No. Some pets do have dietary restrictions. This dietary restriction can be permanent or momentary, but they do exist.
My youngest (in age, and also the last in being adopted) cat, who had lived three years on the streets until she appeared at our doorstep, came not having eating well (or at all) for who knows how much time (she was malnourished) to the point that she couldn’t tolerate the food my oldest cats ate, so she was prescribed special food for her, so she’d have an easy time adjusting herself to eat everyday ones again (or for the first time, as we don’t know if she ever had a home before, or if she was born in the streets). Now, three years later, she’s doing great and fully eating common cat food (which she began to do last year).
But, vets always have brands that they advertise for. The brand ours advertise is too expensive, so we went/go another route for both the common food and the dietary restriction food. Luckily a friend of my mum has a pet shop so she could get us the cheaper, but equal in content and quality, food brand for us.
So it sort of means what you mean by “prescription” pet food. There are pets that definitely cannot eat “standard” formulations of pet food. Overweight pets are a good example of this: they need less calories, but you can’t just reduce the portion size without them feeling hungry all the time, which is just cruel because you can’t explain to them why they need to eat less. So a specialised weight loss pet food allows you to give them the same quantity of food, but it has less calories in it. For cats (I’m less familiar with dog food) there’s formulations for kidney function, for odour reduction (dear god, the smells that come out of one of mine would melt the paint off the walls without this food!), and so on.
Vets will definitely try to sell you these as “prescriptions”, and they sell them at a massive markup. But a lot of the time, these special foods are available from wholesalers and direct from the brand’s website at a much, much lower price. So my recommendation is that if a vet recommends a certain prescription food to deal with a specific medical issue, don’t buy it from them, because chances are you can get either the same food or something substantially similar from another source.
I tried to buy the sensitive stomach cat food my vet prescribed on Amazon and chewy but I couldn’t and the vet wouldn’t refill without a visit. I mean the food is not dangerous, I don’t see why it is restricted.
I’m not familiar with Chewy (you and I may be in different countries), but in my experience Amazon often doesn’t have the full range of pet foods available, because they only stock the most popular ones. Anything specialist usually requires going to an actual pet food distributor.
If the food your pet has been prescribed is literally restricted and you’re not allowed to buy it without a prescription, then it likely has some form of medication in it that is potentially dangerous, either to pets or to humans. In which case it likely isn’t a scam, because purchasing restrictions on drugs are a legal thing, not just the vet trying to get more money out of you. If it wasn’t restricted, there’d be no barriers to you purchasing it elsewhere.
I don’t think it has medicine. This is it: Hill’s Prescription Diet Gastrointestinal Biome Digestive/Fiber Care with Chicken Dry Cat Food, Veterinary Diet, 8.5 lb. Bag https://a.co/d/dAobeO0 Amazon says they will get your information and verify with your veterinarian, which surprised me.
I am not going to roundup my cat and take her to the vet because it’s traumatic and expensive. I just read the ingredients and purchased something similar, but I am curious about why these foods are restricted.
If they won’t sell it to you without confirming with the vet, then that means it does have something in it that can’t be sold without restrictions. Otherwise, capitalism would do what it does best, and they’d take your money. So there is something in that food that they’re not legally allowed to sell you without approval from a vet. I can’t tell you what that ingredient is, since I’m not a pharmacologist or a vet.
I would, however, recommend that you enquire with your vet about why you need to take your cat in for a repeat prescription. One of my cats has been on and off various antibiotics over the last 18 months (he has an incurable viral infection that leads to persistent secondary bacterial infections), and when symptoms haven’t changed and a course of antibiotics just needs to be continued for another few weeks, the vet does a consultation over the phone and then issues the prescription. I then pick it up from reception later that day without having to take my cat in. It’s only when his symptoms have changed or an antibiotic isn’t working that he needs to actually go in for a visit.
I worked at a pet food store for 6 years that focused on education and nutrition was a huge part of that. Looking at the ingredients of that food I would guess it is because it has about 2x as much fiber as most cat foods. It also has added pro-biotics, so that combined with the fiber could really mess up your kitty’s gut. The fact that your vet won’t refill without a visit is odd (especially if the vet knows it is traumatic for your cat), but I can see why Chewy/Amazon won’t sell without a prescription.
No they are not a scam. You should also be able to order the food without a visit, it just has to be approved by your vet.
Long as you are having yearly checkups done they shouldn’t have an issue approving your prescription food orders when they come in. Give your vet a call and hopefully you should be able to work something out.
