Texas A&M Now Offering Veterinary Clinical Nutrition Service

Story by Courtney Price, VMBS Marketing & Communications

January 29, 2025

A new service area offering specialized nutrition advice for cats and dogs has opened within the Texas A&M Small Animal Teaching Hospital’s (SATH) Gastrointestinal Laboratory (GI Lab).

The service will provide nutrition support for all SATH patients, as well as support for other patients via referral from primary care providers. Additionally, the service will provide clinical nutrition education to Texas A&M Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) students and conduct important nutrition research. 

“More than 50% of chronic, idiopathic gastrointestinal diseases that affect dogs and cats can be improved with changes in diet,” said Dr. Katie Tolbert, a board-certified veterinary nutritionist, small animal internist and associate professor in the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences’ (VMBS) Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences who heads the new service. “Our primary responsibility is to look at all of the issues affecting a patient and determine how to balance the nutrients their body needs for the best quality of life. We also play an important role in critical care nutrition, including assisting patients who require tube feeding.”

The nutrition service joins an existing hub of veterinary GI experts at the GI Lab, one of the largest specialized teams of its kind in the world, with leading specialists in pancreatic, liver and intestinal diseases.

“There are only about 100 board-certified veterinary nutritionists providing consultation services to clients and/or primary care veterinarians in the United States,” Tolbert said. “Many people advertise themselves as veterinary nutrition specialists; however, they often lack board certification from the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and/or graduate training in the field of small animal nutrition.

“We also have Ashley Self, our assistant director of nutrition, who is one of only 35 certified veterinary nurse specialists in clinical nutrition,” Tolbert said. “As part of the GI Lab, we can provide comprehensive care and innovative treatments for animals suffering from a broad spectrum of gastrointestinal disorders. Our expertise and state-of-the-art facilities position us at the forefront of advancing veterinary medicine in digestive health.”

Fulfilling Long-Term Service Goals

Having a veterinary nutrition service at Texas A&M has been a long-term goal for leadership at both the GI Lab and SATH.

“Most people — including veterinarians — understand basic nutrition principles like eating less sugar, but they don’t know how to put it into scientific terms,” said Dr. Jörg Steiner, a University Distinguished Professor at the VMBS and GI Lab director. “If a patient has a GI disease that causes diarrhea, they could tell the owner to try a diet with certain proteins, but they wouldn’t necessarily know the nitty-gritty details behind how that diet works. That’s why it’s so important to have a clinical nutritionist on the team.”

Nutrition is a vital component of treating almost any kind of health problem.

“If you are hit by a car, nutrition is really crucial for your body to be able to heal itself quickly,” Steiner said. “Or if you have pancreatitis, you don’t want to end up making it worse by having the wrong components in your diet. So, nutrition touches almost every aspect of health.”

“It’s been several years since we’ve added a new service to the SATH,” said Dr. Stacy Eckman, the associate dean for hospital operations and chief executive officer of the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH). “We’re excited to offer a service that can help not only our internal patients but also patients around Texas and the rest of the country. This service is the definition of a great partnership between experts at the GI Lab and clinicians at the SATH.”

Bringing Nutrition Assistance To Texas And Beyond

The nutrition service is currently only providing referral consultations — including both in-person and online appointments — for patients with GI disease or critical care needs.

“If you are a primary care veterinarian with a patient who would benefit from our services, you can fill out the consultation request forms on our website and we will be in touch with information about scheduling an appointment,” Tolbert said. “The majority of our consultations are conducted remotely via phone or video call, though individuals who are local to the College Station area may request an in-person appointment, which is limited based on personnel availability.”

To learn more about the VMBS’ new Clinical Nutrition Service, visit vetmed.tamu.edu/nutrition. 

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For more information about the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, please visit our website at vetmed.tamu.edu or join us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Contact Information: Jennifer Gauntt, Director of VMBS Communications, Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, jgauntt@cvm.tamu.edu, 979-862-4216

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