What are the benefits of prescription dog food

By Isabella Storyclaire

last updated January 14, 2025

Contributions sourced from

w/d Multi-Benefit Dry Dog Food

INGREDIENTS:Whole Grain Wheat, Powdered Cellulose, Chicken Meal, Whole Grain Corn, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken Fat, Cracked Pearled Barley, Whole Grain Oats, Chicken Liver Flavor, Dried Beet Pulp, Pork Liver Flavor, Lactic Acid, Soybean Oil, Caramel color, Flaxseed, Choline Chloride, Potassium Chloride, Glyceryl Monostearate, Potassium Citrate, Iodized Salt, L-Lysine, vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), Niacin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin Supplement, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), L-Tryptophan, Calcium Carbonate, DL-Methionine, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), Taurine, L-Carnitine, Mixed Tocopherols for freshness, Natural Flavors, Beta-Carotene.

w/d Multi-Benefit Dry Dog Food

5 Things to Know When Feeding Your Dog Hills Prescription Diet

The following article was written in partnership with Hills.

Precisely balanced nutrition is vital to the overall health and development of dogs, no matter their age, size, breed, or health status. At Hills, we know pets with certain health conditions can benefit from the specialized nutritional support that the Prescription Diet portfolio offers.

How Hills Prescription Diet Dog Food Works

The Hills Prescription Diet brand includes foods aimed to help veterinarians manage a range of health conditions for dogs (and cats). Hills Prescription Diet foods have undergone extensive testing to ensure they meet the nutritional requirements for the specific health condition(s) they are recommended for.

Nutrition can play a role in how veterinarians manage certain conditions. Some examples could include:

Your veterinarian plays an important role in recognizing more or less subtle conditions that can benefit from therapeutic nutrition.

Your Vet Can Determine If Your Dog Needs a Hills Prescription Diet

To determine if your pet should eat a Hills Prescription Diet food, your vet will start with a thorough physical exam and ask you questions about your dogs lifestyle and behaviors.

After the exam, they may recommend additional diagnostics (such as blood work, cytology, urinalysis, or diagnostic imaging) to help properly diagnose your pet and rule out other conditions. This will help your vet formulate a comprehensive care plan, including a nutritional recommendation.

In my experience as a practicing veterinarian, the cases where nutrition is most frequently recommended are when the dog has an underlying condition related to any of the following conditions: urinary care, kidney care, skin/allergy care, weight management, and digestive care.

Hills Prescription Diet and Obesity in Dogs

When it comes to weight loss, its important to look at everything the pet is eating during the day. The easiest place to start is cutting out any extra calories like treats and table scraps.

However, most pets that are carrying excess weight do not benefit from caloric restriction from treats alone. In fact, just feeding a pet a smaller amount (or fewer calories) of their normal food is not recommended and may lead to nutritional deficiencies.

Several Hills Prescription Diet foods are specifically formulated to help your pet lose weight. Wherever you see Metabolic or + Metabolic, this means that the food contains our synergistic blend of fibers from fruits and vegetables that activates the bodys natural ability to burn excess fat rather than store it.

This means that your pups metabolism will act more like the metabolism of a lean pet while ensuring that their nutritional and caloric needs are being met.

Results with Hills Prescription Diet

Every pet and health condition is unique and may respond differently when fed Prescription Diet foods. However, Hills performs extensive research and clinical studies to create specific and relevant product claims for Prescription Diet products.

To learn more about research conducted and results seen in our clinical studies for specific foods, visit hillspet.com or talk to your veterinarian.

Always talk to your veterinarian about their expectations and any important milestones to look for when giving your pet a Prescription Diet food.

Work with Your Veterinarian When Introducing a Hills Prescription Diet

Its important to work closely with your veterinarian when switching your pup to a new food. Your veterinarian will help you determine how much your pet should eat based on the specific food and your pet's ideal weight and lifestyle. Youll work together to create a feeding transition plan prior to switching to the new food.

Its important that the feeding transition is slow and gradual to ensure that your pet will eat the new food and reduce the chances of any GI upset. We recommend seven to 10 days to fully transition to the new foodbut for pickier patients, it may take longer.

Therapeutic nutrition can play an important role in managing your pets health. These foods have undergone extensive testing to ensure that they are precisely balanced and are an appropriate part of your veterinarian's treatment plan to manage your pets health condition.

Since these foods are only fed under the recommendation of your veterinarian, be sure to ask at your next appointment if a Hills Prescription Diet product is right for your pet.

Hills Prescription Diet FAQs

Do I need a prescription for Hills Prescription Diet?

Prescription Diet foods do not require a traditional prescription, but they do require a recommendation and approval from a licensed veterinarian. Schedule an appointment to ask your veterinarian to assess your pets health and nutritional needs.

