Prescription Food?

Our 5 year old male cat was diagnosed with FLUTD yesterday, and we were given a prescription for Royal Canin Urinary SO food. Thoughts? It's giving me pause to feed a food with the first few ingredients being chicken meal, rice, and corn. We've always fed grain free (either Taste of the Wild or Merrick's Before Grain). The Royal Canin is also really expensive. Of course, we'll do whatever we need to in order to keep him healthy, but it seems like switching to a worse food to me.

Opinions? Here's the ingredient list for anyone willing to analyze!

Chicken meal, brewers rice, corn gluten meal, corn, chicken fat, natural flavors, soy protein isolate, powdered cellulose, salt, dried egg product, brewers dried yeast, potassium chloride, calcium sulfate, fish oil, sodium bisulfate, vegetable oil, taurine, choline chloride, DL-methionine, vitamins [DL-alpha tocopherol acetate (source of vitamin E), niacin supplement, biotin, riboflavin supplement (vitamin B2), D-calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride (vitamin B6), vitamin A acetate, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), folic acid, vitamin B12 supplement, vitamin D3 supplement], marigold extract (Tagetes erecta L.), trace minerals [zinc oxide, zinc proteinate, ferrous sulfate, manganese proteinate, copper proteinate, copper sulfate, manganous oxide, calcium iodate, sodium selenite], rosemary extract, preserved with natural mixed tocopherols and citric acid.

Any dry food is inappropriate for cats with urinary issues. If he'll eat canned food at all, I'd recommend starting with the prescription canned food until he's stabilized. After that you can look into what other canned foods might work for a FLUTD cat.

I have a cat with FIC. I would not recommend using any dry diet with a cat with FLUTD. Corn, corn gluten, brewers rice, soy, salt.... not good, especially in the first five ingredients. There are canned prescription versions available in the Royal Canin and Hill's line. I would try those first and then transition to an all canned grain free wet food and add a little water in with the wet. This can be quite a job on your part in convincing you cat to eat the wet food. I would wait to add a little water until your cat is eating the wet willingly. The warm water will make it more soupy. Some cats love this texture, some not. Many vibes to your kitty.

Here is an article to help give you tips on transitioning from dry to wet food. http://catinfo.org/#Transitioning_Dry_Food_Addicts_to_Canned_Food_

Hmm, is there any leeway in doing a combo of dry/wet? We both work and are gone all day. I don't see any feasible way to feed him 3-4 meals of wet food each day?

Most of us feeding timed meals feed in the morning before work, at dinner, and then before bed. Mine were free fed dry for the first 8 years of their life, and then we moved to timed wet food only. On the dry, three of our boys blocked; one needed repeated catheterizations. And they've all done very well on the all canned grain-free diet with extra water mixed into to the canned food. The urine dilution seemed to do the trick! They weren't happy when the kibble was removed for free-feeding, but they adjusted to eating enough at each meal with help from us.

Of course, you can leave out a set amount of dry food - just figure out the daily amount you need to feed of the wet, the daily amount you need to feed of the dry, and figure out what percent of the diet you want to be wet and what percent of the diet you want to be dry, and leave out that percent of the RDA in dry, and don't fill up the bowl until the next day, giving him only the measured amount.

But even the grain-free kibbles tend to have a lot of carbs, which can upset the pH balance of the urine. This spreadsheet was sorted to indicated cost of feeding, but the carb amounts are listed for the foods (prescription foods weren't included): http://catcentric.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Dry-Kibble-Table-1.pdf

And here's the same thing for a number of canned (and commercial raw) foods: http://catcentric.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Canned-Raw-Table-1.pdf

Here's a discussion of Feline Urinary Health you may find helpful: http://www.catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth