What are you guys paying for Hills Z/D diet?

Well I give up, two years of this allergy and ear stuff, I'm going to cave in on Monday and ween my little one off Natural Balance LD wet food. Either he is going get much worse, start to have bowel issues too or he is going get better. My concern is the cost though. I think at my little Vet is nearly $3 a can.
Any tips where to find it for less would be great as there is no reason why I should pay so much more if found for less. The usual Amazon approach doesnt work with this.

Thanks! I pay $1.40 for 6 ounces of NB Vension. Well at least its not double. Why 5.5 though? Is it more dense in calories? I usually divide one can into his four meals for the day.

Wow this stuff is like Jello. So stiff and wiggly!
Now for the week transition period. He ate the little bit I gave him this morning with his regular food. Scratched and licked himself more then usual after though. Hopefully it does not mean anything. Just as long as he does not start having bowel issues, that never was part of his problem.

The only thing left if this dont work is just dropping all this fancy wet food stuff and going back to a junkier dry food like my first cat. She never had these issues with Pro Plan when I was more ignorant about cat nutrition. Though I imagine taking a cat that has only had wet food to dry food is very hard and a vocal experience for months.

Slow transition to Z/D didnt work. He has completely stopped eating which is just profoundly shocking for a cat that cant be free feed because he gores. What he does to his face while eating Z/D is also for the record books, never seen it that bad. He lays in a new position now, like a crouch where you can see all the tops of his hind legs over his back and either looks sleepy or in pain. He even turned down the old NB Venison this morning. Emergency appt in an hour at a new place 35 miles away with my last $200 to my name. He never had a car ride this long, even with feliway spray the stress might tip him over the end. I expect after today I will be at $1400 for this little guy and no real answers. I cant keep this up much longer myself with MS, worrying about him takes a toll. I suppose if I can get him back to venison and green pea with just the right ear issues that would be some improvement.

They sent me to allergy specialist. She does not feel that the venison and green pea NB is hurting him in anyway, actually she highly recommends it. She is more concerned that we found him burnt in a car engine, maybe a scar tissue issue, possible polyps involving the ear and nose. I am waiting blood results. She would love to do CT Scan to know for sure about a few possibilities but told me she understood most could not afford it so I assume its quite high.

Had a few days that seemed decent to me. He was eating nearly to normal rations, ears seemed light in color but he started to twitch the ear the last two days, classic sign of needing a cleaning. I gently used the Q-tip and pushed back those two lobe things at the bottom of the ear to see into the canal. Oh boy, I thought it was all blood, just red and inflamed.
One vet doesnt want me to use Mometamax too often in fear of this young cat becoming diabetic and gave me Allegra instead but gee I had to make a choice as it sure is not helping with his ear maybe abit of the licking and scratching. My understanding is Mometamax is abit of pain killer and inflammation helper with anti bacterial and steroid help. So I cleaned with Epi_otic advanced which made the whole ear pure red. 20 mins later I applied two drops of Mometamax, its been 8-10 days since his last dose. The specialist is in Greece at moment and the very close vet when I called just gave me an appt for Thursday morning. I am sure I over worry about stuff likely why the local staff is sick of me but a pure red inflamed ear and some dark gunk has been relentless lately. He usually gets a 3-4 month break but this is twice in just 4-6 weeks, its hard to tell how much pain is involved. Maybe going too many days without that Mometamax wasn't good idea.

Vet applied some Epi-otic advanced during appt this week to see what I was talking about how I thought it was making it worse for him. He literally went OMG at how blood red, swollen and twitchy his ear got. Today we applied Trizedta instead. This is the best color his ear has looked since early May. Poor little guy I'm hoping so hard this is finally winding down enough that he can get 3-4 month breaks like last year.

He is having stomach contracts and swallows a few times like he is trying to keep his food down after eating his Venison and Green Pea even with very small portions now. I dont know what to do anymore, I was hoping this was because of Depo-Medrol injection but that was way back on June 7th and half the normal dose. We are out of grain free Natural Balance options and the Vet is pushing Z/D again. I just dont understand how that is better then NB when it has soy, Brewers Rices, and sawdust in it(Cellulose). Sure the meat is specialized but what about all this grain junk? I suppose since NB does not have grains, they use peas and he has a history of 2 years of reacting to grain free wet food it has to be all meat proteins he reacts too. I'm just so nervous, if this makes him worse.

Fourth day on Z/D. 90 percent less scratching, 60 percent less licking paws after eating. Mouth seems to be healing.The real test will be the ear growth and stomach. Watching the litter, fairly close to diarrhea, quite mushy stools. Just amazed that it seems he really got allergic to the venison meat eventually on NB.

Darn, that was a short vacation. Scratching and licking after immediate eating again, nearly gouged his right eye out, right ear black gunk again. Wakes up from dead sleep about every 20 mins and head shakes but there is hardly anything in there, no inflammation compared to the past when he didn't do that so I don't understand what he is feeling that is so different. Still crouches on all fours after eating and blinks his eyes, tummy contracts twice fast and he swallows alot like trying not to vomit. The vets tell me not to make much of that unless he is hiding but I know my cat this just started a month ago and he looks in pain. I wonder if the allergy reaction that happened in his mouth also happened in the stomach. All I can do now is give it time with Z/D, hope he heals as this is the end, four vets, a grand and half of money with no real answers. There barely is any protein out there left to try anyhow and after what happened to him with the rabbit food. I dont have the heart for anymore diets nor does his system need to always be on 60-90 day elimination trials so I think regardless what happens we stick with this into September. Everyone is telling me to prepare to the possibility of having to put him down for my health, sanity, wallet and his quality of life if this continues for the rest of the year or he starts getting bleeding sores. We found him with what we assumed was burns from inside a car engine and pure black bacterial non mite filled ears, he came this way well before any diet or environment I offered him but I starting to suspect this situation is as serious a birth defect and alot more complicated then common allergy. Its surely beyond any vet science.