BHA & BHT & ETHOXYQUIN

My vet has prescribed Hills WD for my cat who needs to lose 2 pounds and has had a few bouts of pancretitis. Right now I'm feeding Hills Lite formula that you can buy at Petsmart. She hasn't gained any weight on this but hasn't really lost any either. My concern is the preservatives in Hills WD.
The lite formula from Petsmart doesn't contain them. They were removed in December 2004 at the request of consumers but they still remain in their prescription diets. My vet said my cat "definitely needs low fat". My only other option would be Wellness Lite dry.

Should I feed the Hills WD and not worry? Or should I ask my vet about another prescription diet, or feed Wellness?

I would not feed Hills at all, but that's me.
Vets prescribe and recommend it because they sell it.
If you have found an alternative feed that you prefer, I would get the vet's opinion on it first, and possibly a few recommendations for other brands as well.

I am definatley not an all natural kind of person. If you research alot of the preservatives, they are in just about everything we as people consume (including chewing gum). Cats and dogs have been eating foods with these preservatives for years, and ill effects can only be assumed.

Christine, I too would be concerned about the artificial preservatives in the food, and wouldn't give that to my cats.

If your cat likes the alternate lite foods (like the Wellness) which don't contain preservatives, go with them. You're accomplishing the same thing without the added chemicals. Seems reasonable and healthier.

As another member mentioned, vets sell the Hill's stuff, so of course that's the first food they'll recommend.

I personally have a hard time digesting BHT, so I'd try not to feed it to my cats. IBut if your vet prescribed it it couldn't be too bad for her. I feed Annabelle Natural Choice diet/lite cat food and it's working well for her. I was told she needed to lose 2lbs over the course of a year- but she doesn't have any other health problems.

If you are shopping at Petsmart, then you also have the option of Nutro Natural Choice Complete Care Weight Management - it does not contain BHA/BHT or ethoxyquin - substances I try not to consume myself and do not feed to my cats.

You can get the ingredients list and guaranteed analysis (which will tell you the fat content and more) to show to your vet, as I'd get their approval first, by going here

hth!

Ethoxyquin has been banned in some (or all-im not too sure) countries in Europe. It has been linked with kidney failure and some forms of cancer. BHA and BHT are just as bad. Chemical preservatives are bad-period. I wouldnt feed my animals anything from Hills and the lowest I will go is Nutro and thats if Im poor as a church mouse and refused to give up my pets. Maybe we can take what we know about pet foods and apply that to our own personal diets. My cats are not able to get in the car and drive to the nearest pet store and make proper food choices and obviously arent educated on them either so I do the best I can to give them the most balanced and junk-free food I can find.

Would anyone like me to put up what a book about humans reactions to these are??
I wont give my "kids any of them .. cept for the fish since all the foods have some of them it is a shame..

There's a big reason us people at the vet's suggest Hill's and other prescription foods: BECAUSE THEY WORK!! These are diets that have a lot of research behind them, and are specifically formulated for certain problems.
By the way, the average vet clinic (here in Ontario, at least) only marks up food by 25-30 percent--not exactly high profit!

Science Diet Ingredients:
chicken, corn meal,ground grain sorghum, ground wheat,chicken by product meal,soybean meal,animal fat(pres. w/mixed tocopherols and citric acid) corn gluten meal,brewers rice, chicken liver flavor,veg. oil,dried egg products,flaxseed.




Mmmm.....yummy! Now let me back it up and I apologize in advance if I upset anyone.

The only 2 ingredients REMOTELY healthy for your dog/cat are the chicken and the flaxseed. Notice flaxseed is last on the list. Corn is one of the 3 top allergens found in pet food. (rash anyone?). Wheat is also one of the 3. Sorghum is essentially the same as corn, only it is grown in hotter climates. Soybean is another allergen. Anyone getting hungry? Animal fat is unspecified and is a CHEAP source of FLAVOR. Veg. oil is comprised mostly of corn oil (anyone following me here?) And Purdue has found that citric acid increases chances of bloat 340% is food is soaked with this before feeding. Chicken by product meal is the junk left over after the mucle meat has been removed.

You may want to try VMD (Medi-Cal) Reducing formula. They do not use any of those preservatives. Walthams Calorie control is another option. THe dry formula is a favorite of my cats!

Sorry I have to keep posting, but apparently the posts are timed and I dont type exactly as fast as I should..........

