Health warning on Iams! (Iams in General)

Member Name: clairep4

Product:	Iams in General
Date:	21/05/02 (494 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easy to feed

Disadvantages: can cause urinary tract disorders, highly concentrated so water consumption goes up

I am a big advocate of dried food for pets. My two cats are fed on Hills dried food normally - this gives them glossy coats, good health, and although as with any dried food your pet is likely to need more water than with wet food, the Hills doesn't make them overly thirsty.

Two weeks ago, unable to get hold of more Hills as the shop that sells it was closed for refurbishment, I decided I'd try Iams Adult just for a couple of weeks until I could get hold of my usual catfood again. I introduced my cats to it over a few days, mixed in with their usual food. Once they were onto the Iams properly, I noticed that they were consuming twice the amount of water than normal (they normally drink a cereal-type bowlful of water between them in 24 hours - they were now needing two a day).
After only about ten days of being on the Iams food, I woke in the morning to find that one of my cats had urinated in the bath (never normally done) and alarmingly, had urinated almost pure blood. I took her to the vet's that afternoon (by which time there was less blood in the urine but she was using the litter tray every 10-15 minutes and obviously in pain). She turned out to have fairly severe cystitis. When told that she had recently been fed on Iams, my vet advised that cystitis is commonly brought on by this food because it is so concentrated. £50 later (vet's consultation plus urine tests), my cat is on antibiotics for 10 days and is still not her usual self. I have managed to get hold of more Hills food and the cats' water consumption has dropped back down to 1 bowl a day.

This is just a warning to people out there considering changing to this food - it can cause painful urinary tract problems for your cat!

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