Can't Afford "Prescription Food"

Hello all.  

I'm "mom" to two cats - a 7-year-old neutered male with a history of urinary obstruction, and a 3-year-old spayed female that's been quite healthy.  When my male cat recovered from his urinary obstruction, he was predictably put on a "prescription" urinary health diet.  In the past year and a half he's been healthy with no other issues.  However, he is overweight and despite me following vet recommendations for feeding amounts, he won't budge on the scale.  I should also mention that both cats eat the prescription diet because I can't separate them for feedings (they won't eat) and because of budget issues, they now eat only dry food.

I'm due to have a baby in four weeks, and will be leaving my job to be a stay-at-home mom.  This means we'll be dropping down to one income, and we will no longer be able to afford to feed them expensive prescription food.  I've read posts about less expensive cat food in general, but will I be setting my male cat up for certain relapse if I take him off the prescription food?  

Just looking for input, I guess.  I feel bad not giving them the absolute best, but we just can't afford it.  

Thanks,

MrsBaeb

Not necessarily, but of course it is always a possibility.

l'm a single-income person too, so where l spend my money is very important to me, l understand where you're coming from.

lf it were my cats, l'd try to introduce them (slowly at first) to an all-canned diet, as high a meat-protein and low carb canned food as budget will allow. Many cats block because of chronic dehydration, so giving them a wet diet, with water added to it, can help those cats.

Also, the healthy cat really shouldn't be eating the urinary health food - it can cause an imbalance where there was none before (you didn't mention if there was a struvite or oxalate issue).

Welcome to the site btw   

Thanks!

When I feed both cats they won't eat if one is shut away in another spot, and they're both "grazers," but if we switched to wet food they'd be much more inclined to eat it in one sitting.  Also, with me staying home with a baby I'd have more time (maybe...we'll see, haha) to supervise them eating separately.  

The blockage was struvite, if I remember correctly.  He responded well to the treatment he was given at the time, but it would cause a bit of hardship if it happened again - plus it's a painful thing I'd hate to put him through.

I appreciate the thoughts - this is helpful.

Congratulations! I wish you al the best for the future.

I think you should continue with normal dry food if you can afford it. If theres anything that helps urinary tracts, its water.

I dont know if you leave water out for your cats beside their food or not, but try adding some water to their kibbles.

(I read somewhere that cats should drink around one cup of water every day- mine certainly werent then )

What kind  of bowls do you use? Whatever the size, try pouring some water into each bowl, about a third of a cup, maybe a bit less.

This is what I do for my cats, you see my Kiki was also overweight. I decided to put a stop to it and I did.

Now I feed my cats a small handful of kibbles three times a day -with water added, and they make sure to remind me when to feed them.

In the morning around 8/9, then in the afternoon around 3/4 and finally in the evening around 7/8.

The more expensive option would be wet food. The cheap brands are only about 4% meat, and the better brands are way more expensive.

As for transitioning your overweight cat to less food, start by giving him his normal portions and cutting down every other day.

And yes, I know that any dry food is bad for cats, wet food is better, I've heard that a lot. But I think that adding water helps with keeping everything clear

in the urinary tract.

If $1.33 to $1.66 for a 5.5 oz can is doable then I would recommend Hound & Gatos. Your fat cat will lose weight by feeding the recommend amount. It's less than 1 gram of carbs per can with all the moisture to keep your boys from becoming blocked

Thanks BerbDCat!

The cats are very well set with water.  They each eat from a dish "raiser"...one is ceramic and one is stainless steel.  Dry food goes in the one side and water in the other.  I also have a glass dish out full of water (rectangular...better for accommodating whiskers) and a plastic bowl that's high and deep (not sure why they like it, but they do).  I've had water fountains for them before, but my male won't drink from them and they're awful to keep clean.  Instead, the female follows us whenever we pass a sink and we'll usually turn on a trickle for her to drink directly from the faucet.  

Another problem is that the prescription food is high calorie, so that's contributing to his weight not wanting to budge.  

