Science Diet W/D

Hi,
A friend's friend had a cat that died and she brought over some food from the owner. There are 18 cans of Science Diet W/D formula. I looked it up and it said that it's a diet formula or a formula for diabetic cats, for overweight cats.
Would it hurt to give it to our cats, one of which is overweight or should I just donate it to a shelter? Of course, the cats might not even want to eat it, as is usually the case with prescription food. I'd hate to see it go to waste.

Thank you!

Please donate it to the shelter they will make sure a cat who needs it gets it

It is expensive and many shelters are in need of it (it is also used for its increased fiber in some cats so they go through a lot of it) so I would donate it there, I never give my cats diet food and its hard enough to get them to eat a prescription food when they have to have it

Originally Posted by icklemiss21

It is expensive and many shelters are in need of it (it is also used for its increased fiber in some cats so they go through a lot of it) so I would donate it there, I never give my cats diet food and its hard enough to get them to eat a prescription food when they have to have it

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i do think it would help the shelters more, i know its only a few cans but its a few cans they possibly cant afford that might be really needed

18 cans would feed a cat for a month - at over $1.50 a can that helps a shelter a lot!

I also vote for a shelter donation.

To clarify something that people often seem to mistake:

w/d is a Hills Prescription Diet food, NOT Science Diet. Science Diet is their grocery store line of pet foods.

Big difference.

If you have an overweight cat, you talk to your vet about possibly using it for the overweight cat. He would need to be under the dr. care losing weight. Otherwise I wouldn't feed it to cats who don't need it. Speedboat and Muffin both ate it all the time. They were both overweight with kidney issues. Muffin would not eat the C/D, so the dr. put them both on W/D for weight maintenance. Muffin gets a controlled amount and his weight is checked often.

I will be looking into a shelter to give it to.

They closed the one closest to me ( budget cuts or something...unbelievable!) so it will be a bit of a drive, but maybe I can get some other things to donate also.

Thank you!

If you have any local rescues, they might be able to use it too.

I would try one of them - but IMO I don't like ANY of the SD foods - prescription or not. You don't need special food to reduce calories for an overweight cat - you simply cut back on food, don't free feed and try to get them to exercise more.

Hills Prescription w/d is specifically for diabetic cats who are dangerously overweight, or cannot maintain a healthy weight on a normal diet. It can also be used for grossly obese cats whose lives are at risk if they don't reduce.

There are plenty of people in the world who are too lazy to put the work and time and effort into reducing a dangerously obese cat to a healthy weight. A vet, knowing this, might prescribe Hills Prescription w/d.

It is not meant for cats with normal health who are "slightly overweight".

While I'm on the subject, a weight reduction program for any overweight cat should not be started before the cat has had a check up with the vet (including blood work, as organ function needs to be considered), ideal weight figured, and a time frame for the reduction.

It is very dangerous for a cat, especially an obese cat, to lose weight quickly.

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Actually, M/D is the one for diabetes and severe obesity, W/D is a lower calorie, higher fiber food but is used as a general purpose food by many vets, it can be prescribed for crystal issues, diarrhea and constipation etc as well. W/D is used with diabetic cats but not to the same extent.

But I agree, weightloss must be done with a vet and if very overweight, bloodwork and testing not just weighing by the vet