Community Chat

[AlAnn]

Does anyone know why you need a vets prescription to buy this food? There is no medicine in it. After 2 1/2 years my vet will not sell me anymore unless I bring my cat in for a checkup. My problem with this is that taking him to the vet will stress him out, and stress is what caused his last 2 urinary blockages. He currently is fine and having no urinary problems. It is not the money. I can afford the vet visit. I just don't want to stress him out and possibly cause another blockage.

[Tinkrbl44]

Check for the cat food website's customer service number ... or maybe they have a person you can chat online with.

This doesn't make any sense.

[lolakimono]

I used to have Science Diet TD for my kitty, and they would write a script for a year. I would take the script to Petsmart so I could get unlimited refills throughout the year. It's pretty typical of a vet to require a checkup for RX food to make sure that kitty still needs that particular kind for his condition.

You might consider a mobile vet who will come to the house and check him out, and get the RX that way. They will probably want to do bloodwork.

[Jeremiah 2911]

If you buy a low ash, low magnesium canned cat food, you may not need to use the prescription cat food any longer. This is just a suggestion as I have found that Hill's is good for temporarily getting the cat out of the problem -- but it doesn't have the quality of nutrition that cats need for the long-term. (This is my personal opinion, I am a long-time multiple cat owner and not a vet.)

Also, to avoid urinary tract infections, add a teaspoon of water or no-salt chicken stock to the canned cat food.

Give no-salt chicken stock for him to drink besides his water.

The more moisture you can add to his diet -- the better.

And adding a pet fountain (ceramic is best) to your household will attract your cat to the water bowl and will drink more water.

If your cat is a dry cat food addict (like most of mine...) give dry cat food only as a snack -- about 10 to 20 kibbles per day.

Many of the urinary problems with cats come from consuming dry cat food. Dry cat food dries out a cats digestive system which leads to urinary and kidney problems.

Here's a list of canned cat food content that might help you:

http://www.catinfo.org/?link=cannedfoods#Ingredients

Click on the "skip right to the food list" and a link will come up chart will come up that says: CAT FOOD NUTRITIONAL COMPOSITION (in blue) -- click on that link for the PDF list of ingredients for most commercial canned cat foods.

Make sure you Favorite this chart so that you can access it whenever you need to.

You might want to consult with your vet before changing your cats diet. Your vet may continue to recommend the Hill's diet for your cat. You need to consider that he makes money off of Hill's, which I have no problem with. However, since your cat has recovered, Hill's may not be the best choice for your cat. I think that if you feed your cat a canned food diet and add some water and/or chicken stock to your cats diet and buy a pet fountain for him, these changes may be enough to prevent him from having any more urinary problems.

Hope this helps.

[jaxs mom]

Have you read the ingredients?

Whole Grain Corn, Pork Fat, Chicken By-Product Meal, Soybean Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Soybean Mill Run, Chicken Liver Flavor, Lactic Acid, Calcium Sulfate, Soybean Oil, Flaxseed, Iodized Salt, L-Lysine, Choline Chloride, Dicalcium Phosphate, vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, L -Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Niacin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin Supplement, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Taurine, Potassium Chloride, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), Mixed Tocopherols for freshness, Phosphoric Acid, Beta-Carotene, Natural Flavors.

It's basically corn and soybeans. That isn't healthy food for cats. Have you been to catifo.org? It's a site by a vet about urinary tract issues in cats and how to prevent them.

[luvmyteddy4]

I used this for more than 2 years on my last cat and most of the time I would pick it up at a different vet's office that was closer. They never asked to see my cat, just sold me the cat food. I did take my dog there for nail clippings but that was it.

Sometimes I think it's all about the money.

[jaxs mom]

On 9/21/2014 Jeremiah 2911 said:

If you buy a low ash, low magnesium canned cat food, you may not need to use the prescription cat food any longer. This is just a suggestion as I have found that Hill's is good for temporarily getting the cat out of the problem -- but it doesn't have the quality of nutrition that cats need for the long-term. (This is my personal opinion, I am a long-time multiple cat owner and not a vet.)

Also, to avoid urinary tract infections, add a teaspoon of water or no-salt chicken stock to the canned cat food.

Give no-salt chicken stock for him to drink besides his water.

The more moisture you can add to his diet -- the better.

And adding a pet fountain (ceramic is best) to your household will attract your cat to the water bowl and will drink more water.

If your cat is a dry cat food addict (like most of mine...) give dry cat food only as a snack -- about 10 to 20 kibbles per day.

Many of the urinary problems with cats come from consuming dry cat food. Dry cat food dries out a cats digestive system which leads to urinary and kidney problems.

Here's a list of canned cat food content that might help you:

http://www.catinfo.org/?link=cannedfoods#Ingredients

Click on the "skip right to the food list" and a link will come up chart will come up that says: CAT FOOD NUTRITIONAL COMPOSITION (in blue) -- click on that link for the PDF list of ingredients for most commercial canned cat foods.

Make sure you Favorite this chart so that you can access it whenever you need to.

You might want to consult with your vet before changing your cats diet. Your vet may continue to recommend the Hill's diet for your cat. You need to consider that he makes money off of Hill's, which I have no problem with. However, since your cat has recovered, Hill's may not be the best choice for your cat. I think that if you feed your cat a canned food diet and add some water and/or chicken stock to your cats diet and buy a pet fountain for him, these changes may be enough to prevent him from having any more urinary problems.

Hope this helps.

My vet wanted one of my cats who had a UTI to stay on the Hills RX food for life. Even though, we verified through culturing the urine that his UTI was bacterial in origin and was now cured. I put all my cats to a combo of raw and grain free canned food. I was free feeding them grain free dry with canned meals. Haven't had a recurrence. I had a similar issue with one of my dogs where vet wanted him on Hills RX food for life after he had liver shunt surgery. I fed it for a couple years but the ingredients were horrible and he gained a ton of weight and developed allergies. I switched the dogs to raw ( this was before I got the cats). He has been on 100% prey model raw for nearly 10 years and is at normal weight now and healthy.