Effects of Traditional and Herbal Pet Prescription Food on Treatment of Disease on Pets

Abstract

Prescription pet food is one of the most commonly used conservative therapeutic methods in the treatment of various pet diseases. However, it has not yet been fully utilized, and many pet owners are not aware of its efficacy. In this article, the therapeutic effect of traditional prescription pet food and herbal prescription pet food on the treatment of common pet diseases, especially metabolic, kidney, gastrointestinal, and urinary system diseases, will be discussed. Relevant literature was retrieved through searching various databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar, and CNKI.

The studies reviewed in this paper show that traditional prescription pet food can be effective in the management of pet obesity, kidney disease, and diarrhea. For example, disease-specific formulations such as protein and phosphorus content, omega-3 fatty acids, prebiotics, and functional derivatives of amino acids were effective in slowing disease progress, improving clinical signs, and increasing recovery rates compared to regular pet food. Prescription diet foods were also effective in the management of weight in pets using caloric restriction, fiber content, and metabolic modulation. Although less common, herbal prescription food has been effective in the management of urinary system diseases in pets using anti-inflammatory effects, diuretic effects, and mucosal healing potential. The anti-inflammatory effect may be due to the polysaccharide content in the food.

In conclusion, prescription pet food can be considered effective in the management of diseases in pets. Although traditional prescription pet food has been widely recognized and researched, herbal prescription food has great potential in the management of urinary system diseases in pets. Prescription pet food can be considered effective in the management of diseases in pets.

Key words: Pet prescription food, Herbal medicine, Chronic disease management, Urinary system disease

Introduction

Prescription food, as a conservative treatment method for pets, offers a convenient and effective dietary therapy. Other than the basic ingredients in pet food such as carbohydrate, protein sources, and vitamins, pet prescription food will also add some specific supplements for illnesses. For example, in the prescription food for joint disease, supplements like omega-3 fatty acid, glucosamine, and chondroitin sulfate is added. Prescription food could help with the treatment of many chronic diseases, such as kidney disease, urinary system disease, allergies, etc. It also has the function of disease prevention for senior dogs. (Shen 2020) Although there are some limitations that may hinder its usage, prescription pet food provides significant benefits for maintaining the pet’s health. 

Section 1: Uses of Prescription Medication for Specific Illness

Prescription food was invented by Dr. Mark Morris Sr. in the 1930s, he licensed the first therapeutic diet to Hill Packing Company, which started the development of prescription food in the western countries. (Lederhouse 2023) Therefore, its popularity and rate of utilization abroad are much higher than those in China. At the same time, many western brands have accumulated profound technical expertise in prescription grains. In contrast, most veterinarians still prefer to use medicine directly for treatment in China. However, in recent years, Chinese domestic prescription foods have also been gradually developing, opening up diversified and differentiated development channels. (Chen 2025) (Jia 2020)

Prescription food had several benefits in dealing with specific illness, such as decelerating the progression of some chronic diseases, providing some specialized nutrients for certain diseases, and helping with weight management.

A. Slowing Disease Progression

For the cats that had kidney disease, for example, renal failure, the purpose of treatment is to decrease the burden of their kidney, so their food-intake should be limited because then their kidneys’ workload could be reduced. Under these circumstances, the energy and nutrients of their food should be abundant enough to fulfill their daily requirements. Therefore, the prescription food would be a suitable option since it could provide a high amount of digestible protein, so that it could reduce the amount of protein that needed to be metabolized and excreted. Moreover, the prescription food contains EPA and DHA, which has an antioxidant effect to reduce inflammation. The lower level of phosphorus could also help support the function of the kidney as well. (Li 2021)

Moreover, for the dogs with kidney damage, prescription food could also be beneficial to their recovery. Research supported that prescription food could significantly increase the rate of recovery for the kidney-damaged dogs. According to the research, the researchers applied normal food and prescription food for two groups of dogs and the result showed that the group with prescription food had a rapid decrease in CREA value compared to the normal food group. CREA value is an indicator for evaluating renal injury in clinical practices, which higher value means kidney damage. Tubular type is also an important indicator to measure the damage on renal tubular cells. The amount of tubular cells shows a positive relationship with aggravation of renal injury. According to the research, on the 8th and the 10th day, Group A (which is the group with prescription food) had a smaller amount of tubular cells in contrast to Group B (the group with regular pet food). (Lin 2025) From these two examples, the experimental data and results can both suggest that pet prescription food would accelerate the pets’ recovery from kidney diseases.