How long can a dog be on Hills Prescription Diet?

Your veterinarian will advise what feeding plan is best for your pets nutritional needs. The majority of Prescription Diet products are suitable for long-term feeding.

How long does it take for Hills Prescription Diet to work in a dog?

Every pet and health condition is unique and may respond differently when fed Prescription Diet foods. However, Hills performs extensive research and clinical studies to help demonstrate the efficacy of many Prescription Diet products.

Always talk to your veterinarian about their expectations and any important milestones to look for when feeding a Prescription Diet food.

My pet is picky. Can I mix in other foods with the Prescription Diet food?

Never feed or supplement other foods without checking with your veterinarian first. When your pet is eating a Prescription Diet, it is important to feed only that food for optimal compliance to your veterinarians treatment plan.

If youre worried that your pet will crave more variety, talk to your veterinarian about what other flavor or form options (such as dry, stew, or pt) are available.

Featured Image: iStock.com/VYCHEGZHANINA

WRITTEN BY

Kristin Wuellner, DVM

Veterinarian

Dr. Kristin Wuellner is a fun-loving veterinarian with interests that extend beyond the exam roomshes passionate about how client...

16 Things About Prescription Dog Foods You Didnt Know

When your dog is diagnosed with a disease that requires diet change, a vet may recommend a prescription dog food brand.

These foods are costly.

Sometimes, it's your only option, but only sometimes.

Here's what you probably didn't know about prescription dog foods

Prescription Dog Food: 16 Things You Didn't Know

What Are Your Dog's Needs?

Sometimes, your dog will need a significant change in his diet, whether due to allergies, new or older health conditions, a sensitive stomach, or other reasons.

If you (and your pet) are in this position, start by looking into veterinary products and over-the-counter solutions for different dog food diets before deciding what's right for you and your dog.

Do your own research using your vet's diagnosis as a starting point?

There's a lot ofmisinformationfloating around the internet about pet nutrition.

Research, learning, and understanding are essential to avoid being duped into something you don't need.

Even though your vet will often advise prescription dog food diets for specific illnesses, you most likelydon't need to buy these expensive dog food brands.

That's just reality.

I'll explain why below, but mostly, it comes down to the fact that there are good foods for the moneythat are formulated similarly to prescription foods.

Differences Between Over-the-counter and Prescription Dog Food Diets

Obviously, prescription veterinary dog foods are only available from veterinarians.

Prescription dog food manufacturers are regulated by a patchwork of individual state feed control officials under theFDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine.

Other labeling standards are set by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) for prescription pet food diets and over-the-counter products.

If a product says it can prevent or treat a disease, research to prove it should be submitted to the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) under the FDA.

Sadly, many dog foodsuse more general termsto get around that.

They will say they support and promote good health in dogs rather than making specific medical claims.

Pet owners, in the meantime, assume this will help their dogs with a specific disease, which is often not the case.

The bottom line is to be vigilant, read those labels closely, and do research.

Pet Food is Big Business for Veterinary Clinics

I've writtenthis articlebefore about how closely related veterinary clinics and vets are to pet food manufacturers and how they work together.

It's important to be aware thatyour veterinarian may have a vested interestin getting you to buy prescription dog food diets at their clinic.

Moreover, it might surprise you that many vets only havebasic animal nutritioneducation.

Since the 1980s, pet food sales have bumped their profits significantly.

The trend peaked between 2000-2005, as pet food costs increased by more than 30 percent.

This stalled sales, pushing pet food manufacturers to become even more involved in veterinary care to stay in the loop.

We need to voice our concern over this and remain skeptical.

Pet Food Manufacturers, Retailers, and Veterinary Chains are Sometimes Connected

Some large pet goods retailers in the USA own certain veterinary chains. This makes vet hospitals the largest veterinary chains in the country.

According to Banfield Pet Hospital, Mars is the owner of Banfield Pet Hospital and Blue Pearl under its veterinary health division.

These are separate from its pet care division, which includes prescription and over-the-counter pet food (source).

As these multinationals are showing the way to higher profits, other pet food conglomerates are following their example and buying up veterinary clinics too.

Prescription Pet Food Manufacturers are Sometimes Sued for Price-fixing

Due to the incestuous nature of the prescription dog food business, it is easy to falsely promote its use and control its price.

The following companies have beennamed in a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to do so illegally:

Nestle Purina,
Mars Petcare,
Hill's Pet Nutrition,
PetSmart,
Banfield Pet Hospital and
BluePearl Vet.

The plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit want restitution, treble damages, and to stop how the defendants market their prescription pet food diets.

