Anyone hear have advice for a cat who won't eat vet prescribed foods?

[NNadir]

The older of our two cats adopted earlier this year, Kiki, who has proved to be a pedigreed cat, as I noted in this forum recently, It appears that one of the cats we adopted from a shelter is a pedigree breed began to show blood in her urine and displaying difficulty urinating.

We took her, of course, to the vet, who diagnosed bladder stones. The vet gave her a long acting antibiotic shot, and prescribed Hill's Urinary Special food, which is alleged to serve to dissolve these stones.

My wife blames herself for this outcome, because in order to control Kiki's weight, she put her on a commercial high protein food. (Kidney/Bladder stones are generally crystalized urea, similar to gout in humans. High protein does result in urea biosynthesis.)

The problem is that Kiki, who is overweight, pretty much hates the food; she won't really eat it, and if she does, it's just a few bites.

She is obese and can afford to lose weight, but she does have to eat, I think.

She's a sweet lady, with imploring eyes, and I hate making her unhappy.

We have never had a cat this young with major health problems.

Have any cat owners here have any experience with this sort of thing? The food is very expensive, close to $100/bag, and we're already in, between vet bills and follow ups around $700 into this. We can afford it, I guess, but we're not extremely wealthy; it is somewhat painful.

Interestingly, her son, Harry, wants to eat her special food, and she wants his. We have to watch them carefully during feeding.

Advice would be appreciated.

[spooky3]

1. Unfortunately many cats do this. You can try putting food she likes

On top of the prescription food. She may keep eating.

You could also ask the vet if there are other flavors or brands of the food she needs.

[CousinIT]

2. Can you mix or add Churu or another yummy kitty treat to the food?

I used to mix my cat's meds with chicken baby food - maybe adding a small amount of that to the Rx food to entice her to eat more of it would work, or one of those treat things, like Churu.

[unblock]

3. Uhhhh, my advice is take the food your human gives you

[KT2000]

4. Try Royal Canin

My cat did not like Hill's either but the comparable Royal Canin - wet and dry worked out. I was prescribed Urinary SO cat food. They also have a low calorie version.

It is really worth getting them on that food because it does work. My cat never had another problem with crystals or stones and he lived a long time and no test showed them again.

[Polly Hennessey]

9. My cat is on Royal Canin Renal Support, both dry and wet.

She loves it.

[piddyprints]

5. At the risk of starting the cat food wars again...

Hill's is the worst food and cats know it. Mine won't go near it.

I would switch to wet food first. Google natural remedies and treatments.

catinfo.org has a lot of good information on cat nutrition. She saved my Abby's life in 2005 and he lived another 10 years after we changed his diet. He had inflammatory bowel disease and his vet recommended a Hill's prescription food that only made him worse.

[bamagal62]

11. Yep. Science diet is awful

[in2herbs]

6. Dandeliion tincture helps to keep the pH balanced. Try adding 1/4 t of RO water to their food, mixing water in with a

spoon to a pate cat food. Gradually increase to 1/2 t once or twice a day. Cats don't drink a lot of water and adding water helps with hydration and hydration helps prevent stones. Also there's an on-line homeopathic store that sells a tincture called "Tinkle Tonic." It works and the cat can be on it all their life.

With these tinctures you'll get dosing instructions but I suggest you give just 1 drop per meal for a few meals (with water added) and increase from there to fool a finicky cat.

The man who owns the tincture store is VERY knowledgeable and a world wide speaker on animal health issues. The name of his company is Animal Essentials.

[LetsGetSmartAboutIt]

7. Yes water is good !

We have a cat that had crystals in his bladder.

Vet put him on a purina veterinary prescription food, dry and wet, he and his sister love it.

I give them dry 3 times a day ( auto feeder ) and 1/4 can of the wet with lots of water mixed into it to encourage water intake. It's really a wet food soup, but they knock it right off and come and beg for it every night.

Expensive food, but there has been no further issues.

We transitioned his sister to it after talking to vet, and other than cost it's fine for her.

It costs about $100 a month for the wet and dry food.

But it's worth it and having them both on it makes it much easier.

I hope you find a good solution for your kitties.

[biophile]

8. Many vets recommend Hills but I believe there is corporate pressure there

Have to agree with prior posts - 1) that most cats do not like their special foods, 2) the tinctures have helped our dog with his itching so the naturopathic methods might work, 3) putting a more favored food on top or mixed in could encourage consumption of the special diet food, and 4) give alternative brands to Hills a try.
Nnadir, I know you are a keen scientist. Asking friends about their own experiences is an important research and information gathering method! Best of luck to you and your cat!

[piddyprints]

14. I believe you are correct about the corporate pressure.

The vets I have talked with told me that they only take one nutrition class in vet school and it’s sponsored by Hill’s.