B. Providing Some Specific Nutrient Supplement

Studies show that many hospitalized sick dogs suffer from malnutrition, but by feeding corresponding prescription foods, the discharge rate of sick dogs can be greatly improved. From this, it can be seen that the auxiliary effect of prescription grains is still quite considerable. (Jia 2020)

Diarrhea, as a common disease for dogs, occurs frequently between the ages of three months and six months. Usually, the dogs will infect several enteropathogens when they suffer from diarrhea, and the most common ones are hookworms, ascarids, Giardia spp, Cryptosporidium spp, and Salmonella spp. (Tupler 2012) To solve with these enteropathogens, prescription food could be a good option. Since that intestinal prescription food would contain a kind of prebiotic called fructooligosaccharide, which could adjust the pH value inside, it could benefit the dogs to recover from diarrhea. Fructooligosaccharide will be broken into various short-chain fatty acids which could lower the high pH caused by diarrhea. With this change, bacteria that is beneficial to the intestine will increase, such as bifidobacteria, and the pathogenic bacteria will be inhibited. One of the volatile fatty acids that fructooligosaccharides will be broken down into is butyric acid. As an energy provider for the intestinal mucosa, butyric acid could help with mucosal repair. (Zhong 2018) Therefore, it could be shown that prescription food is beneficial for the pets by providing some nutrients for the targeted disease. 

C. Weight Management

Obesity among pets results from the excessive calories they consumed fewer than they need. Excessive calories lead to obesity, which will ultimately cause impairment of health and body function. In general, 20% to 25% above ideal body weight is considered as obesity. Research showed that overweight dogs were at higher risk for having chronic health problems earlier than dogs with normal weight. For cats, obese cats also faced increased risks for lots of health problems such as arthritis and diabetes mellitus, which the risk to have diabetes is about four-fold in comparison with normal cats. (Laflamme 2011) To control the weight in an optimal range, prescription food became a recommended option for many of the veterinarians. Research has shown that prescription food is effective for losing weight. On average, dogs lost weight at the rate of 1.02% per week and cats lost at the rate of 0.92%. (Vendramini et al. 2024) The prescription food uses high fiber and low fat to reduce the caloric intake and body weight. Some added L-cartinine for helping cats to lose weight safely and effectively. (Roudebush 2008) L-cartinine was a non-toxic amino acid derivative that significantly increased plasma carnitine analyte concentration and rate of weight loss at the same time. (Center et al. 2000) Another concept of weight management in cats suggested that altering animals’ metabolism by using low-carbohydrate, high-protein foods increases the concentration of serum beta-hydroxybutyrate. The increase of serum beta-hydroxybutyrate contributes to change in metabolism, which could lead to weight loss. (Roudebush 2008)

Sections 2: Limitations

Some limitations may stop people from using prescription food for their pets such as the high prices, its nature as an auxiliary product and the refuse from the animals. Nonetheless, there are some methods to mitigate the limitations of prescription pet food.

A. Only Supplement for Disease Treatment

Although prescription food had an impact to benefit the pet’s health, it could not replace medicine or surgery as a main treatment method for diseases. For example, for cats that had urethral obstruction, most cases need surgery to remove the blockage, because otherwise it may threaten their lives. However, after they had the surgery, veterinarians may suggest the cat to have prescription food to prevent further blockages. (Grossmann 2024)

B. High Price & Limited Availability

One of the limitations of prescription food is the high price of the prescription food. Because prescription food is highly specialized for each disease, the low demand may lead to high prices, which further hinder the steps toward prescription food for some customers. In China, the smallest packaging of prescription food is 1.5 kg which cost around 200 yuan (around 29 dollars) and these foods would only last for 2-3 days for a medium-sized dog. Therefore, it may need some consideration for some pet owners. (Zhong 2018)

C. Poor Palatability for Pets 

Other than high prices, the lack of palatability also leads to the refusal of pets. The ingredients may not be tasty for them. However, there are some solutions for this situation. For example, the pet owner could switch brands after communicating with the veterinarians. Different brands provide different flavors and there will be some that can attract the pets. Moreover, the pet owner could also choose to change to canned food because the canned food may provide stronger odor and meatier flavor. Kidney and urinary issues could also be mitigated by wet foods. Nevertheless, the wet foods may provide less calories than dry foods, so the pets may need to eat more which increases the cost. Therefore, it would also be a good choice to mix the dry foods with canned foods which dry foods could provide enough calories, and canned foods could increase the palatability. (Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine n.d.)

