This doesn’t quite make sense. I can buy “special needs” human foods that have special ingredients at my local grocery store without a prescription. Why don’t I need a prescription to buy gluten-free bread, non-dairy (soy) milk, or peanut-free anything? Certainly the stores, distributors, food processors, and farmers behind the process are happy to provide these products to gullible consumers in exchange for large wads of cash, so what gives?
The first part was my mistake. It does not explain why they are prescription, but why they are by themselves more expensive (the ingredients to make them are, for various reasons). In the case of things like hydrolized diets and limited ingredients, yes, they are more expensive, but also the reason behind is in part that they do want to keep the hydrolized and limited ingredients diets limited. They’re in response to food allergy, which can happen if the dog develops an allergy to a common food ingredient (and unlike what most think, it is not corn). If, all of a sudden, these diets become affordable and accessible, it defeats the purpose of making them a rescue diet for animals with allergies.
hey karl heres a another question I asked about dog food… drop a line on what ya think …
I just Google Prescription dog foods and found it online , you can buy it on line but I was told by vet it’s junk . My dog and my last refuse to eat the stuff.
I knew poodles were smart dogs . If you have a natural pet store near you may be able to find some food that your pet can eat. Vets sell Prescription dog foods
to made extra $$$ and don’t want people to know they can buy it on line and at pet stores .
So it will take the vet to explain it ? Ironic… how’s this … “the hydrolyzed protein is not a pharmaceutical or intervention itself, its not a medicine, but rather its the lack of regular protein in it that means the dog can get better ,therefore the diet has to be 100% hydrolyzed ,no other protein!”.
Very sorry for my long absence from the thread.
Yes the school has been very good down the years about attending to his medical needs, performing surgeries and teeth-cleaning as necessary, and providing meds.
During this illness, the veterinary department performed all of the testing that they felt was economically justifiable for an eleven-year old dog who had been working for nearly nine years already and was nearing retirement. They decided to treat him with the HA diet, metronidazole twice daily, and a maintenance dose of prednisone – in other words, AS THOUGH food-sensitivity-related IBS had been conclusively diagnosed. And he has been thriving physically on this regimen. He seemed to be thinning down more than he should, so I supplement his feedings with a half cup of boiled chicken-and-rice with each feeding. This helped with the weight, AND it’s easy to hide his Flagyl and Pred inside, so I don’t have to prise his jaws open twice a day.
He does appear to be showing signs of lowered cognitive function lately, so even though his health seems to have stabilized, it looks like retirement was the right choice for him.
I’m glad your dog has been improving (except in the lowered cognitive function). I hope he gets to enjoy the retirement.
To expand on what has already been said by actual professionals, here are a couple examples of why some pet foods require a prescription:
~Example 1: Bladder stones ~
There are some folks who, upon hearing the diagnosis of bladder stones, might forego further treatment by a vet and run out and buy Bladder Stone Food if it were available over the counter. The dog/cat may (as some do, depending on the type of stone) form stones even while eating the food, or may develop other problems, like a bladder infection, which the food will obviously not treat. Not good.
There are other folks out there who may use Dr. Google to diagnose their pet and then go buy the Bladder Stone Food. Their pet may instead have a bad bladder infection, or maybe kidney failure, or a tumor blocking the urethra, all of which the food will not treat. Also not good.
By making Bladder Stone Food prescription only, the manufacturer is forcing owners to submit their animals to diagnosis and treatment by a licensed veterinarian. Safer for the manufacturer, who does not want to get sued, and safer for the pet, who does not want to die. So basically, it’s the same reason why lots of medications are prescription only.
~Example 2: Kidney diets ~
There are several renal failure diets out there for dogs and cats, the main feature of which is low protein. This can help a pet that’s in the late stages of kidney failure feel much better and these are very useful products. However, in the long term the low protein can cause problems like malnutrition and loss of muscle mass. If the pet is already dying from kidney failure and has only a few months left, it’s not a big deal. In a healthier pet that has years of its lifespan left, it’s a problem.
If the product were on the shelves at your local pet store, the possibility exists for 1) people to accidentally buy it for their healthy pets and possibly make them sick or 2) for people to skip the vet, self-diagnose their pet and buy it, and possibly make their already sick pet sicker.
So again, by making it a prescription product, the manufacturer is covering its ass and ensuring that the pets get a proper diagnosis by a real vet, and that nobody can accidentally buy the food and make their pet sick. (And yes, people accidentally buy the wrong food all the time. If we see ten patients a day at least half will not know what brand or flavor their dog’s food is.)
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PS, I know this sounds like it flies in the face of common sense, but people are stupid about animals. We had a client whose dog had a yeast infection in its skin, and she tried to treat it with yogurt, probiotics, borax and vinegar. She came back a month later and finally bought the proper prescription medication, finally admitting defeat when the dog was completely bald. We have a lots of clients who admit to giving their dogs large doses of horse wormer twice a year instead of buying monthly heartworm prevention. An alarming number of people admit to giving their dogs their own antibiotics, pain medications or nerve pills. No amount of education will convince them that no, that isn’t very safe, and no, we aren’t just saying that to make a buck.
Excuse me while I go breathe into a paper bag.
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Because it’s not potentially hazardous to eat or drink those things if you don’t have to, and except under very limited circumstances, they are not covered by health insurance or WIC.
