Therapeutic Diets: When Regular Pet Food Isn’t Enough
Just like us, our pets thrive when they’re eating a diet that meets their nutritional needs at each life stage. For some pets, this means dishing up specialized pet diets designed to curb the symptoms of certain conditions, and possibly slow down disease progression.
At Jenison Animal Hospital, we want your pets to live their healthiest, happiest lives with their favorite humans. We will discuss your pet’s nutritional needs at every wellness and preventive care visit, and there may come a time when we recommend veterinary therapeutic diets. Here’s some food for thought from our team to help you better understand the benefits of therapeutic diets for pets.
What are Veterinary Therapeutic Diets?
Therapeutic diets for pets, also known as prescription diets, are specialized pet foods formulated to help treat, prevent, or manage a pet’s disease or medical condition.
These specialized pet diets work by meeting specific nutritional needs, with clinically studied combinations of ingredients like vitamins, minerals, protein, fats, carbohydrates, antioxidants, fatty acids, and amino acids that have been shown to have a positive impact on the targeted medical condition.
Therapeutic diets for pets require a prescription from a veterinarian, and can be purchased from your veterinarian or online pharmacy.
Therapeutic Pet Food for Health Conditions
Balanced nutrition is critical for all pets to help maintain optimal growth, health, and longevity. But for pets with certain medical conditions, a commercial pet diet can fall short. Here are some common medical conditions that can benefit from veterinary therapeutic diets:
- Food allergies
- Chronic kidney disease
- Bladder stones
- Arthritis
- Diabetes
- Skin and coat conditions
- Digestive problems
- Cystitis/urinary tract disease
- Obesity
- Liver disease
- Dental disease
Managing Pet Health With Diet
When it comes to managing your pet’s health, what you put on their plate is a big piece of the pie. Other beneficial modalities we might add to the mix (depending on your pet’s condition) include medications, lifestyle adjustments, and dietary supplements to help your pet live his or her best life.
Here are some more tips for serving veterinary therapeutic diets:
- Your pet’s transition to the new food should be gradual and can take 7-10 days or longer. Your veterinarian can help you determine the best way to introduce the new food to your pet.
- Follow your veterinarian’s feeding instructions to make sure your pet is getting the proper amount of nutrients at mealtime.
- When serving pet food for health conditions, feed your pet only that food so your pet gets the full therapeutic benefit.
If you have concerns about your pet’s health and would like to discuss how a therapeutic diet could benefit your pet, please contact us at (616) 457-9200. We’re always here to help!