Thanks for your thoughts!

lf l'm reading correctly, berbdcat was recommending a "normal" dry food in addition to water. PLEASE do your research before altering your cats' diet; your vet prescribed their current food with very good reason. 

"Normal" (even higher quality) dry foods contain way more starches, carbs, fillers, and potentially grains than do wet/canned foods. The dehydration issue is negated by adding water, but that is only one aspect of a blockage. l pulled this from a vet site:

• To reduce urine pH – which is the goal in most struvite situations – you must feed your pet a low-carb, grain-free, potato-free, species-appropriate diet. When dogs and cats who are designed to eat meat are fed a grain-based diet or a starch-rich diet, the starch alkalizes urine pH, which can lead to the development of struvite crystals and stones. Sometimes, surgery is required to remove stones in the urethra, ureters or bladder.

Finding an inexpensive, meat-rich, low carb, no starch, grain free "should" maintain the pH between 6 and 6.5 in a healthy cat. This is much easier to achieve in a canned food. Any dries that fit those criteria will likely cost as much as the prescription diet, if not more.

I have heard (haven't tried it myself, mind you, because switching to regular canned food fixed my cats' urinary issues) that Friskies Special Care canned food works as well as the prescription food for a lot of crystal kitties. Whether that's just because it's canned and the cat got more water, or if the "special" part of it made any difference, I don't know. You can run it by your vet, too. . .I know my vet recommends Purina Pro Plan urinary formula kibble to people who can't afford the prescription food, but I really don't think cats with urinary issues should have dry food at all :/.

Andrya,

Don't worry, I'll certainly be very thorough with my research before I make any changes, and plan to consult with my vet, too.

I very much agree that a healthy diet for a cat is low carb, grain-free and potato free (etc, etc).  This is why I get very confused when I look at the ingredients of the vet recommended, prescription diet and see the following:

Brewers Rice, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken By-Product Meal, Pork Fat, Chicken, Chicken Liver Flavor, Lactic Acid, Fish Oil, Choline Chloride, Potassium Chloride, Calcium Sulfate, Iodized Salt, Potassium Citrate, DL-Methionine, vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin Supplement, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), Taurine, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), Mixed Tocopherols for freshness, Phosphoric Acid, Natural Flavors, Beta-Carotene.

From my other research there's no governing body that regulates prescription pet food, and it's a fishy sort of relationship set up between vet's offices and the prescription pet food companies.  Is it really doing my cat any good?

After work today I stopped at a pet food center nearby that carries good quality pet food.  I talked with a lady there who agreed with me that the prescription foods are "junk" (her words, not mine), and recommended some other options.

All her recommendations were dry food even though I suggested wet food might be better, because she feels cats need kibbles to crunch on.  

The brands she recommended were as follows:

Evo

Pure Vita

Earthborn

Canidae

Are any of those standout brands?  I'll be crunching numbers for prices soon.

Willowy said:

I have heard (haven't tried it myself, mind you, because switching to regular canned food fixed my cats' urinary issues) that Friskies Special Care canned food works as well as the prescription food for a lot of crystal kitties. Whether that's just because it's canned and the cat got more water, or if the "special" part of it made any difference, I don't know. You can run it by your vet, too. . .I know my vet recommends Purina Pro Plan urinary formula kibble to people who can't afford the prescription food, but I really don't think cats with urinary issues should have dry food at all :/.

Click to expand...

This is my understanding as well.

Back when l fed kibble, l mixed the EVO Kitten & Cat formula with Wellness Core Grain Free.

The EVO K&C only has 8.41% carbs compared to 30+ for ProPlan and 29.5 for Hill's s/d.

DL-Methionine is 2.5% in the s/d, but is only 1.7% in the maintenance c/d formula. lt is only at 1.32% in the EVO, but it's in there. (Not listed as an ingredient in any of the pro plan pages that l can find).