This still doesn’t explain why special needs human foods aren’t similarly restricted. Example: A human self-diagnoses themselves as lactose intolerant and runs out and buys several cases of expensive non-dairy milk. It turns out that the human actually has stomach cancer, which non-dairy milk doesn’t treat. Not good. Perhaps, then, humans should have to see a doctor to confirm lactose intolerance before being allowed to alter their diet like that, and to make sure it’s not stomach cancer or something similarly bad.
How are these scenarios different? If anything, I would expect human foods to have tighter controls.
(Probably won’t make the 5-minute deadline) This kind of thing is fresh in my mind because a local couple was arrested a couple days ago for neglecting their son, who has PKU (phenylketonuria, that disease that prompted the warning on diet soda cans) and local social media has had a lot of chatter from people who have PKU or know someone who does, and they’re talking about assorted medical foods, like low-phenylalanine pasta that costs $20 a box so their child can eat “normal” food and not have to live on fruits, vegetables, and special smoothies. I’ve also been involved in dispensing special baby formulas and breast milk fortifier, which in these cases were covered by WIC because the child had a diagnosed reason why they needed it.
I cannot say further since I sign a non-disclosure agreement when I edit things. You can go read the textbook, which recently came out. However, I can vaguely say that I carefully checked and most of the so-called prescription diets do not have a composition that matches the current scientific evidence for treating any health condition. Other than the first chapter promoting prescription diets, the textbook is quite excellent and up to date.
For the most glaring example, what exactly in Hill’s Metabolic is expected to induce weight loss? Due to the fact it’s mostly low-quality grains, I’d expect it to induce weight gain. It looks like chicken food. Corn, wheat, soy.
The difference is that the company that makes soy milk isn’t making any claims that their product will cure your lactose intolerance or anything else.
Also:
Um, I’ve never heard of any dog food that was covered by WIC. (And pet insurance doesn’t usually cover prescription dog food either, although I suppose some policies may.)
She was talking about special needs human food.
Back today, with an update, and not an especially happy one.
After my dad passed away in April, my sister began the process of liquidating and disbursing the assets that he and Mom had placed in their revocable trust. While there’s still a way to go on that, I did receive a check for a few thousand dollars last month.
This month, Valor’s levothyroxine prescription ran out, and the scrip advised another thyroid level check prior to writing a new one. So I brought him into the vet a couple of weeks ago, and they took a blood sample, and also checked him out physically. Learning that not much improvement has taken place in his condition since February, AND that he’s lost about ten pounds since then AND that his RBC count has dropped from middle of normal range to barely in the normal band, the vet strongly recommended some radiology work to see if we could get to the bottom of things. Specifically, either a series of chest X-rays or a chest and abdominal ultrasound (ideally both, but the sonogram for preference, if only one could be afforded). Having the financial wherewithal, we went for the sonogram.
The report showed that Valor appeared to have a significant mass in his intestine, which was likely to be causing ulceration, and blockage. The apparent good news was that a simple bowel resection could possibly remove that and be curative. The bad news was that the clinic was booked solid for surgeries for several months. But they did refer us to another surgery center, and we took him there yesterday.
This afternoon, about twenty minutes after the surgery began, the surgeon called us at home and told us that she had noted evidence of massive lymphatic sarcoma on his intestine, to the point where she wouldn’t be able to safely treat him with a simple resection. Rather, she would have to remove as much mass as possible, send it for biopsy, and start him on chemotherapy. Or, close him up and send him home with maybe a few weeks to live (or euthanize him then and there).
We decided to have him closed up, and will be picking him up tomorrow morning. We’ll then take him to his regular vet and request some guidance on whether to try to give him a few more weeks of comfort and love or let him go immediately.
Pretty devastating afternoon at the '99 household.
Thanks for the update, even though it’s a 
one.
Hugs to you.
Sorry to hear about the news. I wanted to give you a good recipe that has helped in the past, both at home and when I use to be a kennel boy at a vet. It is easy to digest and is appealing enough to help with the comfort.
1lb ground beef (low fat if possible)
1 cup of white rice
Boil ground beef in big pot of water with white rice.
Boil until meat is browned and rice is tender
Refrigerate until the fat hardens on the top and remove the fat.
Drain the water.
Problem with that being that there are several name brands that sell some sort of OTC “urinary health” or “bladder health” formulations, so the existence of similar prescription-only formulations doesn’t actually force owners to submit their animals to a licensed vet just to try that shotgun/diet approach.
Speaking of which, urinary diets have been brought up as examples a couple times in this thread by people who I’m sure are more knowledgeable about them than I am, but there’s one tidbit (that reinforces their argument) about them that I didn’t see mentioned and that I want to just put out there:
Most of those urinary formulations, whether they are from a doctor by prescription or from your grocery store over-the-counter, use a METRIC SHIT TON of salt as an active ingredient to induce thirst in the animal, thereby causing them to drink more in an effort to dissolve/dilute whatever is causing the problem. Those high salt levels are probably bad news for a long term diet, and in the short term, your animal will likely experience some seriously loose stools as a result or such high salt and water intake.
P.S. Condolences **kaylasdad99 **
I’m sorry for the news, kaylasdad99. I hope you enjoy the rest of your time with the puppydog.
This may be why the FDA moved recently to start regulating it. Hopefully it is fully enforced soon, and there will be improvement on the current situation.