Friskies for Tom?

Since Tom wasn't eating the prescribed KD food, I bought him Friskies Special Diet for cats with urinary tract infection.
Is that safe?
At least he is eating that.
I do mix in some of the dry KD food but he eats around it.
By the way, Mr. Tom gave me a scare today.
I took him outside for a bit and he was trying to catch a bird!
I quickly stopped him.
I've included a pic of the little guy.
Angie

If tom wants to catch a bird you should let him. He's an outdoor cat, and that is a pretty good sign that he is feeling much better and is happy to be running around outside.

Please give the vet a call and tell him about the food change. Since the food is medicine, he should be informed.

As a rule, I never change food without my vets ok.

Tom is sure a cutie!!

I would ask the vet about changing the food. Maybe they can give you the name of another food that Tom might like better. Him wanting to catch a bird is a good thing, says he's feeling better.

Thanks.
I decided to give him that food because I found it on a page which had alternative foods for the prescribed med.
Again, this is a diet food for cats with urinary problems.
Thanks.

Yup!

That K/D is almost a joke as it's so dry - even if you add water to it, it will not mix into a mush. I believe there is a "kick-back" for Vets to sell it. The dry has grains in it which isn't good.

Your cat has kidney issues?


I have a hypercalcemic cat (Hypercalcemia can turn instantly into Kidney Disease if the fluid isn't given at least every other day (which I have been doing for over 2 or 3 years (I can't remember now!) I gave up with the K/D and let her go back on the food the rest of my cats were eating (Innova Red) which I know has too much protein, but believe me, she pee's it out with all the fluids she gets and her last urinalysis and kidney testings were actually better than the last time I took her in. :-D

If you are doing Sub-Q's as well, you can have your vet write a script for a box of 12 of them and get them at Costco for about $20.00. (Yup! 12 - 1,000Ml bags of fluids for about $20.00) I get all my cats' medicines there now.

Warmly,

Julie O'

Tom is such a beautiful boy!! WOW!! I do know that some people use that Friskies Special diet for urinary issues and their cats do very well on it. It sounds like he is feeling better, especially if he wanted to catch a bird!!!

angier106 - Do discuss it with your vet. You may also want to talk to them about trying other prescription food brands. Tom may like another brand better. Always check the brand's site for coupons.

As for vets making money off the foods... Has anyone looked up the price of prescription diets online and then compared them to what vets charge? Often it's nearly the same price or less since they have to compete. I can't imagine a vet could make much money off of food when they're having to mark it down.

Hi Strange,

It's not money off the food, it's "kickbacks" from the company for selling their food which, to me is way overpriced.

Warmly,

Julie O' and the Puds

^Instead of assuming, ask your vet about it.

Has anyone else on here seriously asked their vets about it? I know the reason my vet sells Hills is simply because it's the brand he's most familiar with having had sponsored training with hills, not because he's making a lot of money off of it. (I asked)

Not here to argue, unsubscribing now from this thread. Wow.

The problem is that this is a prescribed diet. It is medical treatment. When naysayers come along and dismiss this medical treatment that was prescribed with the intention of keeping the cat(s) alive it causes harm. Either the OPs of the threads may take this seriously or others reading the posts that follow this advice in place of their vets. So many already want an excuse not to follow the vet treatment when it's concerning an expensive food that doesn't look that great ingredient wise that it may not take much to convince them.

It is clearly in the site rules not to give out advice with the intention of it replacing that of a vets. Everyone signing up agrees to this.

I guess I'm confused, does Tom have urinary issues or kidney problems, or both?

Do ask your vet about it. Explain that Tom won't eat the prescription food, what does he recommend? Prescription food is like medicine, but obviously it won't do any good if he won't eat it.

Thank you for your advice.
I just want him to eat and not be weak.
Before giving him the Friskies, I did call the vet and they told me to give him the KD mixed with chicken broth to see if he'd eat it.
He didn't.
Angie

When I took him, he was blocked.
Blood tests showed he's starting kidney
failure. From 1 to 10, vet said he was about
3.
Right now, he is peeing very well.

Email Purina and get more info on their special diet foods. Then take that to your vet and let them look at it. They may see a problem with something that you (and I) don't. Also ask them about different script foods, surely another brand makes a more palatable one that your vet may be ok with.

I had a kitty block, too. He eats Hills C/D now (wet and dry) and does great on it with no recurrence of crystals. He's lucky that I caught it early enough that his kidneys were fine.

I hope you can get this straightened out and get him settled on a safe vet approved food so he'll be with you for a while. Know that in kidney issues just being able to pee doesn't mean much. CRF can make cats pee too much and is actually a symptom of it and can create problems, too. So always monitor that.