Science diet c/d?

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Bluesmaven

Bluesmaven

Member Since 2017
my cat has been on Hills Science Diet C/D for over 9 years, has anyone else's cat been on it and been dx'd with FD?
 
Yes, my first diabetic was on dry CD since another of my cats was on it for struvite crystals/blockages. The cat that required that later developed diabetes. However, five of my other cats were on it and did not develop diabetes
 
My cat was on it from age 4 or 5 until age 12. He then was switched to regular canned food. Those foods were too high in carbs I thinkbut didn’t realize then. He became diabetic at 16.
 
My cat was on Hills C/D for a blockage and in less than 6 months of being on that food, he was diagnosed with diabetes. I have no doubt in my mind that this food did it. He was then placed on Hills Calorie Control Wet Food and that brought his sugar levels to over 600! I would never again feed any of my pets Hills. But you also cannot just switch him. Because of his history with crystals, you want to make sure you feed him some kind of wet if at all possible and encourage him/her to drink water. I bought a water fountain for him and he loves it. He now eats Fancy Feast Classic Pates and Dr. Elsey's Clean Protein dry. Another good alternative for dry is Young Again Zero but that did not agree with my cat's stomach. Both YA and Dr Elseys are two of the very few dry food that are low-carb. Good luck!
 
Thanks so much y'all. I so need all this info. The vet told me today he is definitely diabetic. He said we start with slowly adding the new food and then when he's only on it we start giving him shots twice a day. Now I have to find a way to feed him away from my other cat. She can't have the MD.
 
Bluesmaven said:
Now I have to find a way to feed him away from my other cat. She can't have the MD.
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There's no reason you need to feed the MD anyway!! If it's the canned, it's OK (carb-wise) but the ingredients are no better than foods you can buy at your local store for a whole lot less money!!

Most of us feed plain old Fancy Feast Classics, Friskies pates or 9-Lives ground foods....they are low carb and better in ingredients than pretty much any of the "prescription" foods.

And you can also just switch your other cat to the same thing your diabetic eats! It saves a LOT of problems trying to make sure which cat is eating which food!!
 
I don't like the perscription food but I worry about struvite crystals if I take him off C/D. Right now I am scared about all of it. There is so much I need to learn.
 
Bluesmaven said:
I worry about struvite crystals if I take him off C/D
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We've had lots of cats with crystal problems here.....when they switched to a low carb canned diet, they never had problems with crystals again....it's the WATER in the canned food that helps keep the kidneys hydrated and crystals flushed out more than any special "prescription" in the food

There's actually a class action lawsuit against Hills (and the other "prescription" food makers) for basically false advertising. Their foods have nothing in them that requires a prescription

There's lots of great information on Dr. Lisa's website on Urinary Tract Diseases
 
I would avoid the Fancy Feast and Friskies wet foods. Wet food (or raw) is a great option, but it's best to have foods with lower phosphorus counts that Friskies/FF. And add plenty of water. I had one cat diagnosed with idiopathic cystitis and put on C/D one week after my other cat was diagnosed with diabetes. She kept trying to steal his food and it didn't do her any favours. My vet suggested raw as an option that would work for both.
 
Reger has done really well today with the canned food. He ate 1/2 a 5.5oz can of md this morning. Usually he would turn his nose up at anything that did not come from a bag. I will get him on a low phosphorous food as soon as I can find one. It's kind of hard for me to use the chart at the moment.
 
Chris & China said:
We've had lots of cats with crystal problems here.....when they switched to a low carb canned diet, they never had problems with crystals again....it's the WATER in the canned food that helps keep the kidneys hydrated and crystals flushed out more than any special "prescription" in the food

There's actually a class action lawsuit against Hills (and the other "prescription" food makers) for basically false advertising. Their foods have nothing in them that requires a prescription

There's lots of great information on Dr. Lisa's website on Urinary Tract Diseases
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Have you read the analyst of the Hills food? I just did and as far as all the food I have researched they are the most up front on what is in the food and provide the total Analyst online vs the bare min the law will let companies get away with. The law suit story is false since several of the ingredients are controlled in animal feed. ( grew up on a farm and have mixed animal feed)
 
Chris & China said:
There's no reason you need to feed the MD anyway!! If it's the canned, it's OK (carb-wise) but the ingredients are no better than foods you can buy at your local store for a whole lot less money!!

Most of us feed plain old Fancy Feast Classics, Friskies pates or 9-Lives ground foods....they are low carb and better in ingredients than pretty much any of the "prescription" foods.

And you can also just switch your other cat to the same thing your diabetic eats! It saves a LOT of problems trying to make sure which cat is eating which food!!
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??? I have read the anaylist on the Hills MD Dry mix it has twice the protein and fat per dry Weight of those cheap wet foods and provides vitamin supplements not found in those foods. The total Carb was 18 dry and given the calorie count is three times higher the than wet when corrected for dry weight ( so you can compare wet and dry head to head) meaning the total carb in take per calorie is about equal or much less when compared to wet foods with gravy. I have yet to find single total analyst of any of the food you named so just how do you say they are healthier? The FF I feed as treat has 4 different salts listed and the does not list the amount of any one ingredient vs percent of weight of the ingredients found on other cat food products.
 
