The Importance of Following a Prescribed Diet

I wanted to write this blog to tell you about my recent experience with prescription food for my cat Jordan and stress the importance of following your veterinarian’s recommendations. For some reason or another, your pet may need to be on a prescription diet at some point in their life. The diet works best if you feed your pet this special food and this food only. This means no treats, table scraps, or sneaking food from another pet’s dish. Now I know what you’re thinking, this is a great inconvenience. To help eliminate my pets from eating out of each other’s bowls, I purchased microchip feeders for them. You can learn more about microchip feeders here: https://www.packerlandvet.com/blog/microchip-feeder . My newest cat, Daffodil, does not need a prescription diet so I started buying treats for her. I was solely giving them to Daffodil, but I felt really guilty and started giving them to Jordan as well. Recently, Jordan started to vomit. I brought Jordan in for an exam and blood work. The labs showed her potassium was low. We started her on a supplement and an anti-nausea medication to take as needed. A month later we repeated the blood work. Everything came back normal. I told her veterinarian that she still vomits off and on. We discussed further diagnostics if it continues, but her vet stated that she suspects that Jordan may have developed an allergy to her food. I wondered how this could be… she has been on it for over 10 years. Then I remembered that I started giving Jordan treats. I told her vet and she talked to me about how important it is to stick to the prescribed diet and that the treats could be the reason why she is vomiting. I stopped giving Jordan the treats and guess what? No more vomiting.

Now again, I know prescription diets can be hard, but several manufactures are now making prescription treats to go with their foods. You can contact the company, or your vet, to see if your pet’s food now comes in treat from. You can also make treats at home! If the food comes in canned form, you can use it to bake treats in the oven. Put bite-sized pieces on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes or until crispy. If the food only comes in kibble form, blend 2 cups of dry food and grind into a powder. Next, pour the powder into a mixing bowl and gradually add about 1 to 1¼ cups of water, stirring until it forms a dough consistency. Put bite-sized pieces on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes or until crispy. If you’re not a baker, Jordan’s doctor suggested that I give her a few kernels of her food as a treat. Why didn’t I think of that? The best advice I can give you is to talk to your veterinarian. They know what they are talking about.