Can I mix my pet's expensive prescription UTI diet with regular food?

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. You can try and switch to Royal Canin Urinary SO and see if this helps at all. There is dry and wet of this diet. It is a prescription diet so you will have to get a prescription from your veterinarian. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further.

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I politely disagree with your Vet. I do not recommend over the counter urinary diets for cats who have been obstructed. It is a life threatening condition and not to mention expensive issue. I wouldn't risk a non-prescription diet. They are not comparable to the prescription options. I recommend, if your cat will eat it, an all canned food prescription urinary diet like Hill's c/d, Royal canin SO or Purina UR. Increase water intake where ever possible (adding water to the canned food, water fountains, etc). If you decide to go with an over the counter option then go with the lowest ash and do all canned food. I wish you the best!

Thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach with your question about Chase. This is fine to do. It's only a small amount of regular dry cat food, and he's getting mostly vet food. If that's what you have to do to get him to eat it, do it. I hope this helps!

I would not recommend doing this. My concern is that if you substitute food then the urinary food isn't doing anything since he is also getting something else and he may become blocked again. I would monitor his weight and how much food you are feeding him instead. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Hello, my name is Dr. Shines and I am happy to help. Your friend isn't wrong. No studies have been done to the best of my knowledge, but I don't think it's a problem given the amounts that you feed. The diets do have different mechanisms of action. However, as long as the Hills diet makes up 90% of Milo's total calorie intake or more, it should work just fine. It sounds like Milo only gets the canned food every other day so I suspect it is just fine. When in doubt, decrease the amount of canned food. You could count up how many calories he gets in the dry and how many he gets in the canned. Then do the math and get an exact ratio as well. Then you will have no doubts! I hope this answers your question! Please feel free to reach out any time.

Unfortunately, only these diets will be able to help Luca’s bladder problems. The diet will help acidity the urine and it also causes him to drink more. This helps to prevent crystal formation and also has a flushing action in the bladder. I recommend to try the Royal Canin first. Mix it in VERY slow (like 10% of the food initially). Then every few days increase the amount. You should purchase the canned food to see if he likes that. If he does, you can feed him that mixed in with the dry food. Try to keep him out of the other Doha’s food. The diet will not work if it falls below 90% of the total daily food intake. I hope you find this helpful and please feel free to post any further questions.

In mild cases, any wet food may be sufficient to keep the urine suitably dilute to prevent recurrence but i would recommend 6weeks of the specialist urinary wet food to stabilise and maximise recovery. If symptoms recur then i would recommend urinary food only thereafter