this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2023
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AskBeehaw
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So it sort of means what you mean by "prescription" pet food. There are pets that definitely cannot eat "standard" formulations of pet food. Overweight pets are a good example of this: they need less calories, but you can't just reduce the portion size without them feeling hungry all the time, which is just cruel because you can't explain to them why they need to eat less. So a specialised weight loss pet food allows you to give them the same quantity of food, but it has less calories in it. For cats (I'm less familiar with dog food) there's formulations for kidney function, for odour reduction (dear god, the smells that come out of one of mine would melt the paint off the walls without this food!), and so on.
Vets will definitely try to sell you these as "prescriptions", and they sell them at a massive markup. But a lot of the time, these special foods are available from wholesalers and direct from the brand's website at a much, much lower price. So my recommendation is that if a vet recommends a certain prescription food to deal with a specific medical issue, don't buy it from them, because chances are you can get either the same food or something substantially similar from another source.
I'm not familiar with Chewy (you and I may be in different countries), but in my experience Amazon often doesn't have the full range of pet foods available, because they only stock the most popular ones. Anything specialist usually requires going to an actual pet food distributor.
If the food your pet has been prescribed is literally restricted and you're not allowed to buy it without a prescription, then it likely has some form of medication in it that is potentially dangerous, either to pets or to humans. In which case it likely isn't a scam, because purchasing restrictions on drugs are a legal thing, not just the vet trying to get more money out of you. If it wasn't restricted, there'd be no barriers to you purchasing it elsewhere.
If they won't sell it to you without confirming with the vet, then that means it does have something in it that can't be sold without restrictions. Otherwise, capitalism would do what it does best, and they'd take your money. So there is something in that food that they're not legally allowed to sell you without approval from a vet. I can't tell you what that ingredient is, since I'm not a pharmacologist or a vet.
I would, however, recommend that you enquire with your vet about why you need to take your cat in for a repeat prescription. One of my cats has been on and off various antibiotics over the last 18 months (he has an incurable viral infection that leads to persistent secondary bacterial infections), and when symptoms haven't changed and a course of antibiotics just needs to be continued for another few weeks, the vet does a consultation over the phone and then issues the prescription. I then pick it up from reception later that day without having to take my cat in. It's only when his symptoms have changed or an antibiotic isn't working that he needs to actually go in for a visit.
I worked at a pet food store for 6 years that focused on education and nutrition was a huge part of that. Looking at the ingredients of that food I would guess it is because it has about 2x as much fiber as most cat foods. It also has added pro-biotics, so that combined with the fiber could really mess up your kitty's gut. The fact that your vet won't refill without a visit is odd (especially if the vet knows it is traumatic for your cat), but I can see why Chewy/Amazon won't sell without a prescription.
No they are not a scam. You should also be able to order the food without a visit, it just has to be approved by your vet.
Long as you are having yearly checkups done they shouldn’t have an issue approving your prescription food orders when they come in. Give your vet a call and hopefully you should be able to work something out.