Therapeutic Dog Diets: A Quick Overview of Available Dog Diets

by Dr. Chris

January 25, 2010 Therapeutic dog diets have advanced tremendously over the last decade. Thanks to many nutritional advances more and more top dog foods are specifically formulated to prevent, manage, and even treat certain diseases.

If you are a dog owner, and your dog has been prescribed a therapeutic diet you might be surprised at how expensive they are. However if you compare the cost of the prescription dog diet versus treating the disease with conventional medicine it doesn't look that expensive.

The biggest problem with prescription diets is compliance. Often times a diet change is not well accepted by dogs, and you can't really blame them because I'm sure some of the dog therapeutic diets do not taste very good. Imagine how you would feel if you had to go on and low sodium and no sugar diet?

Here's a quick overview of six different categories of these diets and some of the companies that make them.

1. Dermatology Diet

These diets are formulated to help in the management of inflammation that is associated with itchy skin problems, dog food allergies, ear inflammation, and even inflammatory bowel diseases.

Iams Veterinary Formulas: Skin & Coat
Hill's Prescription Diet: d/d, z/d, z/d Ultra
Purina Veterinary Diet: HA, LA

2. Intestinal Diets

These formulations are often used to manage acute and chronic intestinal disorders. This could include conditions like diarrhea, gastroenteritis, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, inflammatory bowel disease, constipation, and exocrine pancreatic insufficiency.

Iams Veterinary Formulas: Intestinal
Hill's Prescription Diet: d/d, z/d, z/d Ultra, i/d, w/d
Purina Veterinary Diet: HA, DCO, EN, OM

3. Weight Loss Diets

These therapeutic dog diets are used to help with weight loss in obese dogs and in diabetic dogs.

Iams Veterinary Formulas: Weight Loss
Hill's Prescription Diet: r/d, w/d
Purina Veterinary Diet: HA, EN, OM

4. Weight Control Diet

These dog diets are used to control weight in dogs are overweight, diabetic, and in senior dogs.

Iams Veterinary Formulas: Weight Control D
Hill's Prescription Diet: b/d, g/d, r/d, w/d
Purina Veterinary Diet: DCO, OM

5. Dog Joint Support Diets

These dog diets designed to help dogs in our store arthritis, hip dysplasia and other joint health concerns.

Iams Veterinary Formulas: Joint
Hill's Prescription Diet: b/d, g/d, j/d
Purina Veterinary Diet: JM

6. Renal Diet

These sites are designed to help dogs with chronic renal failure.

Iams Veterinary Formulas: Renal
Hill's Prescription Diet: g/d, k/d, l/d, u/d
Purina Veterinary Diet: NF


As I stated earlier the biggest problem with therapeutic dog diets is compliance. In order for them to work your dog has to actually eat them. If your dog is not eating them, contact your veterinarian. There might be a canned version of the diet which some dogs might find more appetizing.

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