By Dr. I Elizabeth Borgmann.
Most diets sold in veterinary hospitals usually have a very specific purpose. Are they better? Well, it depends. Does your pet have a health issue? Do you want nutritional counselling by trained health professionals to accompany your purchases?

There are two types of diets sold in veterinary hospitals: maintenance diets and prescription diets. Some hospitals don’t even bother selling the maintenance diets and only sell prescription diets. Let’s start discussing maintenance diets and then move into the prescription diets.

Why do some hospitals carry maintenance diets? And why are these maintenance diets sold exclusively through veterinary hospitals? The bottom line is marketing. Companies
that produce maintenance veterinary lines have put a great deal of research into these diets. They want them sold solely through veterinary hospitals because they want nutritional counselling to go with these diets. Because these diets contain all the latest innovations which take a lot of research and development the companies want the products sold by trained staff. Veterinary staff is best suited for this purpose because they have a great deal of basic training already.

This training and knowledge base is exactly why some hospitals do not carry veterinary maintenance types of diets. They do not want to spend the time training their staff and then putting their staff in the position of having to explain the diets. It takes time and effort. Some hospitals find the time and energy involved is not worth the effort when many clients will not accept their recommendations. Many clients will subsequently go to pet stores and speak with staff that have significantly less education and training and will follow those recommendations instead.

If you want a specific recommendation regarding diet, ask the veterinary staff. They may be hesitant to make suggestions but you will be able to get the information! Many veterinary staff have become gun-shy in answering these questions. If you are having a problem getting a recommendation ask “what do you feed your pet and why?”. All of a sudden they will open up and start answering your questions. Some staff are more experienced and trained than others. If the person you are speaking with is hesitant in answering your question, ask if they have someone on staff that is more familiar with the diets and can provide you with more information. You may even want to ask the company representative for the region to contact you.

Prescription diets are a completely different story from maintenance diets. They are each developed for a specific purpose. One diet is not better than the other. They are different! It is amazing how many health issues we can control with diet. That is because we can control the diets of pets and hence can manage their diseases. If only it was that easy with people!!

In the past, some of the ingredients from veterinary diets have drifted into the pet food market making the development of appropriate prescription diets more difficult. For example, veterinary hypoallergenic diets were based on unique protein diets. Many of these protein sources were then viewed by consumers as superior proteins and consumer demand drove them into the pet food market. Now you find diets with rabbit, fish, venison and other novel proteins in the pet food aisle. In response, the veterinary prescription diet field has had to develop new technology that involves hydrolyzing proteins to make them hypoallergenic because so many pets have been exposed to previously novel protein sources.

Other examples of ingredients drifting into the pet store foods include glucosamine and carnitine. Many of the diets do not contain therapeutic levels of ingredients but there is no way for the consumer to be aware of this. It creates confusion in the diets.

Prescription diets should only be used on the advice of a veterinarian. They are, really, medications. They are not just food. For example, kidney diets reduce the work load on the kidneys, have altered electrolyte levels in recognition of the change in kidney function, and are high in calorie to compensate for the wasting that occurs with kidney disease. They are completely inappropriate for the healthy pet. The healthy pet would be ‘protein starved’ on this type of diet.

Prescription diets should not be used unless there has been a diagnosis of a health problem or concern. This will require a physical exam and probably some lab tests. There are prescription diets for heart disease, joint disease, kidney disease, liver disease, different types of urinary crystals, allergies, intestinal disease ….and the list goes on.
Prescription diets should be used under supervision. The two most common areas where owners self diagnose their pets are with weight gain and joint stiffness. Weight loss diets with the addition of carnitine and other ingredients should only be used under supervision when other possible causes of weight gain have been addressed (hypothyroidism, hypoadrenocorticism etc. ) Diets with joint supplements should be used when other problems have been identified (for example, ligament tears).

In summary, prescription diets are medicines. Do not use these unless a problem has been diagnosed by your veterinarian. While on a prescription diet, follow up lab work and examinations may be required. Be sure to follow your veterinarian’s advice in these cases. Veterinary maintenance diets are top quality diets and should accompany nutritional counselling. (Otherwise, why bother buying from a veterinary hospital?)

Dr. Borgmann has been practicing in the Fraser Valley for over 8 years and can be reached at the Whatcom Road Veterinary Clinic