Vet Diets

My cat has had 2 Urinary Tract infections in the past year and my vet put gave me Eukanuba Low Ph/S food for him in addition to antiboidics.

His urinary tract infection is gone and he has been doing well. He ran out of food before I could get to the vets office to purchase more (totally my fault obviously) and my question is - is 9 Lives URINARY TRACT HEALTH food which also says it's low in Ph going to work as well?

What is the difference, specifcally?

Info on the 9 Lives food is found here:

http://www1.9lives.com/Default.aspx?...3,30,311&dcf=2

Info on the Eukanuba food is here:

http://us.iams.com/iams/en_US/jsp/IA...L&productID=42

Knowing very little about what is good and bad I can't tell much difference between the two looking at the percentages. I'd "assume" the Eukanuba is better because is looks more professional and is more expensive but that theory is sorta silly without understanding what the real differnece is.

Thanks for any and all help.

Understanding the most substantial differences between cat foods doesn't require a lot of sophisticated knowledge - all you really need is to understand that cats are carnivores and then use some good old fashioned common sense. The ingredients list tells you 99% of what you need to know.

In this case, neither food has great ingredients but Eukanuba is much better - it lists a meat ingredient 2nd instead of 3rd on the ingredients list (a good food would list meat 1st), contains muscle meat, and does not contain animal digest (which is basically rendered unidentifiable by-products of random unidentified animals).

For urinary health, though, wet food is essential. Cats evolved to live in a desert environment with very little available water, so they are naturally meant to get the majority of their water from their food. They have a very low thirst drive, so by the time they feel thirsty they are already pretty dehydrated. A diet of all or mostly dry food will cause chronic low-level dehydration, which puts stress on the urinary system. Wet food keeps cats hydrated and helps protect against urinary problems.

I completley agree with Semiferal, who has already said everything I would have

Yep, you need to change your cats diet. May I subjest Innova Evohttp://www.thecatsite.com/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif

mm-hmmmm, what she said

semiferal said it very well.

The other thing to keep in mind is that he will consume more of the lower quality food to meet his needs. You really do get more for your money with a high quality food.