Magnesium is .06% in s/d, higher at .075 in pro plan, and higher again in EVO at .09

So not as much of the acidifying substance and a wee bit more magnesium are negatives. But the positives are way less carbs, and this:

EVO
compared to this s/d 
and this pro plan (this one doesn't even offer an "as fed" analysis, this is only the "vague" guaranteed analysis)

Crude Protein (min) 31%

Crude Fat (min) 14%

Crude Fiber (max) 2%

lf l had to feed kibble, l'd feed the EVO Kitten & Cat and add as much water as they'll tolerate.

You should feed wet food to avoid urinary blockage issues. Hydration is key. If you can afford it, buy cheap wet food like Fancy Feast classics line or Friskies pate. If you have the time homecooked or raw can be cheaper than canned.

Can you afford canned food in larger 13 oz. cans? You can freeze cat food, just make sure you take it out of the freezer in time to thaw (it's longer than you think).

Dry food has a higher bacterial load, so wetting the food increases risks of bacterial growth. Personally I wouldn't water dry food, but if you do, make sure it is eaten quickly and not left out for grazing.

If you must feed dry, monitor the water intake. You want about a cup a day. You can try some of the following techniques to encourage increased water intake:

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/tips-to-increase-your-cat-s-water-intake

I agree with those recommending an all wet food diet, especially for a kitty with blockage issues. Fancy Feast Classics are a good option on a budget.

There's an older thread around here somewhere in which the "prescription" diets are discussed. There is nothing special or prescription about them. It's a money-making scam. Here's a good article on the matter: http://www.drpattykhuly.com/blog/2012/10/15/food-for-thought-on-prescription-diets-for-pets.html

My advice would be to try Purina Urinary. Corn is not good for them, but it is safer to feed corn than have your cat die from a urinary obstruction.

I fed Purina for years (even missed the 2007 food recalls). Earlier this year, I decided to try some other brands with high protein. That was a HUGE mistake.

My male cat blocked and I spent over $600 at the vet just to save his life.  My other cat had crystals on Nature's variety instinct and I spent a ton of money on him. After that incident I emailed all the different companies to see if any foods are balanced for urinary issues and what the methionine levels in the cat food are.

Methionine is a urinary acidifier. If the company adds too much you get calcium oxalate crystals. If the cat food company adds too little, you get struvite crystals and a blocked cat. Most companies either: didn't know how much methionine was in the food,  or said it was proprietary and wouldn't tell me.

Many of the high protein cat foods such as Earthborn, By nature, Natural Balance etc. Do not add enough methioine to the food.  Halo pets told me they don't add any methionine to their cat food.

Avoderm and Natura pet food lists their methionine levels on their website.

Innova is around 1.35% methionine compared to Avoderm who is at 0.70%. Natural Balance is around 0.70% which is way too low for my cat with urinary issues.  It caused his urinary ph to jump to 8.0 instead of 6.0.

The only way to know if the cat food you pick will work for your cat is to feed it for 1 week and take in a urine sample. If the urinary ph is too high, than that food will not work.

Or you can get ph strips and test the urine sample yourself.

Unfortunately, taking a cat off the prescription food is like playing with fire. You may get lucky, or you might not.

I do believe Purina is fairly well balanced for urinary issues considering how well my cats did on it.  I just bought 3 bags of it, and plan on adding some extra cooked chicken or turkey to give them extra protein.  It is ironic that I changed cat foods to have healthier cats and instead ended up with huge vet bills.

People talk about high protein diets. Higher protein does not help unless the food uses a meat source that is high in methionine! Most cat food companies don't.

My cat had urinary tract infections, my vet finally said no dry food only wet and no fish.  So I switched muffin to only wet food.  I do not feed her the raw food diet, I feed her canned food, mostly chicken.  It is a little more expensive and you have to feed them more often but she is now a healthy cat.  No more urinary tract problems.  Everything I have read says that a wet food diet is much better for the cat as they are carnivores.  They also get a lot of their moisture from the wet food so you will not see them drinking a lot of water.  It is the dry food that dehydrates them and causes them to drink a lot of water.  I don't know that I will ever feed a cat dry food again as in some cats it causes a lot of health issues.  So if want to get rid of the urinary tract problems, no dry food at all only wet food.  Good luck