# Alternative to Hills Prescription Diet H/D dried dog food



## Pilgrim (Mar 30, 2011)

Hi,
This my first post and was wondering if anyone out there could suggest a non prescription alternatve that will still be helpful to my dogs heart condition.

My vet's stock of the food is very intermittent so I have to mix it somtimes with other food as a temporary alternative.

If there is something out there non prescription and cheaper it would help me out a lot.

Appreciate any advice.

Thanks


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## Unosmom (May 3, 2009)

What sort of health problems does your dog have?
I looked up this specific formula and heres what it says:
Key Benefits

Prescription Diet® h/d® is formulated with the following benefits:
Low level of sodium to help maintain normal blood pressure
High level of taurine to help support cardiac muscle metabolism
High level of L-Carnitine to support healthy heart function
Increased B-vitamins and magnesium to help replenish nutrients lost when receiving diuretics
'
Ingredients
Whole Grain Corn, Pork Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Soy Protein Isolate, Chicken By-Product Meal, Chicken Liver Flavor, Dried Egg Product, Powdered Cellulose, Potassium Citrate, Dicalcium Phosphate, Calcium Carbonate, Natural Flavor, Choline Chloride, Soybean Oil, vitamins (L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), L-Lysine, Taurine, Vitamin E Supplement, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), DL-Methionine, Magnesium Oxide, preserved with Mixed Tocopherols & Citric Acid, L-Carnitine, L-Tryptophan, Phosphoric Acid, Beta-Carotene, Rosemary Extract.

its obviously pretty bad, I dont see how it would address any health problem if not make it worse.


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## Pilgrim (Mar 30, 2011)

Basically he has a bad heart he's a Lab and getting on for 12 years and he's on diuretics, so i would say the last 3 benefits apply.


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## KittyKat (Feb 11, 2011)

Prescription Diet® h/d® is formulated with the following benefits:
Low level of sodium to help maintain normal blood pressure
High level of taurine to help support cardiac muscle metabolism
High level of L-Carnitine to support healthy heart function
Increased B-vitamins and magnesium to help replenish nutrients lost when receiving diuretics

Hmm, based on the ingredients I don't see what it's actually helping. I mean the first ingredient is whole grain corn... which they won't digest... and they don't need... followed by pork fat... and soy protein - just can't help but shake my head at that.


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## Ania's Mommy (Feb 8, 2009)

KittyKat said:


> Prescription Diet® h/d® is formulated with the following benefits:
> Low level of sodium to help maintain normal blood pressure
> High level of taurine to help support cardiac muscle metabolism
> High level of L-Carnitine to support healthy heart function
> Increased B-vitamins and magnesium to help replenish nutrients lost when receiving diuretics


I would quit the SD completely. It is horrid, horrid food. I would switch to a good quality food (something like Taste of the Wild, possibly), and maybe add supplements to get the benefits described above.


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## Pilgrim (Mar 30, 2011)

Surprised me to especially as this food is only available from vets!


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## Unosmom (May 3, 2009)

Not sure if this is relevant to your dogs condition, but worth the read:
DogAware.com Health: Heart Disease in Dogs



> Note that many prescription cardiac diets are high in potassium, which may be inappropriate depending on the medications being used. Some prescription diets are also low in protein, which is always inappropriate for dogs with heart disease. If you are feeding a prescription diet for heart disease, you can improve the quality of the diet by adding high-protein animal-source foods such as meat, eggs and dairy, but be careful not to add foods that are high in sodium, such as cottage cheese and canned fish. Note that prescription diets are not usually necessary unless needed to reduce sodium in later stages of heart disease. This can also be done by feeding a homemade diet. See Balancing a Homemade Diet for more information. You can look up the amount of sodium in various foods on the USDA Nutrient Database.


So it seems to me that dogs with heart issues do best on high protein, low carb diet, raw would probably be ideal since meat is rich in natural amino acids, but good quality, grain free, meat based kibble may work as well.


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## Pilgrim (Mar 30, 2011)

Thanks for the info, he's pretty far advanced but I'll certainly have a look at the article.

From the thread looks pretty unanimous that Science diet is not the best food, glad i asked.


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## KittyKat (Feb 11, 2011)

Hmmm, in my thoughts if he does need the taurine... perhaps mixing some cat food in would be good, like say the canned stuff that contains it. Get a good quality dog food, like taste of the wild or origin that are low on sodium and high on protein.


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## Pilgrim (Mar 30, 2011)

Have done some research on the heart health issues and Honest Kitchen seems to come out pretty well, I was thinking of getting their Verve product to see how he gets on with that.

Anyone got any good or bad comments?


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## 3Musketeers (Nov 4, 2010)

If you go with Honest Kitchen, I much prefer their Zeal formula:

Zeal Dog Food | Food For Sensitive Dogs | The Honest Kitchen

High Protein, Low fat:
Protein, 35% min
Fat, 8.4% min
AND compared to Verve it is low carb, Verve on the other hand seems to be pretty high-carb.

As a second choice there is Embark:

Embark | Grain Free Dog Food | Gluten Free | The Honest Kitchen

Mid-high protein, but also higher in Fat:
Protein, 29% min
Fat, 16% min

Edit/P.S: Taurine is found in meat, so the more meat the better.


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## Jackielyn (May 27, 2009)

I've heard great things about The Honest Kitchen  The only thing I have qualms about with this food is that it does horrible things for the teeth...at least it does for my senior! She eats kibble but I always provide a nice chew bone every once in a while, she loves it


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## diamond girl (Mar 15, 2016)

My dog has a heart murmur and enlarged heart. I gave him Hills Prescription Diet H/D canned dog food. Now he doesn't have any evidence of those problems anymore. I highly favor this Rx dog food.


