Rx Cat Food?

Hello everyone. Just joined your board and need some expert advise but first, few words about myself and my pets:

My wife and I have 2 wonderful cats: Cloud, a 5yo persian, and Casper, a 4yo Himalayan (there are also 2 diamond back terrapin turtles, and my biggest hobby -- I maintain 6 predatory fish tanks totalling 350+ gallons in our 1 bdrm apt )

Last weekend Casper has gotten very ill. This was our first time ever dealing with a sick cat. I am sure you have all heard this story - he had a problem urinating. In fact, as it later turned out, he was completely blocked! It had to happen on a Sunday when our vet was closed. On Monday, when I finally got him there he was completely bloated, listless and running a fever Fortunately, we have a great vet with very helpful staff, and they were able to put him back together (later, nurse told me that if I waited until Tuesday morning to seek help, my baby would not have made it). Now, 4 days and $600 later, I brought Casper home, and can say that other than loosing a lot of weight (he refused to eat or drink while hospitalized), he seems to be as perky and happy as before. We still have to bring him back daily for about a week but thats OK

Here is my concern: I now know that both of our cats were not fed a proper diet. I kinda knew it all along but they seemed to be fine and enjoying their food Yes, I admit to feeding them Friskies, both canned and dry food. Now, after we saw first hand what this diet can do (Doc says that this is the likely cause of Casper's problem) we are determined to switch him to a better food. However we have received from the doctor a list of 3 acceptible foods. Apparently these are the only options FOR LIFE to ensure health of our cats. They are as follows: Feline C/D by Hill's Prescription Diet, Walthan Royal Canin S/O, and IVD Control. Vet does not carry any of these. Neither do neiborhood stores. There seem to be only two stores in the area, and both are far. We don't own a car, which makes buying large quantities every 2 weeks or so just about unfeasable, and this stuff seem to be very expensive. I went to check online and only found one place that sells Hill's O/S, which with shipping and handling comes out to be approximately $1.90 per can (our kids eat canned food mostly).

Anyways... we will do ANYTHING for the benefit of our cats. I will gladly travel few miles each way on public transportation to get this food just so to ensure Casper's full recovery. I would like to know however if there are any cheaper and more readily available substitutes to these that we could look into in a few months? Please advise!

try this site: http://www.rxpetfood.com/

that's where i got my mabel's food for her food allergy.
when you check out, there's a box that says something like "my vet approves this food". basically, they are selling rx food and covering their butt by having you check "yes", that your vet knows you will be feeding your cat this food.

i had great customer service and quick shipping with them. $$ was a little cheaper than my vet's office, so i went with them.

good luck to you and your casper!

Thats actually the only site I found that carries Rx foods! Are there any other options?

to my knowledge, no. but i'm far from being an expert. i'm sorry i couldn't be of more help, but there are some *very* well informed members at this forum. someone will be along soon with more/better information.

oh! and petfooddirect.com carries a LOT of different types of foods (brands/canned/dry/specialty). you might want to poke around and see if there are any options on there. they do NOT carry rx food, tho.

good luck to you!

If your kitty is having urinary problems/crystals, a wet food diet would certainly be better for him. Neutered males tend to get crystals from dry food diets.

I changed Bijou from a dry food to mainly wet food (with some dry) and also bought them a PetMate water fountain so they would drink more water. It worked!

I'm not really sure they need to now be on prescription food for the rest of their lives (but then again I'm no expert and unfortunately not all vets have good knowledge about nutrition), but definitely a better quality food is in order. When you feed a better quality food you will find they eat less since they are getting better nutrition and don't need the quantity to get what they need.

There are folks with much more knowledge than I and they'll be along to help you out. TCS is not really a chat site, so sometimes you may have to wait a bit for a reply but it will come.

You need to have an open talk with your vet ... Some animals do need Rx but many others can use OTC but you need to tell your vet about the $$ issue and see about other options..

It really depends on your cats. Yes a wet food diet will help, however the S/O I believe is made to get rid of the crystals, and the C/D is the food you would feed as a maintanence food.

I would start on the s/o get the crystals cleared up, and then ask your vet if you brought your cat in once a month to have them check his urine, what would happen if you put him on a wet food diet, and then go out and buy a high quality wet food.

Some cats, no matter what you do have a tendancy to get blocked. The C/D has something in it to balance the urine ph. So for right now a prescription diet is the best thing, just to clear it up.

There are other urinary tract foods out there, but for your cat to have been that sick, I don't know that I would risk another vet bill. I don't know how long your cat would need to be on s/o to clear out all the crystals, but I doubt it would be for longer than a month or two.

I'm not familair with rX diets but, I was looking through the list of foods and ingredients involved. The Hills C/D lists the first 2 ingredient as Pork-by-product and water. The Waltham Royal Canin SO lists its first 3 water, meat by-product, chicken by-products. I understand the reason why you would want water as either the first or second ingredient, but I thought "by-products" were not good to feed your cats, thus the reason we look for better quality foods. Can anyone explain this?

To the OP, I'd talk to you vet about finding a diet that's more readily available to you. Perhaps there is a canned food that is compariable to the rX diets. If you can, try the rX diet out for a month or two then change it to a more available diet when your cat is 100% better.

Polly has cysitis (chronic bladder inflammation with corresponding urinary problems). She's on Hill's c/d, but my vet sells it so I can get it easily. The rx foods are made in a very special way to try to keep crystals from recurring. Although Polly still has blood in her urine, she hasn't had crystals since she started eating rx food, so I'd recommend it, and I'll probably never change her food because I just don't want to chance her getting worse.