Hills Prescription R/D

The vet just put my 2 guys on this as they seem to gain weight fast

Anyone have any experience with this? Does it really work? My vet says one of her cats that she took in went from 17.5 lbs down to 8 lbs over the course of 1+ years...now I don't expect such results, nor do I want THAT much loss, I'm just wondering if it will indeed work. Thanks!

That much weight loss in that length of time sounds like too much for me. I would prefer to see a cat switched to a quality wet food for weight loss.

R/D is designed to help loose wt ... IMHO I agree with Yosemite for the wet diet of a higher quality food but since it is a RX youll need to research and then talk to your vet ..

oh I've already done that and she was the one who prescribed Hills, I was just wondering if anyone else had experience with that particular food

FYI- I tried the mostly wet food diet (Wellness grain free wet) and they gained weight

I agree, you and your vet have to go over the plan that works for your cat. I fed Hills r/d to my dogs for years. They were always starving. I looked on the bag and peanut hulls were listed as an ingriedent. They have since changed that formula after the food recalls.

Have you compared ingriedents from Hills r/d to others? That might be a good start from which to ask questions. The only meat that is listed is chicken-by-product meal that I could find. Like Sharky mentioned, there are better quality foods that might work. Good luck with the diet.

I have fed r/d and if I had to do it again, I wouldn't. Yes, my kitty lost weight, but her fur became so dry and fly-away. She would shed like crazy! I would try it only as a last resort, after I'd tried everything else. When you put kitty on a diet, you want the weight loss to be slow and gradual.

R/D hardly ever works. Its like fighting fire with fire. How can you expect a cat to loose weight while pumping his body full of carbohydrates. The trick for loosing weight is reducing his carbohydrate intake (cats bodies have no biological need for carbohydrates) and increasing there activity. So less dry food and more canned food. Cheap dollar store laser pointers seem to get most cats moving.

The canned food bit doesn't work for every cat. Marvin gained 2.1 lbs in 3 months on 80% wet food diet, Izzy gained 1.5 lbs. I trust my vet and she prescribed Hills because the other methods were not working. Is it a permenant thing? No. Do they get other food besides? Of course they do, still get a tiny bit of wet food daily.

I forgot to say, that limiting portions and not allowing free-feeding worked while on the r/d as well. If you're game, I wonder if a raw or partially raw diet would work for you and your kitties. I definitely agree with the above poster that cutting the carbs (think Atkins diet for kitties) really helps.

I have a 2nd cat, Hannah, who is a small cat. She gets less than 1/4 C of dry food a day. When I notice her getting a bit more pudgy than I like, I cut back on the dry. In a couple of weeks, she's lookin' good!

Stephanie

Originally Posted by jman_in_MN

The canned food bit doesn't work for every cat. Marvin gained 2.1 lbs in 3 months on 80% wet food diet, Izzy gained 1.5 lbs. I trust my vet and she prescribed Hills because the other methods were not working. Is it a permenant thing? No. Do they get other food besides? Of course they do, still get a tiny bit of wet food daily.

Click to expand...

Since your cats gained weight on both wet and dry foods...I would look at the quantity served and activity level. If they are fully grown cats, and indoor cats...then they really need only a bit of food per day. They may WANT more...LOL....but they wouldn't need it.

I agree with wet food being the better food. Why don't you try again with just wet food...starting at what you currently feed them...then about every 2 days or so.....decrease the portion by 1/2 tsp or so.
My Phoebe weighs 15.8 lb and eats about 3 tablespoons of wet food per day...she 12.5 yrs old and very inactive. She has lost about 6 oz since March. We're trying to get her down to 11 pounds.

Dry food is full of useless carbs, low muscle protein, low moisture. Cats need muscle meat and moisture and fat...and that's all. Dry food really should be eliminated from their diets..but is hard to do.
I have to admit that I still put out dry food.....Phoebe will sit and sit till she gets it....but...I feed a quality dry food...and 3 cats share 1/2 cup per day. So, it's like dessert for them.

Remember...Vets are programmed by Hill's to recommend their foods...Hill's pays for alot of supplies in their offices...take a look around at the names on the containers, paper, etc. Hill's pays for part of their Vet eduction. It is too bad that Hill's doesn't make a better quality food for cats (I don't know about their dog food). But when I see the word 'by-product' in any pet food listing....I see 'garbage'......JMHO.

I agree that some of the prescription diets are very helpful. But to get a prescription for a food for weight reduction, I just have a hard time understanding why nutrition is not used more by vets. My vet said Hills teaches or provides the material for their classes and the class time is minimal. I don't remember exactly.

I copy/pasted the ingriedents from Sci Diet Feline r/d.
http://www.hillspet.com/hillspet/products/productDetails.hjsp?PRODUCT<>prd_id=845524441760608

Ingredients

Chicken By-Product Meal, Brewers Rice, Corn Gluten Meal, Powdered Cellulose 18.8% (source of fiber), Chicken Liver Flavor, Soybean Oil, Calcium Sulfate, Potassium Sulfate, Choline Chloride, Vitamin E Supplement, Taurine, Glyceryl Monostearate, Iodized Salt, vitamins (L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Potassium Chloride, preserved with BHT, BHA and Ethoxyquin, L-Carnitine, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), Beta-Carotene.

I just read that "powdered cellulose" is fiber that traps moisture. Does this mean the pets eating this need to be watched for dehydration or urinary problems? Hills did mention urinary something at the bottom of the ingred page. This could be important with all the renal problems after the recall.

Sorry, I do wonder about this because my dogs were on the canine r/d for years per vet request. I only startted paying attention to nutrition after the recall. Guess we all got paranoid. Good luck with the weight loss.

I would but likely the cellulose is not absorbing enough to worry about .. as this is a common ingrediant in many cat food s not just rx ...

Thanks Sharky. Seeing that 18% powdered cellulose sounded like a lot.

Our Freya was prescribed one of the Hills foods ( I don't remember which one) when we first got her because she was frighteningly underweight. Honestly, it didn't seem to hurt her but I took her off of it (with the vet's blessing) as soon as we finished the initial bag because it gave her horrible gas.

In Freya's case (and Cotton's once we got him too) we found that controlled portions of a good quality food worked better than anything for controlling thier weight.