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Can anyone simply recommend other OTC cat foods with similar ingredients to a C/D or K/D?
I feed my male cat Wysong Uretic food. He was on the Hill's c/d for awhile, but he didn't really like it and Wysong uses better ingredients. It ain't cheap, but it's cheaper than the prescription foods. And it only comes in chicken flavor. Fortunately, my cats like anything with wings.
My Electra developed a bladder stone two years ago and has been on Hills C/D since. And with three cats, when one is on special food, they ALL are on it. And yeah, it is expensive. But, to me, my kitties are worth it. But, I do supplement it with some Fancy Feast.
My Electra developed a bladder stone two years ago and has been on Hills C/D since. And with three cats, when one is on special food, they ALL are on it. And yeah, it is expensive. But, to me, my kitties are worth it. But, I do supplement it with some Fancy Feast.
Cat
Hopefully you are feeding the canned c/d only. If you are feeding the dry you can expect the chronic regurgitation and lifelong digestive problems to start in another year or two. Constipation is likely also. Diabetes....you'll want to start getting blood work on all of them every year.
But, hopefully you are feeding the canned only so it won't be so bad. The canned is still extremely high in carbs, but at least it's wet and is not overloaded with corn.
If I could not buy the Rx, I would buy Purina One Focus (they make both a wet and dry - make sure you get the urinary tract one, they have many formulas). Petsmart carries it.
My 12 year old cat has been on Hills prescription C/D wet and dry food for at least 8 years. She has no more urinary crystals or infections but she immediately gained weight when she first ate this food. At the time I didn't care if she was a bit overweight, at least she wasn't having painful urinary problems. Now that she is 12, i do see that the weight is a problem. Does anyone know of alternative food that doesn't cause weight gain? Or any suggestions about what I can do to help her lose weight? She isn't very active and kind of turns her nose up when I try to play with her...
My 12 year old cat has been on Hills prescription C/D wet and dry food for at least 8 years. She has no more urinary crystals or infections but she immediately gained weight when she first ate this food. At the time I didn't care if she was a bit overweight, at least she wasn't having painful urinary problems. Now that she is 12, i do see that the weight is a problem. Does anyone know of alternative food that doesn't cause weight gain? Or any suggestions about what I can do to help her lose weight? She isn't very active and kind of turns her nose up when I try to play with her...
First, eliminate the dry food. Feed the wet food on a schedule three meals a day. Get a baby scale and weigh her weekly, or every two weeks. This will help you figure out how much she needs to eat to lose.
Weight loss should be done extremely slowly. Very dangerous for a cat to lose weight quickly. They get fatty liver disease when that happens.
A loss of 2 ounces a week (half a pound a month) is safe.
I would have a check up done and get blood work to make sure there isn't anything starting like diabetes. All those years on such a high carb diet, the risk for diabetes is very high.
Do NOT let your vet talk you into yet another "prescription" diet. Those are just as high in carbs and just as bad for her as the c/d.
She doesn't want to play because she feels yucky from the poor diet and weight gain. Once you have her started on all canned meals, I would look into improving her diet. That c/d is loaded with carbs and other inappropriate junk.
But for now, once you've got the scheduled wet meals going, you can help increase her activity. Play with her right before meal time. don't give up even if she acts disinterested. First, as she feels better, she will become more interested. Second, it may just be you haven't quite hit on what she likes to play yet.
Don't expect her to leap and jump around, at least not at first. Place a newspaper or some other crackly paper in front of her. Or a rug, if she doesn't like noisy games.
Get a string on a stick type toy. Pull the string toy under the paper. Watch her carefully to see how she reacts.
Some cats like it to disappear quickly so they can pounce. Others like it to twitch and move intermittently as it disappears. Some like to see a bit still peeking out. Another might prefer to just go after the bump under the paper.
At first, she may ignore it. Eventually she will start to show interest. She might paw at it a bit, or even get up and do a butt wiggle and pounce.
Mix the Games up. Do the above game when you have more time, such as before the evening meal. Before the breakfast meal, try the crumpled paper ball game. Get a piece of paper, tear it in half, crumple it up and roll it toward her. She may have a preference for big paper balls or tiny ones. Try all sizes. Make a deal out of the crumpling stage to let her know it's coming.
Try different rolling techniques. Roll it toward her. Go to the side of her and roll it past her instead. Prop something in front of her and roll it behind that so she has to look for it. Put a cardboard box out and toss it into the box. Start with a shallow box, as she becomes more active, get one with higher sides so she has to jump in.
You may have other ideas of what she might like to play with. Three meals, three games, one before each meal.
Do these little activities before every meal. Don't worry if she doesn't react much at first. In time, she will get used to it. She will look forward to it. And she will begin to respond.
Go through the motions of it anyway, then it's meal time.
