Everything for a cat that's unwell or needs support: prescription diets, supplements, and treatments for skin, joints, digestion and stress. It's grouped by what's wrong rather than by product type, so you can see the food and the supplement for a condition side by side.
Some things shouldn't wait
Cats hide illness well, and by the time something is obvious it has often been going on a while. If your cat is straining in the litter tray, has stopped eating for more than a day, is breathing oddly, or has gone suddenly quiet and withdrawn, that's a call to your vet rather than a purchase.
Most practices in the UK have an out-of-hours service, and it's usually a recorded message on the main number telling you where to go. Worth knowing yours before you need it.
Start from the problem
The pages under this section cover urinary, kidney and liver, digestive, dental, weight, coat and skin, and thyroid. Each one has the veterinary diets and the supplements for that condition together, so you're not hunting through two departments.
If you're not sure which applies, the Veterinary Condition filter on the left does the same job across everything here.
Diets and supplements are different things
The veterinary diets here are clinical nutrition for diagnosed conditions. They work by restricting or adjusting things a healthy cat needs, so they aren't an upgrade and some are unsuitable for a well cat. Buy exactly what your vet named.
Supplements are a different category altogether. They're feed supplements, not medicines. At best they support a treatment plan. A joint supplement won't reverse arthritis and a urinary supplement won't clear an infection. They're worth it when your vet has suggested one, or alongside proper treatment for an older cat, and rarely worth it as a precaution for a healthy young one.
Give them time. Most joint and skin supplements need six to eight weeks before you can judge whether anything has changed.
Getting things into a cat
The main practical problem with cat health products is administration, and a capsule you can't get your cat to swallow is money wasted. Most things here can be given more than one way.
Capsules can usually be pulled apart and the powder sprinkled over wet food. Mix it through rather than leaving it on top, or you'll find a clean bowl with a little heap of powder left in it.
Tablets can generally be crushed and mixed into something strong-smelling. Pastes, wet food and a spoonful of the water from a tin of tuna all work. Check the packaging first, though: anything described as coated or slow-release is meant to be swallowed whole and shouldn't be crushed.
Pastes and liquids are the easiest option and can go straight onto a paw for your cat to lick off, which some cats accept far more readily than being approached with a syringe.
Three things that make it easier. Use a small amount of food rather than the whole meal, so if your cat objects to the taste you haven't put them off dinner entirely. If you're giving a tablet whole, follow it with a little water or wet food, because a dry tablet can lodge in a cat's throat. And if your cat has worked out that a particular treat means medicine, change the treat rather than persevering.
If something proves impossible, email us before you give up on it. There may be a paste or liquid version of the same thing.
Never use a dog product on a cat
This matters more than anything else on the page. Some flea treatments made for dogs contain permethrin, which is seriously toxic to cats and can kill. That includes a treated dog sleeping against a cat before the application has dried.
Check the box says cat before it goes anywhere near one. If it's happened, ring your vet straight away.