Section 3: Pet Prescription Food with Herbal Medicine

A. Current application of herbal medicine

Herbal medicine, which is the application of plants for medical treatments, is a newly emerged ingredients in prescription diets, played effective roles on anti-inflammtion and immunoregulation. Urinary disease, especially urinary system disease, is common among pets, and the regular methods for treatments are antibiotics administration, specific prescription diets, and surgery in severe cases. The prescription diet incorporates herbal medicine, including Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium (chenpi), Poria cocos (fuling), Plantaginis Semen (cheqianzi), Alismatis Rhizoma (zexie), and Ophiopogonis Radix (maidong). Among these, Poria cocos and Alismatis Rhizoma had diuretic properties. Furthermore, Plantaginis Semen, Ophiopogonis Radix, Poria cocos, and Alismatis Rhizoma were able to possess anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor activities. Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium and Alismatis Rhizoma demonstrate the effects in clearing heat and resolving turbidity. The experimental results show that the herbal prescription diet could repair the bladder mucosal layer, which has an obvious improvement effect on bladder inflammation, and enhances the repair of the lower urinary tract mucosal barrier. Experiments have shown that the adjuvant treatment of herbal prescription food can accelerate the recovery of canine bladder inflammation and effectively shorten the duration of damage to the lower urinary tract caused by inflammation. (Shen 2020)

B. Future Application

Although the fact that the application of herbal medicine with pet prescriptions food is rare, it also implied that there is huge space for exploration and inventions. Many herbal medicine had proven their function on anti-inflammation and immunoregulation, since they include core active ingredient such as polysaccharides. For example, herbal medicines such as licorice and astragalus membranaceus include glycyrrhizic acid and astragalus polysaccharides respectively, can regulate key targets such as CASP3, TLR4, STAT3, IL6 and IL1B, and also signaling pathways such as MAPK, NF-κB and FoxO. (Yin et al. 2024) Since polysaccharides are one of the main active ingredients of medical and edible homologous traditional Chinese medicines (MEHTCMs) (Zhang et al. 2024), which means that they are also ingredients appear in daily food that has medical value, it could be proven that their safety as ingredients for pets prescription food. 

However, the main challenge that the quality of raw materials in herbal medicine. Because that their quality would largely affected by several factors such as its processing methods and storage conditions, which lead to unstable amount of the active ingredient. Therefore, it is important to establish a standardized system from cultivation to production for controlling the quality of herbal medicine. Moreover, it is also necessary to limit the pollutants in the plants. Harmful heavy metal such as lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury were possibly accumulated in soil, and enter food cycle through the absorption of plants. (Pan 2024) These heavy metal promoted the production of reactive oxygen species, which is toxic to animals since it would result in endothelial dysfunction lipid metabolism distributions and disruption of ion homeostasis. Therefore, it is significantly important to establish a standard for evaluating the safety of the herbal medicine.

Discussion

The review synthesizes current evidence on the therapeutic roles of traditional pet prescription food and the emerging herbal prescription food in treating animal diseases. Overall, the findings suggest that pet prescription food is effective on adjuvant therapy, especially for chronic and metabolism-related diseases such as kidney disease, obesity and diarrhea (cite these three studies). The evidence suggested that prescription diets shows its ability to slow disease progression and enhance recovery outcomes compared to regular pet food. These effects are benefited from specific nutrient supplement such as omega-3 fatty acids, prebiotics, and functional amino acid (e.g. L-carnitine). 

In addition to traditional prescription diets, herbal prescription foods also show great potential in urinary system diseases and metabolic regulation. Evidence showed that a diet containing traditional herbal ingredients can exert anti-inflammatory, diuretic and mucosal repair effects, which accelerates the recovery of lower urinary tract inflammation. The bioactive polysaccharides and other active compounds found in some medicine and edible homologous traditional Chinese medicine provide a reasonable mechanism basing on these therapeutic effects, and also support their relative safety as dietary components. However, comparing with traditional prescription foods, the clinical evidence of herbal prescription diets remains limited, and their application in veterinary practice is still in its early stages.

Despite these benefits, there are barriers that restrict the wide adoption of pet prescription food. For example, high cost, limited accessibility, palatability issues, and their role as a supplement all limit their utilization. Although strategies such as mixed feeding could mitigate these obstacles, economic concerns remain significant consideration for pet owners.

Conclusion

In conclusion, both traditional prescription pet food and herbal prescription diets play significant supporting roles in the treatment and management of pet disease. Traditional prescription foods are recognized for their efficacy in disease such as kidney disease, obesity and gastrointestinal disease, mainly supplementing medical or surgical interventions by providing nutritional regulation for specific disease. Although herbal prescription foods are not very commonly used, they show considerable potential in treating urinary disease and inflammation and represent potential direction for future innovation in veterinary nutrition.

However, prescription food should be regarded as an auxiliary means of primary care rather than a substitute. Future research should focus on expanding high-quality clinical trials, especially those of herbal prescription diets, and establishing a standardized production and safety evaluation system for herbal ingredients. By addressing issues of cost, quality control and public awareness, prescription pet food may gain wider acceptance and play a more significant role in care.Declaation

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