What Is Prescription Dog Food?
Prescription Dog Food Diets At some point in his lifetime, your Cocker Spaniel may suffer an illness, resulting in the need for medication and a little tender loving care. In such cases, your vet may recommend your dog's illness be treated by using drugs or by moving him onto a special diet to ensure your Cocker Spaniel receives the correct nutrition and medication his body needs to restore him to good health.
Prescription dog food is sometimes a little more expensive than normal dog food but this expense is well worth paying to see the improvement in your dog's health. Although prescription pet foods are widely available in good quality pet stores, we strongly recommend you visit your veterinary for a correct diagnosis before changing your Cocker Spaniel's diet. All dogs are different and have different health problems - that's why it's so important that your vet makes the diagnosis, not the owner! Once your vet has confirmed the problem, and recommended a particular prescription diet dog food, you may want to shop around for the best price as these foods are often overpriced.
Types Of Prescription Dog Food Prescription diet dog food is available in both dry and wet forms and is specially formulated for the following: - Senior Dogs - this has fewer calories and contains ingredients which are easily digested for the more sedate senior dog
- Arthritis - high in omega oils to help with arthritis, bone and joint functionality.
- Canine Diabetes - low in sugar, high in fibre
- Canine Allergies - specially formulated without allergy-causing 'fillers' such as wheat-based foods - usually gluten free too! Great for pets that suffer from dog food allergies. Most good pet stores will stock a variety of reasonably priced hypo-allergenic foods.
- Obese Dogs - low in fat and slightly reduced in protein to help overweight dogs lose those extra pounds! Most pet food retailers offer food that is low in calories and not too heavy on the pocket! Obesity is often casued by a poor diet and/or insufficient exercise - feed your dog well and ensure he has plenty of long walks!
- Prescription diets can help to boost your dog's immune system, or give him extra calories to help him gain weight.
- Kidney Disease - a high quality, low protein diet.
- Urinary Tract Infections - if your dog has a urinary tract infection he or she may need to follow a prescription diet for a while.
However; as the symptoms recede, you should be able to move your pet onto a high quality dog food. (Urinary tract infections are often caused by a poor diet; feeding your puppy, or dog, a good quality, healthy dog food may help to avoid such health problems in the future. - There's even a prescription pet food to combat bad teeth!
If your vet suggests a special diet for your pet, portions must be carefully controlled as it's important to ensure your dog eats the right amount of food as recommended by your vet, and according to his weight, and is given no additional food, ie table scraps or treats. Unfortunately, prescription dog food is not always as tasty as normal dog food and it's sometimes a challenge to get our dogs to eat it. If you have any problems feeding your pet we recommend you inform your vet immediately.

How Long Will My Dog Need A Special Diet? If your dog suffers from diabetes, your Cocker Spaniel may need to follow a prescription dog food diet for the remainder of his life. However, not all prescription foods are meant to be fed to your pet for such a long time; some are only prescribed for a short time - for example, to help your dog recover from an illness by including certain foods to help build up his strength. Your vet will always advise you on what kind of prescription dog food to feed your pet and for how long. If you prefer to feed your pet homemade dog food, this may still be possible. Speak to your vet, he will be able to advise you and perhaps offer you recipes to help you duplicate your dog's special diet.
Summary If you feed your Cocker Spaniel on good quality food and exercise him regularly, you may never need to feed him prescription dog food. However, dog's do become ill and a specially formulated, prescription diet will meet all your dog's nutritional needs and can help to treat most Cocker Spaniel health problems in dogs of all ages - a prescription dog food may just be the ticket to get your Cocker Spaniel back to his normal self!
Search our site!
More Titles In The Healthy Dog Food Series
Organic Dog Food Feeding your puppy organic dog food has many benefits, including adding years to your cocker spaniel's life - learn more here! Natural Dog Food Natural dog food contains high quality ingredients. You won't find harmful chemicals or artificial preservatives and processing is kept to a minimum so that the dog food retains its natural goodness. Prescription Dog Food If your dog has recently been ill, or is suffering from a health problem, your vet may advise a prescription dog food diet for your cocker spaniel to replace his normal food. Raw Dog Food Feed your pet a raw dog food diet of fresh meat, bones, fruit and vegetables, with a few vitamin and mineral supplements thrown in, and see a marked improvement in your dog's health! Raw Dog Food Recipes A raw dog food diet (the BARF diet) can greatly improve your pet's health and appearance and can help him to live a longer life too! Try our raw dog food recipes and see the difference for yourself! Holistic Dog Food The word 'holistic' in holistic dog food relates to taking care of the entire body. One of the ways we can do this is by feeding our dogs good quality ingredients that then will 'feed' the entire body! Vegetarian Dog Food There are many vegetarian owners who choose to feed their dogs a vegetarian dog food diet, and whose dogs appear to thrive on it; however, it's not suited to all dogs. Learn more...
Hypoallergenic Dog Food Dog food allergies are more common than you think and, in many cases, vets are recommending owners change their dogs onto a diet of hypoallergenic dog food to combat the allergy. Homemade Dog Food We've some tempting homemade dog food recipies here for your Cocker Spaniel to try. Why not try one - I'm sure he'll love you for it! Dog Food Allergies Dog food allergies often present many symptoms, making an allergy difficult to identify. Learn how to diagnose, treat, and eliminate a dog food allergy or intolerance. Dog Poisoning Learn how to prevent accidental dog poisoning from innocent everyday foods such as chocolate, onions, grapes and raisins. Also lists toxic household chemicals and poisonous plants.
Return to top of page - Prescription Dog Food
Return to Healthy Dog Food
Return to the Cocker Spaniel Homepage
|