Basically what I am trying to say is that the SD/vet alliance is an advertising gimmick. Hills funds every vet college in the US and if you want me to site my source, I will be more than happy to. The ingredients list I posted didnt include BHA or the other 2 preservatives but a lot of their products do have them. All 3 are known carcinogens. I work at a pet supply warehouse and SD is on the "cheap low grade pet food" rack (they are separated by quality). Nutro is closer to the Ultra Premium food than SD is. I know that vet clinic employees have been informed by Hills and are asked to push this product but a lot of them just believe anything the reps feed them. Im not saying this to upset anyone but its usually true. And what Ive noticed that anyone who works with vets and pushes SD is very defensive and not particularly congenial about it. Why do they get so upset? So please do your research for your pets sake. And once again, if I have offended anyone, I apologize-it wasnt my intention.

I find it hard to believe that your reps push their diets any less than the hills reps do. After all a pet store is there to sell food right? I also doubt that you have as much education as the vets and scientists that develop these diets. I have in fact read much of the literature you are probably citing. Some of it I find to be extremist and misleading at best.

If you will notice- the veterinary staff that posted here did in fact defend the vet reccomended diets- but did not state any negative or false information about any other diets or the people that recommend them.

I would recommend that you to keep inflammatory statements to yourself if you want to make any friends on this board.

I wouldnt call them inflammatory. But the vet industry doesnt seem to want to hear anything other than what they get paid to do-push products. Im not pushing any such product of any form. All I am saying is that in the STORE that I WORK in, SD is not in the Ultra-Premium section. WIth good reason, obviously. And the SD rep does come into the establishment and pushes the food as well as the Nutro rep. We sell SD but we also know its place in the market. We dont sell anything like pedigree or purina for either cat or dog so SD must get SOME consideration if we sell it. Its just not with the higher end foods. And neither is BIl Jac, if that makes anyone feel better. Im not trying to make enemies, just trying to inform people. And whatever education vets get about food is pretty biased, especially when they are funded by Hills. So once again the vet field goes on the defense, when I was clearly trying to inform someone on the INGREDIENTS of a pet food. Its obvious people are already concerned about the preservatives SD uses, so why not inform them on the ingredients they use as well. You cant argue with that...sorry. And ONCE AGAIN I am not trying to upset anyone and I APOLOGIZE if I have.

I think if you take a good look, you'll find this forum fairly well informed...we discuss/have discussed ingredients, preservatives, what is "all natural", what is "premium" in many, many threads. Since you are new here, to get up to speed, you might want to browse these older threads, or do a search using appropriate key words.

Im sure a lot of people are informed here. I just dont like being belittled because I didnt go to an 8 year vet college. I quit taking my Chihuahua to a certain vet cos the doctor talked to me like I was an idiot. My posts were thread specific and not just to bash SD. The owner of the thread was concerned about the preservatives so they obviously were looking for feedback to find another option for their cat. Im not attempting to give an ultimatum on pet food but by just looking at the ingredients list on the SD bag would be my first deterent and Im sure a lot of the other members of this forum feel the same way. I didnt go into this thinking I am the only one that knows a thing or two about pet food. I was just trying to address a concern of a fellow member.

You obviously share an area of interest with a lot of us, I just thought it would be helpful to bring you up to speed on this forum (and interesting for you) if you took a good browse through past topics discussed here...if you want.

Originally Posted by Dr. Doolittle

I find it hard to believe that your reps push their diets any less than the hills reps do. After all a pet store is there to sell food right? I also doubt that you have as much education as the vets and scientists that develop these diets. I have in fact read much of the literature you are probably citing. Some of it I find to be extremist and misleading at best.

If you will notice- the veterinary staff that posted here did in fact defend the vet reccomended diets- but did not state any negative or false information about any other diets or the people that recommend them.

I would recommend that you to keep inflammatory statements to yourself if you want to make any friends on this board.

Click to expand...

Science Diet contains meat by-products. I wouldn't eat by-products. Why should my cats eat by-products? Especially with mad cow disease around. Vet told me to feed my cat Science Diet as well. All the vets say that. I bought a bag and first ingredient is rice. The second one is by-product meal. So, what are they charging all the money for? Rice? By-product meal? And my cat wouldn't eat it any way.

I love you eliz....I love you sooooooooo much.......thank you for not yelling at me. And for seeing my point.