Using prescription food with no prescription

zookapook93

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Hello all,
I have a very high-stress cat who recently got a stress-induced FLUTD. I've switched him to a wet-food-only diet and am buying him only foods good for urinary care, which is pricey! I'm trying to take advantage of as many freebies as I can. I was offered 24 cans of Hill's prescription diet for digestive care for free. I was thinking of switching off this and the urinary care diet (also Hill's) so I could feed the urinary diet in the am and the other food, maybe mixed with Friskies pate (the food I used to feed him) in the pm, just to make the food I have last longer. But I'm wondering, is it bad to feed my cat a prescription diet for digestive problems when he doesn't have any GI concerns?
 

FeebysOwner

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If your cat has stress-induced FLUTD (and no issues with crystals/stones or urine PH level) there is less of a need for urinary care foods specifically - as said above. Just a lot of moisture - through canned foods and water drinking, which most all cats, FLUTD or not, could use. I haven't used any digestive care foods, but aren't they almost as expensive as the urinary care ones - so once you go through the free cans, are you contemplating not feeding it to him after that? I guess if they are free and you intend to mix it with other canned foods, there probably is no reason not to.
 

Mr. Meow

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Also note that there's a difference between actual prescription food (one that a prescription is actually needed to purchase) and prescription-like foods, labeled with words like "science diet", "veterinary diet" or "*insert body part here* care".
Prescription foods usually contain ingredients that cannot be sold to the general public without veterinary approval, or ingredients in concentrations higher than allowed by non-prescription food standards. Non-prescription foods, or prescription-like foods have ingredients tailored towards a specific need, in concentrations allowed by law. In fact, many regular pet foods could be renamed "protein care", "digestive health" etc without changing a single ingredient.
 
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