Topeka, KS – Hyperthyroidism is a common disease mainly found in middle age and senior cats, causing issues like weight loss, vomiting, heart problems, irritability, lethargy, generalized weakness, restlessness, and other effects. In most cases, hyperthyroidism is treatable, and up until now has only involved a choice of three different treatment options including drug therapy, surgery (removal of the thyroid), or an injection of radioactive iodine.
The treatment of hyperthyroidism just got easier, thanks to Hill’s Pet Nutrition launching a new cat food, specifically designed to give veterinarians and pet owners an alternative to the three current courses of treatment, called Hill’s Prescription Diet y/d Feline Thyroid Health. “Managing hyperthyroidism is now as easy as feeding your cat,” says Dru Forrester, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVIM, Director of Scientific & Technical Communication for Hill’s Pet Nutrition at CVC in Kansas City.
Hill’s Prescription Diet y/d Feline Thyroid Health food contains essential amino acids including taurine and high carnitine to effectively improve thyroid health in three weeks. The food helps restore thyroid health by managing the iodine intake to control thyroid hormone production in affected cats. The food also helps support kidney health by controlling phosphorus and sodium, and is said to help support urinary tract health through reduced magnesium and moderate urine pH target.
Take the case of Billy, an 11 year old cat who developed hyperthyroidism, devastating owner, Judy Bernath. After visiting her veterinarian, Dr. David Bruyette, medical director at VCA West Los Angeles Animal Hospital, the recommended course of treatment was to follow a diet of the new Hill’s Prescription Diet y/d Feline Thyroid Health food.
“Surgery can be extremely invasive and daily pilling can negatively impact the relationship between a cat and pet owner. In Billy’s case I felt Prescription Diet y/d would be a good option,” said Dr. Bruyette. “After we talked about it Judy became confident this was an appropriate recommendation and I sent her home with both the canned and dry pet food. After a transition from his previous pet food, we saw that Billy did just fine with no problems.”
After three weeks, Billy’s thyroid level had gone from a very high range of 7.7 to a normal range of 3.8, indicating that the treatment of the new food was working! After only five weeks of treatment, Billy had begun to gain back weight and his thyroid levels were continuing to improve.
Due to the launching of the new food, cat owners who are plagued with hyperthyroid cats now have a non-invasive, easy to administer treatment that only takes three weeks to make a difference and give cats a new lease on life!
Hello there,
Our two cats are hyperthyroid and hate taking tablets. We live in the UK and would like to find your Hill hyperthyroid food but do not know where to buy it in the UK. Can you please let us know if and where your UK suppliers are?
Thanking you in advance,
Yours sincerely,
Cecile
I don’t think life would be any easier with this food. Instead of giving tablets twice a day you have to make sure that your cats eat this food, and *only* this food, every day for the rest of their lives! I’ve never met a cat yet that will eat the same food all the time. Plus, if you have other cats, you’ll have to keep them away from this food.
Some vets (including a leading veterinary endocrinologist) are voicing serious concerns about the safety of this diet as it is so low in iodine (which cats need).
If you are having difficulty pilling your cats (and I can sympathise with that having got the same problem) have you considered surgery or radio-iodine treatment?
Is there anywhere we can get this product in large bags…. it’s usually less expensive that way.
what effect will it have on other cats who do not have the thyroid problem? is it really palatable to cats? Leonardo is a very very picky cat!
Hi Roseann,
I would ask Leonardo’s vet about using this food if he doesn’t have a thyroid problem. Have a good one!
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