At Telford Veterinary Hospital, we frequently recommend prescription pet food diets for our patients to help with various health concerns. As a result, we often get asked if they actually make a difference in pets’ health, or if it is “just a scam.”
Our staff is certain that the diets we prescribe are legitimate and provide realistic health benefits. We wish to ease the minds of our clients and help them feel as confident as we are about these diets. So, Dr. Minninger wanted to share this interesting case about how we helped an owner avoid a multi-thousand dollar surgery for his cat thanks to the effects of a prescription diet!
In early October, we had a female feline client come in for urinary problems. After performing radiographs, Dr. Minninger determined the cat had several large stones in her urinary bladder.
The formation of stones occurs when a cat has a disease process that causes them to concentrate the minerals in their diet and form stones in their urinary bladder. This is not a disease we can cure, but we can prevent and control it with a diet change.
You can see the collection of stones in the photo below.
Dr. Minninger prescribed Hill’s Prescription Diet C/D Diet, which is specifically formulated to “promote a urinary environment that reduces the risk of developing struvite & calcium oxalate crystals.”*
The owner started feeding this diet on a one-month trial basis to determine if the crystals were struvite or another form in nature. Dr. Minninger explained that if they were struvite, the diet should be able to help significantly. If they were not struvite and there was no change, then he would need extensive surgery to remove the stones.
In early November, nearly one month later to the day, the cat came back for a follow-up appointment to recheck the radiographs. As you can see from the photo below, the bladder stones were almost completely gone! This occurred from the medicated diet breaking down the stones in her bladder so that she was able to pass the smaller pieces and no more stones would develop.
This case proved that prescription diets can truly prevent and cure diseases. If the owner continues to feed the C/D diet, there is an extremely low chance of struvite crystals ever returning. The cat now gets to live a healthier and happier life while the owner gets to have more peace of mind that we won’t have to experience this scary situation again.
If you have any questions about prescription diets and how they can benefit your pet’s health, give our office a call and a member of the TVH Team would be happy to help you!
*Photo and diet description quotation courtesy of Hill’s.
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