I have found the alternative to c/d food! It’s not just for special diet pets either. All cats and dogs will thrive on this diet! First and foremost, I must say this requires dedication to your pet, it’s more time consuming than opening cans and bags, and it requires feeding on a schedule. If you’re willing to go the extra mile for your pet, and feed them healthy, healing, homemade, human grade food, I strongly recommend giving this a try. I will tell my story at the end, if anyone wants to know my experiences and what led me to this diet.
Visit Andi Brown’s website: [url=http://www.thewholepetdiet.com/]The Whole Pet Diet | Eight Weeks to Great Health for Dogs and Cats[/url]. Navigate to the “Recipes” tab and go to “Doc’s Stew” for the free (and simple) recipe that will allow you to take your pet off of the poison, prescription c/d food (and the other poison, non-prescription commercial foods)! While you are browsing the site I recommend you buy her inexpensive book, The Whole Pet Diet: Eight Weeks to Great Health for Dogs and Cats. The book is the only thing she sells, and it’s loaded with great information, pet food recipes, and real stories from pet owners who have had success with Andi’s recipes.
Don’t let yourself get caught up in the veterinary web of expensive and unhealthy pet “nutrition”! Once your pet has urinary issues it’s very easy to let the vets scare you into thinking the only alternative is using the disgusting c/d food that they just happen to sell right in their office! They tell you there’s no other way to control the problems and scare you with threats of expensive and unnecessary surgeries. Meanwhile, the internet is loaded with companies taking advantage of the situation by pedalling pills, powders, drops, and foods targeted directly at your wallet!
I knew the c/d food was a disaster just by one glance at the ingredients. Meat by-products, grain fillers, corn and corn gluten, chemical vitamins. The reason this food works is because it has low magnesium levels and high salt. The crystals can’t form as readily with the low magnesium, and the high salt makes your pet drink more than normal, so the bladder is constantly being flushed out. The only nutrition comes from the artificial vitamins, and it’s minimal. Your pet is literally starving, even though he’s eating regularly. Andi compares pets eating c/d and commercial pet foods to a person living on potato chips alone. Imagine eating potato chips every day, every meal, for your whole life. Now imagine the potato chips are $20 for a regular sized bag. That’s the c/d food in a nutshell.
Just a few words about Andi before I tell my story. This is a woman who loves animals and loves the people who care for them. I don’t mean that figuratively either. In the 12 years I’ve had my cat I’ve never encountered such a knowledgeable, caring, and understanding person in the area of pet care and nutrition. She is not motivated by money and greed like all of the other so called professionals I’ve turned to for help. She sells a book, that’s it. If you can’t afford the book, all of the important information you need is free on her website. Andi will answer your emails, go over your questions in detail, and support you personally however she can.
Here we go. I rescued my cat, Manila, when he was six months old in 2005, from a family who was about to move and abandon him on the dunes of a Northern California coastal town. I had always given him (what I thought was) good commercial cat food. Never used foods with by-products or cheap fillers. One 6oz can per day and dry food available 24/7. He was always healthy and energetic and never needed to go to the vet.
One day, at 10 years old, I noticed him straining while he was urinating. I checked the litter and realized he had only urinated a few drops. Then he would visit the litter box at about 1 minute intervals, squat, strain, and either pass nothing or just pass a tiny bit. I had him at the emergency vet’s office within an hour. The vet put us in a room with a litter box and we observed Manila for about 45 minutes. He was passing tiny bits of urine, so after examining him the vet said his bladder was not full, he wasn’t blocked, and that he had a UTI and prescribed antibiotics and valium. He said the antibiotics would clear the infection and the valium would relax the urethra and allow urine to flow easier.
Long story short(er), he blocked within a couple of days and had to be catheterised three times over the next six weeks. In addition there were several vet office visits per week, in office urine tests, laboratory urine tests, x-rays, sonograms, and of course bills on top of bills. Diagnosis was alkaline urine and struvite crystals, AKA: FLUTD. The vet insisted I keep him on antibiotics, keep valium on hand if he started to strain, and demanded that I put him on the Hills prescription c/d food. He also said if I didn’t use the c/d food I’d soon need to have Manila’s penis amputated, AKA PU surgery, at about $3000 USD!
It was at this point that I realized vets don’t know anything about pet nutrition. They sell the prescription food and prescribe it accordingly depending on what condition your pet has. End of story. Problem? Prescription food, and take your pet somewhere else if you don’t want to use it. No exaggeration, my vet told me to go to another vet when I insisted we find an alternative.
That’s when I started racking my brain trying to find any alternative possible that would be as effective as the c/d, while providing him with the nutrition and nourishment he needed. This task was an absolute nightmare, on top of the nightmare of him being sick. I didn’t get a good night’s sleep for weeks on end, and when I did sleep it was short naps and waking up every time I heard him scratching in the litter box. Eventually (as expected) he stopped using the litter box because it became a place he associated with pain.
So after eliminating dry food completely, trying the best brands of wet food I could possibly come up with, and buying a half dozen urinary health products, all to no avail, I finally came across Andi’s website and recipe for the stew.
