What is the story with vets and catkins?

I just don't get it. I have three cats, two of whom are overweight adults. Our former vet always recommended feeding them light dry food from the time they were kittens as they started looking pudgy from about 1 year old. They have been a strict r/d diet for years with controlled portions (1/2 cup per cat per day), and continued to gain weight steadily throughout their whole lives (4.5 years). No one ever mentioned to me that this could be from the very high-carb food they were eating. In fact, I had been told in the past that feeding a cat wet food was like feeding your child twinkies.

I have spent so much time tearing my hair out not knowing what to do about their weight gain - I don't want to starve them after all! Plus, these are cats with each other and a baby sister to play with, with many cat toys and numerous very tall cat trees and scratching posts, etc so it's not like they're bored and have no opportunity to exercise.

Anyway, I have just switched them to a "Catkins" diet using Wellness, grain-free wet food, so hopefully they can get down to healthy weights.

It just really burns me up that I have paid so much money taking my cats to very expensive, high-end veterinarians, and the only way I found out about this approach to feline weight loss was through hours of my own internet research. Are these vets just uninformed? Are they being paid by the Hills folks to shill Prescription Diet foods? I repeatedly expressed my confusion at Oscar and Molly's weight gain despite their strict r/d diet for YEARS. It almost feels to me like this has been kept a secret or something. Or am I just being too conspiratorial here?

Originally Posted by Rope55

It just really burns me up that I have paid so much money taking my cats to very expensive, high-end veterinarians, and the only way I found out about this approach to feline weight loss was through hours of my own internet research. Are these vets just uninformed? Are they being paid by the Hills folks to shill Prescription Diet foods? I repeatedly expressed my confusion at Oscar and Molly's weight gain despite their strict r/d diet for YEARS. It almost feels to me like this has been kept a secret or something. Or am I just being too conspiratorial here?

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I really don't think it's as much intentional coverup as it is unintentional ignorance. A lot of vets are just repeating what was once 'conventional wisdom' regarding feline nutrition, that dry food is good for the teeth and wet food is bad, fattening, sugary, etc. That's not entirely true, but unfortunately the myths get perpetuated by pet food manufacturers, food reps, veterinarians, etc.

Times are changing luckily ... many vets are learning to research for themselves and a few food companies are promoting there wet lines much more ... but yeah change is slow

I think it goes back to the time when vets saw that cats preferred the wet food in many instances and the puritan instinct took over and they just assumed that it was bad for the kitties.

My cat Estelle is supposed to be strictly canned food. It's a slow process. She's now taken to snarfing the other cats' supper because she's a bit hungry without the dry food.

I have two cats who will not eat wet food at all so they get Avoderm and eat it on the kitchen table because Estellie jelly belly can't get up there. Needless to say, we no longer use the kitchen table because it's the spot for the thin cats.