I don’t think so, at least not usually. If anything, regular dry pet food is closer to a scam, especially cat food - wet food is just a lot better for them.
Regular (especially dry) petfood also uses a lot of meats and plants that a cat would normally never eat in their regular diet. And this meat is usually the cheapest, least desirable scraps from farms, because pet food isn’t usually subject to the same safety and testing regulations as human food.
Meat based on fish can contain contaminants from ocean pollution (like mercury) that accumulates in the food chain and (I speculate) might be a bigger concern for some pets than others, like if they have kidney problems that make it harder to filter out toxins.
Prescription pet food can be used to address a vitamin deficiency, to avoid an ingredient the cat can’t digest, to add more fiber to help with digestion, to avoid an allergen, or so on, just like a human diet.
The vet should tell you why it’s prescribed in a particular case, though, especially if you ask. If they can’t then maybe I’d be doubtful, personally.
Edit: if in doubt, get a 2nd opinion from another vet, like you would with human doctors.
Usually, prescriptions are to prevent abuse, misuse, and interactions for people. How does that translate into needing a veterinary approval for a particular food?
I can’t just go buy the food they recommend, I need a prescription for anyone to sell it to me.
A quick google search tells me that:
Veterinarians must prescribe certain therapeutic diets because, depending on the disease being addressed, these foods may contain levels of nutrients below what is legally allowed to be sold for a healthy pet without that medical condition.
and
While some are not appropriate for long-term use, as they’re not 100% nutritionally balanced (some low fat or low protein foods fall into this category), all are safe for pets in the short term.
and
veterinarians believe they might be misused by owners, or worse, implemented in lieu of veterinary care. Neither of these things are good for pets.
HOWEVER, I also found:
(Prescription Diet® is a registered trademark of Hills® Pet Nutrition, Inc.®)
and
In the dog food world, the term Prescription Diet® describes an effective marketing agreement between a hundred-million dollar pet food manufacturer and the veterinarian community. This agreement allows for the sale of their foods through licensed veterinarians only. Veterinarians benefit because they can achieve a much higher mark-up on these foods than they would by offering foods widely available without a “prescription.” The pet food manufacturer, in return, gains credibility as a manufacturer of veterinarian-recommended food and uses that as an endorsement, if you will, for the rest of their products.
Add to the data that I’ve heard (from a vet, but that’s not a source you can verify yourself, so take that how you will) Hills is often kind of like a D&D 5e warlock patron for veterinarians, in that they give out a lot of scholarships and grants to people going through vet school, and many vet schools’ only nutrition-based course is taught by people on Hills’s payroll.
Yet another great idea that is spoiled in practice by capitalism.
I have long experiences with cats that need prescription food - the first cat I adopted as an adult needed it from the day I adopted him, until he passed away ~12 years later.
Now one of our 3 cats has an issue and we’re back to the current version of that food again.
Believe me, I feel your pain. But I don’t for a minute think the vet is doing it to make money. They don’t even make any money on it when we order from Chewy.
They make money by making you come in to get a refill. That’s what I experienced anyway.
Of course they make money on it if you buy it there. But I’ve never experienced a vet requiring me to buy something from them.
My point here is that every vet I’ve used doesn’t care if you buy it from them or somewhere else. One of our cats requires medicine every day, and the vet office put us in contact with the pharmacy so we could get it directly from them. They want what’s best for the animals.
Yes, but it costs money to visit the vet. That’s the point I am making, plus my cats don’t like going anywhere so it’s stressful to them.
No. My kitty is like me in that he is prone to kidney stones (or for him they call them crystals”.
I give him prescription urinary tract food and it 100% makes a difference.
There are also many animals with specific diet or allergy requirements
I am not denying that the foods are legitimate. I am suggesting that forcing people to get a prescription for food is a scam.
I think scam isn’t the right word. What I think you are implying is that they will push the script food on animals that don’t actually need it, which I have no doubt happens.
It’s not about the food it’s about the doctor you do or do not trust. Ask the doc about it, have them explain why it’s necessary, get a second opinion, etc. if they’re pushing unnecessary script food they probably do the same with other things.
You can protect yourself if you put in the effort.
It’s not that either. A prescription implies that there’s something dangerous about the food that requires management by a professional. I don’t believe that is the case, it’s just food. They use the need for a prescription to make you come in for a visit and charge you more money to get a food refill.