I contacted Andi and she responded immediately. She answered all of my questions, and there were a lot of them. So I made a batch of the stew. Manila loved it and was eating it great, but after about a week or 10 days he developed a urethral plug. The vet cleared it without catheterising him and again lectured me on the necessity of using the c/d food. Remember, this was back in 2015. In hindsight I’m kicking myself for not listening to Andi when she told me the plug was due to residual crystal debris in the bladder flushing itself out. So being scared and feeling helpless I went with the c/d food. My intention was to keep him on it for a few months to clear the bladder of all crystals, and then go back to the stew. Well, two years went by on the c/d food because it was keeping him clear and I was too scared to make any changes.
Before we had any problems Manila was 14LBS. After the blockage ordeal he was down to 12LBS. After two years on the c/d food he was down to 8LBS. Towards the end of the c/d food diet he just stopped eating it. He was fine otherwise, but he was just done with that garbage. I tried other flavors, both wet and dry. I was following him around with the bowl, putting it in front of him wherever he was. Most he would eat was a couple of bites at a time.
I knew I had to do something quickly or he would have starved to death. So I revisited the stew, contacted Andi again, and things have been great since.
Manila was devouring the stew 3x daily at first. Andi recommends feeding 2x daily but said it was fine to feed 3x until he got caught up on his nutrition. He gained 3LBS in the first two weeks and his consumption slowed, so I’ve since gone to feeding 2x daily. He’s been urinating regularly and every time I’ve tested the pH it’s been in a range between 6 and 6.5, perfect! He has more energy, he’s more playful, his coat is glowing and soft, and he’s in much better spirits.
One more thing I should mention about the c/d food. When he was on that junk and I would handle/prepare human food, he would practically rip my leg off trying to get to the food. When I’d sit down to eat he would try to claw the food right out of my plate. He was also always knocking the garbage over trying to find any scraps of food. He never did that before the c/d food. As soon as I put him on Doc’s Stew, that all ended immediately.
Well that’s it for me. Thanks to everyone who read to the end. Best of luck with your pet(s).
PS: This is the last email I received from Andi:
My gift is to give you and every other caring, conscious pet lover a gift of REAL love! Keep up the wonderful work. YOU make my heart happy! Hugs to you and Manila. xoxox
Wishing you and your pets great health!
Andi Brown
[url=http://www.thewholepetdiet.com]The Whole Pet Diet | Eight Weeks to Great Health for Dogs and Cats[/url]
[email]andi@thewholepetdiet.com[/email]
*This information is not to be considered veterinary advice. I have simply shared my beliefs, opinions, and experiences. I am not a vet. You might have different results than I did, so use this information at your own risk/discretion.
Last edited by Almost A Myth; 11-26-2017 at 12:31 AM..
My Nickie Rue he's now three years old , up till now he's been very healthy, eating hard food's like purana healthy urinary track health, now he has crystals in his urinary track, so vet hospital demanded me use CD Prescription, were on disability , to expensive for us we've asked many vets and stores about one equivalent to CD they keep saying it is different it has something in it's ingredients non others has to help him. then I see many comparing it to outside brands and say the CD isn't any different then over the counter brands for urinary track health, so please could someone help with this so we don't cause our cat harm by using something not good , it is the same as the hill's CD food, is it safe and will it do the same to rid of the crystals in his kidney's. thanks Cateyes. I don't want to lose my baby to kidney's shutting down please help me find an affordable solutions to his medical need, a safe food 100% that works as well as CD please. thank you all God bless.
My Nickie Rue he's now three years old , up till now he's been very healthy, eating hard food's like purana healthy urinary track health, now he has crystals in his urinary track, so vet hospital demanded me use CD Prescription, were on disability , to expensive for us we've asked many vets and stores about one equivalent to CD they keep saying it is different it has something in it's ingredients non others has to help him. then I see many comparing it to outside brands and say the CD isn't any different then over the counter brands for urinary track health, so please could someone help with this so we don't cause our cat harm by using something not good , it is the same as the hill's CD food, is it safe and will it do the same to rid of the crystals in his kidney's. thanks Cateyes. I don't want to lose my baby to kidney's shutting down please help me find an affordable solutions to his medical need, a safe food 100% that works as well as CD please. thank you all God bless.
Feed your cat an all wet, low carb diet. NO DRY, ever. Feed foods low in carbs, such as the Fancy Feast classics. Even some of the Friskies pates are low in carbs. Read the labels and avoid grains and too many fruits and vegetables in the cat food.
Cats need high meat content to keep the proper acidity in the urine. Not fake "prescription" feed grade crap made from corn. Meat, being the natural diet of the cat, helps create an acidic environment, carbs on the other hand crate an alkaline urine and digestive system both very bad for your cat.
Add a little water to each meal to keep your cat's bladder flushed. Moisture, and high meat content and low carb are the most crucial things your cat needs.
After you read that page, you can browse around the rest of her website to learn why it is so important your cat be fed an all wet diet.
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