition and recovery nutrition. It is recommended to make use of recovery nutrition in critical patients, instead of regular nutrition or fruit mush.
