Hills M/D diabetic & weight loss feline wet cat food

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LynRich

LynRich

Member Since 2014
My vet wants me to try the above mentioned cat food, as she thinks Squiggles is a bit over weight. However Squiggles is quite happy on Nature's Menu & Lily's Kitchen, with the occasional handful of Hills M/D diabetic & weight loss dry biscuits.

Squiggles blood glucose levels have come down , ( she's now on 3iu am & 2.5 iu pm ,) her lowest point is 9 & at other places on the curve she hovers between 10 & 11, & I'm very reluctance to give her Hills which has got carbohydrates & sucrose in it.

I'm sure she's not going to put on any more weight with the diet I'm feeding her at the moment.

I've argued all these points with my vet, but I don't think she's convinced .

What do other people think ?
 
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Sadly vets don't really understand feline nutrition as well as they could. Prescription foods are a lot of hype without anything real to back up the claims. They are expensive and no more special than what you are currently feeding.

Here is an article that is very enlightening on the subject --https://www.facebook.com/notes/feline-diabetes/the-truth-behind-prescription-pet-foods/10152582611385202


Additionally, if you haven't already - please check out Dr. Lisa's site regarding feline nutrition - www.catinfo.org -- there is a lot of helpful information on this site.
 
Thanks Hillary, although my vet is very concienstious, she seems completely brainwashed by these prescription foods, I wonder if the firms that make them give the vets a little sweetener for stocking their foods ?

The first link doesn't work any more, sorry :(
 
When the vet sells the prescription food - they are making money off each sale, unlike if you go to store and purchase food - the vet doesn't get a cut of that profit, only the store does...some vets supplement their income by selling food and other such products....
 
Oh right, although I'm not sure in her case, she told me I could buy it in line because it would be cheaper, but I still don't like the idea of feeding Squiggles Hills wet feline food.
 
There is no way I would feed squiggles the hills stuff or any of the prescription stuff. I have found that a high protein, low carb diet has actually improved remi physical condition and weight. Could it not be that you are just feeding a little too much each day? It is very easy to over feed.

How much does squiggles weigh and how many calories are in each tin of natures menu and Lilly's?

Re the diet food, you could just pretend you got it online and say squiggles refused to eat it or say it raised her blood glucose which I may well do.
 
LynRich said:
I've argued all these points with my vet, but I don't think she's convinced .

What do other people think ?
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Hi Lynda,

Vets certainly do push Hill's foods (I think Hill's sponsor some nutrition training) and I am convinced that the Hill's Science Diet dry cat food/dross contributed to Bertie becoming diabetic.

The Nature's Menu and Lily's Kitchen are super quality wet cat foods, and are, IMHO, streets ahead of the Hill's nonsense. I think a lot of vets still think that commercial cat food consists of Felix and Whiskas; but the availability of good quality cat food has come on in leaps and bounds in recent times in the UK. We have access to some of the best cat food in the world. Yay!!!
If you can't convince your vet (and I doubt that you can because the vet probably has a fixed point of view in this matter) then you may need to try what many of us do; and that is to smile and nod when we're at the vet's clinic, and then just walk away and do what we think is best....;)

Bertie was fat at diagnosis (even though he'd lost a bit of weight by then); and he just gradually lost weight over time on low carb wet food. Adding a little water to the food can help the kitty to feel fuller after eating. And encouraging the kitty to play can help them to burn off calories.

Trust your own judgement, Lynda. :cat:

Eliz
 
Thanks folks for your advice. Squiggles isn't a big cat, & she weighs about 4.8 kg I think. She is getting a bit tubby again, & you're right, I am probably over feeding her a bit. I think she's naturally quite a greedy cat, when I got her from the RSPCA years ago, they told me she was fostered out for a while & persuaded her fosterer to give her a lot more food than she's supposed to eat !

I'll just have to be more careful with her in future. I'm not sure how many calories are in NM & LK I'll check them out. She gets very lazy in the winter & goes outside to run about the garden as little as possible !

My vet did give me a tin of obesity management Purina to try. She says it's smells very much like Hills. Needless to say she wolfed it down, so I'm not buying any Hills !
 
FWIW -- I add 1/2 can of water to each can of food. I used to add a full can or 3/4 can of water to food and then cut back, as my one cat wasn't so happy lapping up a lot of water and not getting her food. I found 1/2 can seems to be the right amount.
 
Hi Lynn,

Just spotted this thread. Saoirse was on RC obesity management dry food. It did absolutely nada to help her lose weight and she was only on subsistence portions of the stuff. The foods you're giving are better quality, better nutritionally, and Hillary's tip about adding water to meals is a good 'un.

BTW, word of caution about the Lily's Kitchen foods. Most, if not all, of the tray dinners contain carrageenan (unless they've changed the recipe since late last summer).
 
The Hill's m/d food is low carb and high protein which is why vets recommend it but there are other non prescription foods that are similar. The purina one healthy metabolism for spayed and neutered cats also has high protein and low carbs. Most vets do not recommend specific foods because they sell them they recommend them because they can help. I'm a vet tech and have been educating clients on how to care for their newly diabetic cats for years and the only time we really recommend changing foods is when they are hard to regulate. Personally, my 5 year old cat was just diagnosed (luckily I caught it before he lost weight) and in order to try to get him into remission I'm going the lantus, high protein, low carb food route.
 
Brittany9532 said:
The Hill's m/d food is low carb and high protein which is why vets recommend it but there are other non prescription foods that are similar. The purina one healthy metabolism for spayed and neutered cats also has high protein and low carbs. Most vets do not recommend specific foods because they sell them they recommend them because they can help. I'm a vet tech and have been educating clients on how to care for their newly diabetic cats for years and the only time we really recommend changing foods is when they are hard to regulate. Personally, my 5 year old cat was just diagnosed (luckily I caught it before he lost weight) and in order to try to get him into remission I'm going the lantus, high protein, low carb food route.
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Brittany welcome to the group. Did you read the article I posted further up in this post about the truth regarding prescription food? There is nothing magical or special about prescription food, except the price and the fact is, people can purchase the same quality or better quality food that will do what is needed low carb, high protein, etc in a regular store and save a lot of money doing it.
 
When I changed over the household to low carb, over the counter canned food, a couple overweight cats lost significant weight without restricting feedings. The water content dilutes the calorie concentration while providing some volume.
 
Hillary & Maui (GA) said:
Brittany welcome to the group. Did you read the article I posted further up in this post about the truth regarding prescription food? There is nothing magical or special about prescription food, except the price and the fact is, people can purchase the same quality or better quality food that will do what is needed low carb, high protein, etc in a regular store and save a lot of money doing it.
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Yes as I said there are other non prescription foods that are also low carb high protein. I was simply informing everyone that seems to think vets only recommend things because they make money that this is not true and if the vet you go to is doing that then you should switch.
 
I don't discuss food with any of my vets as I don't feel it a necessary subject as I am very knowledgeable on the subject and know what my cats like and what is good for them.
 
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