Ceasar and new doctor

Discussion in 'Feline Health - (Welcome & Main Forum)' started by sondra, Apr 5, 2015.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. sondra

    sondra Member

    Joined:
    Feb 17, 2010
    Our 14 year old overweight kitty has had severe diabetes since 2009 and is alive because of this message board. You managed to help us to monitor his glucose, directed us to a knowledgeable vet and gave such valuable advice about feeding. Our kitty has a new doctor. He has prescribed a "prescription only" Hills food for weight management. It is expensive and I am wondering why it needs to be "by prescription only". Looking at the can it is Hills Prescription Diet, Metabolic, weight management, and the nutritional contents are written in text so small I cant read it. Are any of you using this food? How's it working?

    Thanks for any help you can offer.
    Sondra and Ceasar
     
  2. BJM

    BJM Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 6, 2010
  3. Vyktors Mum

    Vyktors Mum Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 15, 2011
    'Prescription food' - it's just a marketing ploy and an excuse to charge more. For many vets it's the only food they'll recommend because they are too busy (or lazy) to learn about appropriate cat nutrition. I finally got my vet to stop nagging me about it when I took in a tin of what I was feeding, got him to compare the label with the prescription food and asked him to tell me which one had ingredients not suitable for cats! Give it a big miss. Weruva tins are very low in fat and suitable for diabetics.
     
  4. sondra

    sondra Member

    Joined:
    Feb 17, 2010
    I went to the Hills website and people were posting how much they liked it and how quickly their cat was losing weight. This is supposed to be really good for weight loss. Does anyone here have a fat kitty that they are helping to diet without the Hills diet plan? I am really suspicious of the vet's motivation but hate to dismiss it out of hand. I will check the websites you noted. Thanks to all who replied!
     
  5. Wendy&Neko

    Wendy&Neko Senior Member Moderator

    Joined:
    Feb 28, 2012
    Depending on whether it's the Hills R/D (34% carbs) or W/D (25% carbs), neither is suitable food for a diabetic. We stick to foods under 10% carbs. I worked at a local shelter that tried R/D and W/D on their non diabetic fat cats - they all stayed nice and fat after months on the diet. I adopted one of them and he lost weight as soon as he went onto portion control of low carb wet food.

    If you pop over to the website BJM suggested, there is a good section on obesity and how to feed to lose weight.
     
  6. BJM

    BJM Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Oct 6, 2010
    I had a few overweight/obese cats when Spitzer was diagnosed as diabetic. I switched all of them over to low carb canned Friskies pates (just try to feed 1 cat separately from 10 others!) and the overweight ones lost weight without even controlling portions.
     
  7. sondra

    sondra Member

    Joined:
    Feb 17, 2010
    How thankful I am to all of you who watch this message board! Because of you, we have had 6 more wonderful years with Ceasar (2009-2015) and, when we get the weight controlled, expect to have even a few more. I was embarrassed to come back to the board after we had allowed a diabetic cat to gain weight. Thanks to all of you who didnt yell at me! We are back on track now......thanks again.
     
  8. Chris & China (GA)

    Chris & China (GA) Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    May 10, 2013
    While this particular article focuses on dog food, the same information pertains to our cats food.

    There is NO "magic" in "Prescription" foods of ANY kind.

    Hills has spent a great deal of money training their salespeople to "teach" our vets about nutrition...and why wouldn't they? They want to sell more products!!

    Before you go out and spend a fortune just because the food has the word "Prescription" in it, I would hope you'd thoroughly read this article.

    http://www.soggypaws.com/Documents/prescription_diet.pdf

    All those "Prescription" foods are also guaranteed so you can just take them back and tell them your cat won't eat it and get your money back. Much better things to spend money on....like meters and strips!
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page