Hills Prescription m/d food

My vet has prescribed Hills Prescription m/d food for my slightly overweight cat. What do you think of this food and are there any better alternatives? We feed the cat a mix of dry and wet food. He is a very active cat and we are very careful with the amount of food he is fed. He is a large male who the vet would like to see lose one pound.

Hiya Welcome to TCS

You don't say how old your cat is??,But usually a vet will prescribe Hills m/d for cats that are slightly/ overweight and may be prone to or are showing early signs of Diabetes,Arthritus,Heart disease or Liver disease.

If you are unsure of why your vet has prescribed this diet ( and this is only my opinion,I believe it is a very good diet for those cats who have been diagnosed with those conditions,Is a good,nutritional,and most of all palatable diet,but that is just my opinion ) I would speak to your vet and ask him/her to explain exactly why he/she has recommended your cat be on this diet.

Although the ingredients aren't the best, if I had a borderline diabetic cat I would most likely feed the stuff too. When it comes to medical conditions sometimes you have to weigh the pros and the cons. Canned food is better but I've never been successful getting my cats to eat only wet.

Rx( diet) s are usually prescribed for a reason ... If you are wondering why , talk to your vet ...

Diets in cats are complex.... Just like humans some need low cal others need low fat while others need high protein and fat to loss wt ... Wet food can help in the latter two and is easier to control calories BUT NOT all cats go for it ...

Talk with your vet as to exactly why they recommended that food

My cat is five years old and has no medical conditions other than being about one pound overweight. The vet prescribed this because he has seen cats successfully lose weight on this food. Our cat eats mostly wet food but he does get a small amount of dry food too. I have great faith in my vet but I am not sure that he is a true expert on nutrition. Is the m/d food nutritionally sound or is there something better that I could feed my cat that would be better for weight loss? Without weighing the cat on the same scale the vet uses it is difficult to determine whether or not the cat has lost the one pound that the the vet and I would like to see him lose. He certainly has not gained any weight - which is good.

I think it's odd that your vet prescribed a food like that to help your cat loose weight. Is your cat free-fed dry food? My vet prefers to keep the cat on it's normal food (unless it's bottom-of-the-barrel stuff) and feed only in limited meals. She also prescribes how much to feed. This has worked really well for my Lily, although granted she's still a kitten and so probably looses weight more easily than an adult. My vet does sell prescription foods but said that they're usually not necessary for weight loss as long as I'm willing to follow her instructions.

But I don't understand why an otherwise healthy overweight cat needs special diabetes food to loose weight. Could you talk to a different vet?

I think it's odd your vet prescribed m/d. We feed m/d to mostly diabetic cats... for weight loss most vets use r/d or w/d. So I find it odd that a cat who is only a pound overweight [according to you] is being put on a calorie control diet, no less m/d when w/d and r/d are out there.

I would go see another vet. In the mean time just feed the cat less than it's normally getting of your regular food for weight loss. For cats and dogs it's all about portion control.

I agree with Plebayo & the others. Any prescription diet at this point sounds a bit extreme, considering one pound in a cat is probably the equivalent of 15-20 pounds in a human. No one wants to be 20 pounds overweight, but it's not *that* overweight, and reducing the amount of normal food should be enough to change things. It also shouldn't happen overnight. Just like with people, losing weight too fast isn't healthy.

I thought W/D was typically prescribed for weight loss. Teddy was actually prescribed it to get his IBS under control (which I thought was totally weird, but it worked), even though it's a weight loss food.

I'd wonder about why the food was prescribed in the first place for such a small amount of weight loss.

A lot of vets prescribe M/D for weightloss. A lot of cats actually lose weight better on high protein/low carb diets as opposed to the super-high carbs in traditional weightloss foods. (high protein/low carb is also good for diabetes, which is what M/D is).

Your vet prescribing it to you because your cat is 1 lb overweight though is a little odd, and seems to me like it's just to make his practive a little more money

Just to clarify. The vet originally prescribed the W/D but my cat refused to eat it. Also, the cat weighs 10 pounds and ideally should weigh a little less. My vet is a stickler about being careful with any extra weight and since the cat seems to gain each time he goes for his annual exam, I am trying to keep his weight down to the most ideal weight for his body. Do you have any suggestions for high protein/low carb foods?

EVO and Natures prairie both make low carb HIGH protein