What Is EmerAid^® Feline?

Emergency medicine often involves the care of feline patients that have “crashed”: Animals that are weak, depressed, malnourished, or severely debilitated. Nutrition is a vital part of critical care medicine and yet the process of digesting, absorbing, and assimilating nutrients often requires energy that the critical patient does not have to spare. EmerAid Intensive Care HDN provides critical-care nutrition for feline patients in the form of a semi-elemental diet. Nutrients are provided in a simplified form allowing the body to quickly digest and absorb the nutrients, thus sparing the patient’s already overtaxed resources.

The gastrointestinal tract is lined with cells called enterocytes, which help digest, absorb, and transport nutrients into the body. Vital nutrients absorbed by enterocytes include amino acids and peptides, carbohydrates (complex and simple saccharides), lipids, water, vitamins, and ions (or minerals). Enteral nutrition is preferred whenever possible, because enterocytes undergo atrophy without luminal nutrient stimulation. (Ford & Mazzafero, 2012)

By focusing on the nutritional needs of the enterocyte, EmerAid Intensive Care Diets scientifically provide the maximum amount of nutrition that can be absorbed with the least energy expenditure.

In critically ill patients, the body’s main goal is to support key organs like the heart, brain, liver, and lungs. Blood flow to the gastrointestinal tract is reduced thus slowing gastrointestinal motility. As enterocytes form a tight seal to protect the body from harmful bacteria or toxins, digestion and absorption of nutrients are similarly altered (Martindale, 2002). Unfortunately, these physiologic changes make it difficult for nutrients to be absorbed when the body needs nutrition the most. Consequently, debilitated patients benefit from a predigested or a semi-elemental diet.

Semi-elemental diets contain ingredients that are purified and hydrolyzed, combined with a small amount of complex highly digestible ingredients. Through an innovative balance between purified amino acids and hydrolyzed protein, EmerAid maintains an osmotic balance that minimizes the risk of diarrhea by preventing the loss of water and other vital nutrients from the gastrointestinal tract.

When a feline patient “crashes,” the immune system is put on high alert and antioxidants are needed in larger quantities (Chandra, 1997; Manzanares, 2013). The EmerAid Intensive Care Diets supports the body’s immune system by providing high levels of nutrients critical to immune function and antioxidant systems.

Nutrients in EmerAid Intensive Care Diets that supports the feline immune system:

• Arginine^a
• Copper
• Cysteine^b
• Glutamine^a
• Taurine
• Vitamin C
• Vitamin E
• Zinc

^aDepletion of arginine and glutamine is particularly common during periods of starvation and catabolic stress, and supplementation has been shown to improve patient outcome (Labow 2000, Oehler 2002).

^bCysteine is necessary to produce glutathione, a powerful antioxidant in the body.

Diets containing nutrients that support the immune system have been shown to enhance the recovery of critically ill human patients, and there is strong evidence to suggest this same potential in animals (Chan, 2008; de Aguilar, 2012; Manzanares, 2013).

When a feline patient becomes debilitated, the body begins to catabolize its own muscle to survive. Loss of muscle means loss of protein, which increases the risk of post-operative infection and wound dehiscence and decreases wound healing. Protein malnutrition can also alter drug metabolism causing undesirable responses to medication. By providing amino acids, peptides, and L-carnitine, EmerAid is designed to not only build lean body mass, but also provides protein for a number of important metabolic processes (Chandra, 1997).

The feline patient should remain on EmerAid Sustain HDN Feline throughout the recovery process. Once the patient is doing well and has been medically cleared by their veterinarian, the diet can be gradually transitioned to the patients’ regular food as recommended by the veterinarian.

• Chan DL. The role of nutrients in modulating disease. J Small Anim Pract 49(6):266-271, 2008.
• Chandra RK. Nutrition and the immune system: an introduction. Am J Clin Nutr 66(2):460S-463S, 1997.
• de Aguilar-Nascimento JE, Bicudo-Salomao A, Portari-Filho PE. Optimal timing for the initiation of enteral and parenteral nutrition in critical medical and surgical conditions. Nutrition 28(9):840-843, 2012.
• Ford RB, Mazzaferro E. Kirk and Bistner’s Handbook of Veterinary Procedures and Emergency Treatment, 9th ed. 2012. Elsevier, St. Louis, MO.
• Labow BI, Souba WW. Glutamine. World J Surg 24(12):1503-1513, 2000.
• Martindale RG, Shikora SA, Nishikawa R, Siepler JK. In: American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ed). Nutritional Considerations in the Intensive Care Unit: Science, Rationale, and Practice. City, State: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company; 2002.
• Oehler R, Pusch E, Dungel P, et al. Glutamine depletion impairs cellular stress response in human leucocytes. British J Nutr 87(Suppl 1):S17-S21, 2002.