What is Hills a/d pet food?
by Michael
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.
Best
