food for feline crystals

Question
QUESTION: Hello, my 4 year old female cat has been diagnosed with feline crystals. I have been feeding her Science Diet Prescription C/D, however, she doesn't seem to like it, she will eat it only because she has to. I was wondering if I could feed her Purina Pro Plan Urinary Tract Formula with out her having the crystals return. She has been doing great since she was diagnosed but I am not a Science Diet fan, I'm not much of a Purina fan either but I'm thinking that it may taste better then the SD. If she can't eat the Pro Plan is there another brand food she can have to keep the crystals away. Also, is there a treat I can give her. My cat loves treats and I'm leery to give her any at all. thank you so much in advance

ANSWER: So your cat has cystitis basically. How long has she been on the C/D? One thing I have learned after selling this food for 30 yrs as well as feeding it myself in the past, is that the owner mistakes the fact that the cat is actually only eating what she needs for her energy needs as opposed to a cat that eats a lot regular food that doesn't meet their energy needs.

C/D is packed with optimal nutrition - what that means is the cat gets more nutrition with less food. I have had many clients come in and say the cat doesn't like the food, they just eat a little bit at a time. I told them that the cat doesn't need to eat as much.
So they went home and watched to see if the cats were hungry or looking for more food etc and they told me the cats were perfectly content. She had two cats with UTIs so she had to feed them both with C/D.

I am curious why you are not a fan of Science Diet. Purina I can understand, I refuse to recommend anything made by them and I have a nutritional certificate from them as well. Science Diet on the other hand, have been consistently a forerunner in wellness foods for over 50 years. They created the first wellness foods for pets for the public over 40 yrs ago. They constantly do research and apply what they find to new wellness foods. They were the first to create a food to help prevent bone and joint issues for large breed puppies, after doing a three year study on it.

The point is that Hill's foods are still the best ones on the market in terms of optimal nutrition, fixed formulation, and wellness foods.

As far as treats go, just use her regular bits of food as a treat or get some Science Diet cat treats that are made for cats on prescription foods. They will not interfere with the food composition or add any other minerals to the diet.

As regards to the other foods that claim to be for urinary tract health, when I did an analysis on them they were just as high in phosphorus and calcium as regular foods and were not formulated for optimal health nor are they consistent in their make-up. Most foods on the market now use open formulation which means that they buy whatever is cheap on the docks that day so the food they create may look the same but what goes into it is not. Iams and Eukanueba have now dropped their fixed formulation so I don't recommend them anymore. Your pet can get sick from eating the same food now because the change in ingredients can upset their stomachs and you wouldn't even know why.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you so much for your reply. You have convinced me to keep my cat on SD.  One more question, I also have another cat Fiona, Mimi's sister, that has NOT been diagnosed with crystals however, when Mimi had to start eating the SD Prescription C/D, I also put Fiona on it, they eat together and it is very difficult to feed them in separate rooms. Is it dangerous to feed Fiona a prescription food when she doesn't need it?

Thank you again for your reply regarding Mimi and keeping her on SD, you make perfect sense.
Laura

Answer
It won't hurt Fiona at all and will actually help her stay healthy. Now remember to measure this food out because it is higher in fat to compensate for the reduction in minerals to prevent crystal formation. So make sure that each cat only gets between 3/4 and one (8 oz) cup a day, per cat. That means you out that amount out and no more for the day. After a few weeks of eating it they won't even eat that much probably.

Hill's Prescription C/D is perfectly balanced for optimal nutrition for all adult cats. Just a side note. Hills makes Science Diet and Prescription diets, but your cats are not on Science Diet but Hill's own unique wellness food which can only be bought at your vet's.

It was my pleasure to answer your questions.