Prescription Dog Food Doesn't Contain Drugs That Require a Prescription by Themselves

Another bone of contention is that prescription dog food diets (as well as cat foods) shouldn't need a prescription at all since they contain no special drugs, controlled substances, or unique ingredients, compared to over-the-counter products.

Many aren't even evaluated by the FDA.

Since the product comes with a prescription, most pet owners assume it will treat and prevent health problems better than what's available over the counter.

Many dog owners also fear the consequences for not following their veterinarian's advice, giving the products what's argued as an unfair advantage.

PetSmart Allegedly May be Illegally Charging Tax On Prescription Animal Foods

A lot of pet food manufacturers have been in hot water over the last few years.

PetSmart has a separate and unrelatedclass action lawsuitagainst them.

They were sued because their receipts show that prescription pet food is non-taxable, but tax is still charged.

Plaintiffs want sustained monetary compensation, court costs, and further relief from the court, but looking at the history of how these things turn out, it doesn't look good for the pet owners either way.

Pet Food Labels Aren't Always Accurate

Did you know that what you read on the label of your dog's food isn't always the truth?

Both prescription dog food brands and over-the-counter pet food can be contaminated with ingredients, not on the label, and the FDA doesn't seem to have an issue with that.

For example, the Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutritionpublished a study in 2011 where three of the four soy-free venison pet foods they testedhad soy in them.

One pet food producthad unlisted beef in itas well.

Hydrolyzed Proteins in Prescription and Specialty Foods May Contain Meat Byproducts and Feathers

A product's price and the quality of its ingredients don't always follow each other as consumers might expect.

Some special over-the-counter and prescription dog food brands use hydrolyzed meat, particularly allergen-free and limited ingredient formulas.

This is also known asfeather meal.

The feathers and other meat by-products are broken down into basic amino acids under very high heat, and then palletizers are added to make them taste more attractive.

The theory behind this is that some pets are sensitive to certain kinds of intact animal protein. Still, such problems are often caused by poor-quality protein and other ingredients in many pet foods in the first place.

The digestibility of the resulting amino acidsis different from the essential nutrients' bioavailability, though.

Along with other ingredients not natural for our pet's bodies, like corn, wheat, soy, potato, and other starches, the resulting products are not biologically appropriate or nourishing, according to some experts.

They create waste products in the blood that the kidneys and liver have to deal with.

Dogs and cats fed too much or only dry pet food are dehydrated at a low level.

That's hard on their organs and results in many diseases in dogs.

Let's cover a few of the most common diseases and health issues in dogs and when prescription dog food is often advised for these illnesses.

You'll also discover how you can pick alternative or even better dog food brands that arenotexpensive prescription dog food diets).

Kidney Disease & Chronic Renal Failure Foods

Dogs with kidney disease and renal failure require a very specificdog food diet.

Prescription dog food diets for kidney and heart diseases are common solutions prescribed by veterinarians, as well as some weight loss and senior dog food formulas.

But expensive prescription dog foodsaren't the only way to go in this case.

The safest option for dogs with renal problems is high-quality foods with moderate to low levels of protein.

These foods must also have little to no phosphorus and sodium. There are plenty oflow-protein dog foodsthat fit well and will not cost you an arm and a leg.

Homemade dog food (specifically designed for dogs with kidney problems) may also be a great treatment, although it often turns out to be more expensive than store brands.

Allergy Diets and Gastrointestinal Disease Dog Foods

Many dog breedsare very susceptibleto allergies and gastrointestinal diseases.

As a result of these diseases, symptoms in dogs may include skin problems, allergies, intolerances, or gastrointestinal issues.

Once you see these symptoms and visit your veterinarian, you'll be advised to prescribe dog food, but you don't actually need it.

To fight this, look forlimited-ingredient dog foods andnovel protein formulas.

Hydrolyzed protein dog diets are a common solution for this,but a controversial one.

Moderate or low fat and soluble fiber levels are often recommended for dogs with these problems; however, some pets may need more fiber, not less.

There are special products forInflammatory Bowel Disease, but trial and error is often needed to find the right diet.

Foods for Canine Arthritis, Hip & Joint Problems and Diseases

Canine arthritis is a disease that most dog owners fear as their pets age.

Fortunately, there are ways to prevent it or alleviate the symptoms using a proper diet.

One proven way is givingfish oil to dogs.

Fish oil contains omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA), which have been shown in clinical trials to behighly effectiveagainst canine arthritis and joint problems (source).

Somesupplementsfor dogs with arthritis will also contain glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, and vitamins, all of which are the key ingredients to a healthy diet for dogs.

New Zealand's green-lipped mussels are popular, too, for their glycosaminoglycans.

But when it comes to prescription dog food, it's a bit different.