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## 1605 (May 27, 2009)

diamond girl said:


> My dog has a heart murmur and enlarged heart. I gave him Hills Prescription Diet H/D canned dog food. Now he doesn't have any evidence of those problems anymore. I highly favor this Rx dog food.


I am highly suspect of this post & claim.


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## diamond girl (Mar 15, 2016)

I am not connected to the Hills company. My dog is well now, thanks to this dog food. My vet prescribed it, and i am grateful for the results. I have nothing to gain by my post. I am only declaring how it helped my dog. And maybe it might help someone else's dog too.


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## 1605 (May 27, 2009)

diamond girl said:


> I am not connected to the Hills company. My dog is well now, thanks to this dog food. My vet prescribed it, and i am grateful for the results. I have nothing to gain by my post. I am only declaring how it helped my dog. And maybe it might help someone else's dog too.


I am glad that your dog is feeling better, but I expect that he/she was put on medication to help manage this condition. Food does not really play a part in handling a heart murmur or enlarged heart. It may help the dog loose weight, which will in turn put less stress on h/h heart, but it doesn't cure the underlying problem.


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## diamond girl (Mar 15, 2016)

Hello. Thank you for your comments, but my dog was not and is not on any medication except for this prescription diet. It may be hard for you to accept that, but that is the truth. Best wishes.


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## Dr Dolittle (Aug 2, 2013)

SO we're going to switch from a food that is CLINICALLY PROVEN and has been saving dogs with heart failure for years and switch to a food made by people who have no nutritional knowledge and feed a diet extremely high in sodium which will do nothing but harm that dog! have we let these snake oil pet food companies so blind us that we can't use any common sense anymore??? I am sorry for sounding disrespectful but we are not debating what to feed a healthy dog. these dogs need specific nutrient levels and the ingredients chosen will deliver that. ANd we are not talking theory! THese diets, whether Hills ,Purina, or Raoyal Canin save lives and give us more time with the animals we love. DO not feed a commercial food to a dog with chronic heart disease, unless it is made by vet nutritionists that know what they are doing! IF not, than try and find a homemade heart diet, but that can be dangerous, knowing who to trust. GOd Bless!


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## channeledbymodem (Dec 25, 2008)

It's bad enough when people buy into the fantasy that "bad" ingredients make dogs sick and "good" ingredients prevent illness but when people with only limited anecdotal experience and a web browser start dispensing medical advice based on their subjective opinion of a food's label, they are guilty of internet malpractice. 

Since I post here from time to time and have become prejudiced *in favor* of certain commercial foods after years of feeding the "best" "holistic" feeds (including raw and homemade) to many animals, both sick and well, these are my biases:

1) *No one*, including one of the handful of board certified veterinary nutritionists, can determine the "quality" of a food from its label. The "best" ingredients cannot guarantee wellness; the "worst" ingredients have not been *proven* to lead to illness. The poor genetics of *most* pure bred dogs have much more to do with their health than what they eat. If you wish to feed a healthy dog any "complete and balanced" formula that you can afford and the dog likes, then go for it. If you persist in feeding a sick dog a different food from what your vet recommends, for at least a serious trial, you are guilty of abusing the animal. DOG FOOD LABELS ARE ADVERTISEMENTS, no more no less. 

2) I cannot deny that the big four dog food companies -- Purina, Royal Canin/Waltham, Iams and Hills/Science Diet -- are much like the banks that are too big to fail and the pharmaceutical companies that price gouge and kill competition. But putting your faith in small companies that have good intentions but no research behind them is like putting your retirement savings in cash under that mattress. At best you'll only lose the rate of inflation; at worst your savings will disappear in a house fire or a theft or you might wind up sharing that "human grade" dog food with your best friend in old age. Experts are very often the instruments of corporations who cut corners in the name of profit but that doesn't make them any the less experts. Substituting your own faith based ideology for your vet's is doing your animal a disservice.

3) As for the therapeutic diets, which are really the subject of this diatribe, let's try to be objective, shall we? The first priority of helping a sick animal should be getting them back to health as soon as possible, yes? If an animal is sick, and particularly if it is elderly, how can trying a food with "bad" ingredients possibly hurt? Unless you think that the big companies are deliberately poisoning animals and ripping us off, even a placebo effect cannot possibly be more harmful than feeding a "holistic" food that isn't even properly balanced for healthy dogs. 

Yes, the ingredients look like crap, and I have no doubt that they are the cheapest possible that provides the results indicated by research. And yes, the profit margin on these "inferior" ingredients is very very high. Such is no different from the hundreds of drugs for humans we take reluctantly or gladly because when it comes to our own health, once we are already sick, maybe we're not so quick to think our doctor knows less than we do. 

Your animals deserve no less consideration. Too many people come here asking for "alternatives" to commercial therapeutic diets before they've even given them a try or given their vet the benefit of the doubt. And too many people with no *real* experience in healing are much too quick to suggest products that almost certainly will make a sick animal sicker. If you are a science denier there are many organizations that will welcome you to their ranks and you are free to believe anything you like but it is cruel to subject those pets dependent on you to your own uninformed prejudices. As the late Senator Pat Moynihan famously said: "Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts."

I say this as someone who has spent thousands of dollars on alternative treatments and diets trying to get sick animals well, and I wouldn't do it again if it were free (and my insurance does pay for them). I wish everybody years of happy, healthy companionship from their beloved pets.


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## Dr Dolittle (Aug 2, 2013)

Channeledbymodem, I love you!!!!! LOL! I mean I love when somebody says something so much better than I can. Couldn't agree more!


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