[bamagal62]

10. I had a cat in Hong Kong that

Had really bad IBD. We had rescued her. In Hong Kong, they put her on prednisone, which helped. We then moved to Japan. My vet there said, “we have got to get her off this prednisone.” She was eating Science Diet digestive prescription food at the time. The vet in Japan said that she thought the science diet had actually caused the IBD. Stating that the science diet was not very good food. She said it was all marketing. She said, she has a food allergy and we have to figure out what it is. So, we started an elimination diet to figure out what was causing the horrible (and I’m talking horrible) diarrhea.
She said, we are going to start with eliminating chicken and only give her fish. She gave me a royal canin that was only sold in Japan that only had fish in it. No fillers. Just fish. Within 48 hours my cat had normal stools. She was basically cured. Turns out she was allergic to chicken. (We got lucky that the chicken was the one.) This was before the pet food companies started making single protein foods. When I moved back to the states, a friend in Tokyo would ship the food to me in NY from Japan, as it was not available in the US. This was 2007.
I finally, after 2 years, found a canned food that was only fish, no chicken. Back then, they put chicken in all cat food. She lived until
She was 18. Never had diarrhea after the vet in Tokyo figured it out. Pet foods do not have to be regulated by the FDA. And, those prescription diets are not what they say they are. My dog eats a raw diet. My current cat eats a brand called Rawz (which is family owned and all proceeds go to charity) that has no fillers. I would suggest trying individual proteins to see what is causing the problem. The prescription foods are marketing, crap, and expensive. Feel free to message me if you have any questions. I’ve been there with both of my cats and my dog.

[piddyprints]

13. That's what my cat had.

Doc gave him Hill’s and then he squirted out both ends instead of just the very watery diarrhea. He was an Abby, so was naturally thin. But he went from 9 1/2 pounds to 5 pounds in a matter of weeks and was very close to dying.

We started feeding him raw rabbit and he turned around in just a few days. He was 7 when he got sick and lived to be 17. At the time, we had some rather heated discussions here about how I was going to kill him with that diet. We’ll have been feeding raw for 20 years and our cats thrive on it. Two of them (we currently have 4) won’t go near any commercial wet food. Our cats so far live to an average of 17 years. We had one make it to 21 a few years ago.

[bamagal62]

15. I did do raw with my cat that I have now.

When she was a kitten. But, she was a grazer and I couldn’t manage the raw. So I went with canned Rawz.
My dog was on royal canin when she was a puppy but she stopped eating and had low blood sugar seizures.
My breeder suggested to try raw. I bought Stella and Chewy’s raw beef and she gobbled it up and have fed her that for 11 years now. She’s healthy. She’s a cavalier. So, 11 years with a cavalier is awesome. She’s healthy and happy. My cat, now 7, loves rawz and I also feed tiki cat sardines. I went through a period when I tried another brand and she had diarrhea. So I stick with 4 brands:
Tiki cat sardines
Rawz (different proteins. She lives the rabbit.)
Feline Natural
Dry food: Ziwi peak air dried (I keep dry food out 24-7.)
Having a few brands keeps her from doing the normal cat thing of getting bored with her food and not eating.
It works and we have no digestive issues.

[tazcat]

12. Why don't you use your best china?

[bamagal62]

16. Was that

In response to my post? I was just trying to be helpful.
When you have a 4 year old and a 2 year old year old and a cat with explosive diarrhea, you learn a lot about pet foods and you’ll do anything to make them healthy, even if it means feeding them on good China. So, yes, I would feed them on good China if it would stop my cat from dying due to digestive problems. I actually had to bathe that cat EVERY day, as she had diarrhea all over her backside and my kids wanted to hold her. It was a nightmare. Between putting her in a burrito to give her the prednisone and then bathing her backside every day, if good China was the answer, then that would have been WAY better.

[radical noodle]

17. I can tell you that the special food to dissolve bladder stones

can actually do it. I had a dog with a horrible problem with bladder stones. Once put on the food and given time, the stones were gone. Is the food wet or dry? What you might be able to add to the food to make it more appealing depends on what type of stones she has. Have you asked your vet for ideas, because sometimes you can add broth or something to the food.

I mixed my dog's old food with the new gradually for a few days until she was eating only the special food. It was an easier transition than switching all at once.

Good luck!

[Bayard]

18. I don't like dry pet food

I think the extrusion/heat process destroys nutrients in it--my .02. We know overprocessed foods are not good for humans.

That being said, we do feed our 17 outdoor cats dry food because its the only practical way to feed them. They do supplement their own diets on occasion with a live critter. We have some good mousers. We did have 20 of them, but the count is down now since several have died of old age in the past few years. Since many of them were dumped here as kittens/young cats, I'd say it works for them.

Our one indoor cat gets plenty of the boiled chicken we make for the dogs, and pretty much whatever else she wants.

From what I remember, any way that you can increase hydration is a big help for bladder stones. Does she like water packed tuna?

Please keep us posted.