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Old July 14th 04, 02:47 PM
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The vet has now put Toby on a mixture of
Hill's Prescription Diet w/d dried and
r/d canned, and reckons that Toby will
also have to be on Propulsid and
Duphalac for the rest of his life. [Toby
was also recently diagnosed with
struvite crystals in his urine, which
necessitated the change of diet to
Hill's w/d and r/d.] While I'm okay with
Toby having to be fed a fairly expensive
prescription diet for the rest of his
life, I'm not sure I am prepared to
continue paying my vet the exorbitant
prices charged for the two drugs.


First of all, I have a real big problem with a vet that proclaims a cat
has to be on a special food/drugs for "the rest of its life" because of
*one* incident of constipation.
I also question putting the cat on the foods you described for crystals
in the urine.

The best diet for both constipation and urinary tract issues (and in
general) is one that is all canned, high quality (Iams is not) and fed
on a schedule. I have two clients that have cats that had constipation
issues that were never resolved using the prescription high fiber diets,
and one of the cats was still constipated despite getting daily doses of
mineral oil and a prescription stool softener and was in constant
misery. Completely eliminating dry food and switching the cats to a high
quality canned food fed on a 12 hour schedule resolved the constipation
in both cases and eliminated the need for stool softeners as well.

Canned is also beneficial for urinary tract issues as it greatly
increases a cats water intake, which in turn helps to keep the urine
more dilute and the bladder flushed.
In general a canned diet isgoiong to be better for your cat and there is
more and more information coming out that shows that dry foods are not
great for cats (a good website that you can check out on this subject is
http://www.catnutrition.org )

I would suggest trying this approach before deciding the cat has to have
prescription drugs and diet for the rest of its life.


Megan



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