The dog's weight must be carefully controlled, so always check the number of calories and portion size.

Over-the-counter and prescription dog food senior formulas, large breedpuppy foods, or other diets for joint support are usually recommended.

But glucosamine and chondroitin levels in prescription dog food diets are usually so low that they may have little or no effect whatsoever (source).

Therefore, it's a waste of money.

Furthermore, they've never even been approved by the FDA or AAFCO as pet food ingredients.

These supplements don't get approved because there isn't enough scientific evidence that they prevent or treat joint issues or arthritis in cats and dogs.

The dose is also challenging to control if your pet doesn't always finish his food.

Weight Control & Diabetes Management Dog Food Brands

Obesity and weight problems in dogs are becomingincreasingly commonin the US.

But choosing a costly weight loss prescription dog food diet isn't your only option.

You need to know that the key to weight loss in dogs without starving them is choosing the right type of nutrients that will keep them full and satisfied.

Higher fiber will always make dogs (as well as humans) feel more full without more calories. Between 200-300 calories per cup are common.

It also slows digestion, which is excellent for maintaining steady blood glucose levels.

In addition, some dogs' weights will improve with high-protein diets that are very low in carbohydrates.

This will require some thinking and calculating on your part.

If you're not up for it, prescription dog food formulas are made specifically for dogs with diabetes and glucose control.

Senior Prescription Dog Food vs. Over-the-Counter Diets

I havewritten beforeabout why you must always consider your dog's age before picking the correct type of diet.

Senior dogs will need specific nutrition to keep them healthy.

As indicated above, fish oil will be highly beneficial to senior dogs.

Omega-3s help with joints and arthritis in older dogs. These fatty acids and antioxidants support dogs' brain health and many other bodily functions.

Mostsenior dog foodswill contain these ingredients.

Low-fat and calorie recipes areusually advisedfor older dogs, but not all senior pets are overweight.

Thus, some senior dogs may need the opposite.

Many of these prescription dog foods will include glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate for the joints, but remember what I said about these additives above (i.e., they may not necessarily work).

Urinary Tract Disease and Kidney Stones Dog Foods

Problems with urinary tract disease and kidney stones are less prevalent, but they're still around, and you should know how to change your pet's diet if you encounter them.

Wet dog food is the best choice in these cases due to the higher level of liquids.

Canned dog foodwill dilute the urine better than kibble.

Prescription dog food is specific to the type of minerals found in a urinalysis or the stones.

Over-the-counter solutions for these issues are rare, so in this case, prescription brands may be the way to go.

Cardiac Diets for Dogs

This is another issue that senior dogs are more likely to have. Still, not all veterinarian-recommended prescription dog food diets will work to deal with this.

Kidney and geriatric prescription diets and dog heart disease-specific products are sometimes recommended.

Low sodium is the common factor in these dog food recipes.

Still, thereisn't much scientific evidenceproving its benefits for hypertension in dogs.

Its effects are evendoubtfulin human blood pressure, other than in rare individuals sensitive to sodium (source).

Taurine and Carnitine are two ingredients with possible (but still unproven) benefits for heart disease in dogs and fish oil with omega-3 fatty acids.

Prescription Dog Food: A Final Word

My contention in this article is not that veterinarians aren't essential partners in the treatment and prevention of health problems of our dogs.

You should never try to diagnose issues yourself, no matter how tempting that is with the ease of use of the internet.

But, since it is a partnership,you need to do your part.

Always read dog food labels, then talk to your vet about anything you don't understand, especially the ingredients.

Ask themspecific questionsand address your concerns.

Your veterinarian's responses will tell you a lot about how much they know about canine nutrition and the products they recommend for your dog.

Follow that up with your own research, checking for:

The quality of the ingredients;
If the protein, fat, and calorie levels is good,
If the ingredients are natural and biologically appropriate for canines;
Where the ingredients come from;
Where the food made;
Who it's actually made by;
Does the company outsource or share manufacturing plants with others;
How it's made and if nutrients are destroyed or difficult to absorb;
The recall history of the product line;
The history of the parent corporation and/or the manufacturer;
Whether the product has gone through food trials;
Any research to support the food's or its key ingredients' effectiveness;
Customer and professional reviews and/or complaints about the product;
Outstanding and settled lawsuits against the parent company or those who make that specific brand of dog food.

If your pet's health doesn't improve after a few weeks, it might not be the right product.

He might do better with supplements or a different approach.

Every pet is different, and it might take trial and error to find the best way to help your dog.

Never feel you're limited to the products available from your specific veterinarian.

There are many health products for dogs, and the numbers are constantly growing.

Most importantly, if you don't see any positive changes and your veterinarian does not address that, go to a different vet clinic or find a better professional.

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