What is Hills a/d pet food?

What is Hills a/d pet food?

by Michael

Hills a/d cat and dog food

Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

Hills a/d cat and dog food

Hills a/d has worked for now, for my sick cat. For people new to the site, my cat is very ill; terminally ill in fact and she had more or less stopped eating despite trying everything.

My vet's receptionist advised some canned food that they had. One of the products was unsuccessful but I have found, in the early hours of this morning, that Hills a/d has worked in that it has got my cat to eat.

She was quite keen to eat it. I thought I would mention this as it might help other cat caretakers who are going through similar problems with their cat or dog who have lost their appetite.

Hills a/d is for cats and dogs, which makes it a bit unusual. It is not cheap! No surprise there. It is a semi-moist type sloppy paste that smells strongly.

Hills say it is for cats and dogs that are recovering from illness, surgery or an accident. The consistency of the food makes it easier to eat and swallow while the smell makes it highly palatable to use the language of manufacturers and vets.

Hills have a very complicated feeding guide for this food on their website.

You can add water to it to thin it. And you could microwave it for a very short time (say 10 seconds) to further boost the smell it gives off. I have done neither. Hills provide a schedule for feeding but for my cat the situation is a little more desperate. The objective is to get some food down, any amount of food down so I ignored the schedule.

One of the hidden reasons why cats lose their appetite is a loss of the sense of smell due to age or illness. Cats depend very much on the smell of the food to get their appetite going. My cat has lost to a certain extent her sense of smell which is an added factor in losing appetite.

A complete list of illnesses that can cause a loss of appetite is on this page.

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What is Hills a/d pet food?

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Nov 23, 2011
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Stopped
by: Michael

Binnie has stopped eating. At the beginning it looked hopeful as she ate a bit of the Hill a/d but she then stopped. I have tried everything.

I agree that sitting with and stroking a cat while they eat helps them to eat. But in this case it no longer works.

I think the reason is a combination of things: dementia and discomfort come to mind. She feels ill but looks like she wants food but then won't eat it. She spends a lot of time looking at water.

Today is her last day it seems. I will ask the vet. There are lots of tears here.


Nov 22, 2011
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Hard to get a sick cat to eat
by: Brandy

When my poor little girl was sick it was hard to get her to eat.

The only thing that worked well for me is i would heat some water in the kettle and then mix some wet food into it, making her a kind of kitty soup.

After she got better she would still turn her nose up at the wet food unless I watered it down for her.

beats using the microwave to heat it up and waters it down making it easier on the stomach.


Nov 22, 2011
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Sending good wishes for success with Hills a/d cat and dog food
by: Mary

I'm also trying lots of things to tempt cat appetite right now.
So far a major factor seems to be sitting with her while she eats. ... Sometimes it's surprising what works, sometimes obvious.

Sending lots of good wishes for your cat - and her appetite !


Nov 22, 2011
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We fed this to Cocoa
by: Elisa

This is what saved Cocoa back when we were having to syringe feed him. It was the only food he didn't fight. We watered it down a bit with warm water and pulled it up into a syringe and gave him several syringes several times a day. We had to do this for over 2 weeks until he got to eating on his own again.


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