Barneys dad said:
Have you read the analyst of the Hills food? I just did and as far as all the food I have researched they are the most up front on what is in the food and provide the total Analyst online vs the bare min the law will let companies get away with. The law suit story is false since several of the ingredients are controlled in animal feed. ( grew up on a farm and have mixed animal feed)
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The problem I have with most (if not all) Hills Prescription diets are the ingredients. For example the CD dry,while the first ingredient is chicken, the next 4 are Corn, Corn gluten meal, wheat and rice. The MD dry also contains corn, rice and wheat in the first five ingredients as well as powdered cellulose (a fancy name for sawdust as far as I’m concerned) The wet MD is a bit better, but also has powdered cellulose. I didn’t grow up on a farm, but I have a degree in Animal Science and have mixed feeds for livestock. Cats are carnivores, and should have their protein from meat, not grains. CD might make a great chicken feed though...
 
Bluesmaven said:
my cat has been on Hills Science Diet C/D for over 9 years, has anyone else's cat been on it and been dx'd with FD?
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My 3 cats were eating c/d dry and wet due to one having crystals. Two of them lost a lot of weight and stated drinking a lot of water and generally were not well. I switched back to FF Classics only and started seeing some improvement. Took my boy back to the vet to check for crystals and he was clear but his BG was 316. Told the vet no more c/d anything. No one at the vets office had ever heard of any cats becoming diabetic from c/d. Took him back three weeks later and his BG was down to 207 and he'd gained some weight. I will take him back to be checked again but all of my cats are looking and acting so much better. My long time vet who helped me with my Stasha, who was diabetic, retired last year. I do not trust the other vets when it comes to diabetes. I'm happy to see this thread because it confirms my suspicions. It's been a long time since I've been on this board.
 
Thanks to everyone who replied! I have learned so much from being on this board. I am totally convinced that the Hills c/d caused my cat's FD. I have had him off the dry c/d and on specific wet fancy feast that is high protein, low carb and low phosphate. He is doing better, this weekend I am going get a testing kit and get the original baseline from the vet and we'll see where we are at then
 
Bluesmaven said:
Thanks to everyone who replied! I have learned so much from being on this board. I am totally convinced that the Hills c/d caused my cat's FD. I have had him off the dry c/d and on specific wet fancy feast that is high protein, low carb and low phosphate. He is doing better, this weekend I am going get a testing kit and get the original baseline from the vet and we'll see where we are at then
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I'm convinced the Hills Z/D Tigger was on caused his diabetes in part. He was on it for allergies but is on FF now and his allergies didn't come back thank God!
 
Sharon14 said:
The problem I have with most (if not all) Hills Prescription diets are the ingredients. For example the CD dry,while the first ingredient is chicken, the next 4 are Corn, Corn gluten meal, wheat and rice. The MD dry also contains corn, rice and wheat in the first five ingredients as well as powdered cellulose (a fancy name for sawdust as far as I’m concerned) The wet MD is a bit better, but also has powdered cellulose. I didn’t grow up on a farm, but I have a degree in Animal Science and have mixed feeds for livestock. Cats are carnivores, and should have their protein from meat, not grains. CD might make a great chicken feed though...
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Ok than please explain how you would control the protein and fat in the feed without filler? Plus the first ingredant vs last is not the end of understanding labels and I am distress you would ignore this if you have mixed feed. The order is based on volume so if a ingredient is X in volume and has 1/8 the national value its not equel to or greater than a different ingredient with less volume but 3 or 4 times the national value. That's why I judge a feed on the lab Analyst. I have seen Chicken being the first ingredient and yet the food sucks on protein because Chicken can mean almost any part or grade of chicken. Guess where all those use up old laying hens from factory farms end up? As cellulose being sawdust well your right up to a point, but ignore the hundreds of other plants containing it.
As for cats being carnivores you are correct but ignore, Cats do and can process none animal based protein have always been able to. This is not something that Just Happened in the last 60 year I have seen the ferial cats steal sweet corn and potatoes from the compost bin so the whole mice and bird thing only thing is a out the window. Cats have been scavengers from the dawn of time. Ask yourself what did cats eat before the first bagged or canned foods came out? Milk, Bread and other things off they humans table. Both side of my family had dairy cattle and feed the barn cats milk with zero problems but yet some vets will tell you cats can't handle milk. Our Country vet explained it like this when he told us to feed a sick cat a diet with milk in it. SOME Cats have issue with dairy just like humans and somehow it got blown into ALL Cats have a problem.
 
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I agree cats can happily live long, happy lives on lower quality ingredients. I have had many a barn cat live into their 20’s eating nothing but cheap feed and any mice, bugs and birds they caught. Having said that, There is a huge difference in quality vs quantity. For example I have 2 different feeds for my horses. Both are 14% Protein. One gets the protein from alfalfa and the other uses by products and therefore has a lower TDN. I feed my show and breeding horses the better quality food and the lawn ornaments the cheaper stuff (because they really will do fine on pasture alone but they think I should give them something). If I tried to feed the cheap stuff to the breeding stock would they survive? Yes. Would they thrive? Maybe, but I’d have to feed several times more feed and add supplements to get the nutrition to them. Didn’t you do the experiment in school with the rats? One was fed a healthy diet and the other junk food. Both lived, but one was much healthier. I still feed a dry food to some of my cats, but I’ve switched to a grain free meat based one and I feed half the amount I did of the corn based feed and my vet is amazed at how well they look. You seem to know all you feel you need to know and aren’t interested in learning anything new from us, and I’m not interested in debating you. I try to keep my mind open to new ideas and I read and question everything. I just find that, in this case, the species appropriate, meat based food makes sense and work!
 
I called the vet today to find out what his glucose level was back on October 5th. They said it was 651! How long will it take for food to bring that number down. I haven't gotten a tester yet but plan to and wanted to get his base level before the food change.
 
We were recommended a Hill's food for Sr. cats, and in 2 1/2 months (we had just had our sr. panels done and he was fine when this was recommended) one of the 3 was diabetic.
 
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