Better allergy-proof food?

Well, hubby came home last night to discover that our poor baby Abby had nearly scratched her face off. She had a quarter sized spot above her eye that she had completely removed all the hair and skin from (I know, sorry to be so graphic), and had done an additional patch above the left eye before we could get her to the vet an hour later. She had extreme itching problems before when we got her (as a stray), that was thought to be a flea allergy (even though we didn't find any fleas on her) she was given a steroid shot and flea meds, and made an entirely inside cat, the sores and scratching seemed to disappear completely, until last night. That was three weeks ago (approx the time it takes for the steroid shots to wear off). Now we're looking at food allergies, and she's been put on an Rx diet for the next six weeks. Currently, she's on Hill's Diet z/d for allergies. She seems to like it, and we'll have to wait and see if it clears up the allergies. However, I'd really like to put her on a better food after the food trial is over, as the current food has rice as the first two ingredients. She was on Salmon and Brown Rice before hand (the dog person in me thought I was doign so well- avoiding wheat, corn and soy. Didn't realize fish are such a big allergy in kitties... bad meowmy! )

So, can any of you reccomend a good food for an allergic cat? Even if it's a hard-to-get food or internet only type thing, that's fine. We're moving to an area that the best food selection is at Raleys, so we'll most likely be ordering our food via internet, or stockign up in bulk on out of the way trips. Oh, and she eats mostly dry food, with just a tablespoon of wet in the morning and at night as a little "treat" (she won't eat a whole meal of it.. the weirdo)

Thanks so much for your help, I'm just trying to do the best we can for our poor little girl, and I want to make sure she never has to do that to herself again.

I've seen California Natural Chicken & Rice Dry and also Felidae Chicken & Rice dry or wet suggested in the past for allergic cats. I guess that would depend on what the allergy is. I have some of both on the way for a kitten that has exhibeted a sensitivity to the wet foods being too rich.

I'm sure one of the advisors will offer a lot of wonderful advice. I really just want to say I'm sorry for you and your Abby having such a difficult time and offer ({({({({({get well vibes})})})})}) for you both.

Allegies are truely hard to deal with ... After the z/d you would likely be best trying a single protein and single or no grain food..or a unique protein and grain combo...( possible allergens)

California natural the chn one ( has flaxseed)

Felidea chn and rice ( has alfalfa )

Natural balences Venison and pea... nearly identical to a much more costly Rx

those are the drys other than RX that I can think of right now


I have found that dry food is not a good thing with allergic animals and if possible would advise a wet food .... homemade( cooked) or raw diet if feasible...Pm me if your need info on the later


Canned food is tricker in the protein dept but here are a few

Pro pac Beef ( has chicken and beef)

Evangers pheasent

Natural balences Venison and pea


hope this helps ask if I am clear as mudd

My cat had the same symptoms. She scratched her ears bloody and took fur off the top of her head. I was feeding her California Natural Chicken and Rice at the time.

Chicken is, unfortunately an allergen for some cats. Feed an unfamiliar protein--the vet suggested rabbit. Gizmos health improved dramatically and what's more, she didnt need more than five minutes to change over!
The vet gave me royal canin rabbit and pea but when that ran out I switched to Nature's Logic Rabbit Dinner.
This does have some chicken meal in it but I thought that the pea content in RC was a little too high (Gizzy has a heart condition and needs high protein).

The results have been fantastic. Here are some brands you can purchase in specialty stores or from amazon.com:

Nature's Variety Prairie Rabbit. (canned) This is a terrific food, just as good as Nature's Logic, but unfortunately Gizmo would not eat it.

Nature's Logic Rabbit Dinner (canned and dry) This is the best dry food I've tried on Gizzy and her health has improved (along with her coat, which is amazingly soft and shiny.) She loves the dry food, only eats a little of the wet.

Wysong makes Rabbit Au Jus (pure ground rabbit) but you will have to get Missing Link or other vitamin supplements to make this a complete food for your cat. You might try this first since it is guaranteed to have no filler.

My local pet shop also sells raw frozen ground rabbit, but I'm not a raw feeder.

The cat is so much healthier and happier on this diet! and I can recommend these brands of cat food very highly.

My vet told me to avoid venison since it was similar to beef (another allergen.) Lamb is worst of all for allergic cats.
I figure, a rabbit is just an uptown mouse. Whoever heard of a cat catching a cow or a deer? rabbit is close to their natural prey, and so it's great for your cat.

I also used a topical creme on Gizmo's head that I got from the vet. She is also getting l-lysine for her feline herpes and I've just started giving her Cq10
(vitamin Q) with very good results.

good luck.

Well, I think little miss Abby might have something more than allergies going on. We left her alone from Friday night till Sunday evening (I know, we're awful. But we had to work on the house, and now it's been cleaned up enough that it's safe for her to go with us on the weekends), and we come home to find that she has scratched herself again, and wouldn't let us out of her sight. Normally, she is very much a people cat, but not to this extent. So, I'm wondering if maybe she has some kind of emotional issues? She only scratches when we're not home, and she seems to still be scratching herself, though not as badly as earlier this week. (She's getting an e-collar tonight until we can get her to stop destroying herself) Do cats get separation anxiety? And is there anything else we can do for her other than to medicate her?

By the way, thank you for all the great food suggestions, I'll be sure to talk them over with my vet at the next visit.

YOu might get a Feliway diffuser or two to help the cat acclimatize. This does sound like stress. And yes, cats can have separation anxiety. She's in a new place, everything is at sixes and sevens, and she doesn't know if you are coming back when you go out, since everything else is so different for her.

Stress can cause problems that mimick other conditions. One of my cats was to a vet several times including a feline specialist for episodes of digestive problems that the vets thought was either episodes of pancreatitis or IBD. Several diet changes, office visits for sub-q fluids, and two hospitalizations later I finally figured out that it was all rooted in stress. I too keep a Feliway diffuser plugged in. Last Wednesday evening while I was at work we had a bad storm, hail, heavy rain, broken windows and he was sick again for two or three days after but he came out of it on his own. I think he was able to come out of it on his own because of the diffuser.

is it possible you have a dust mite problem in the house. some cats react really badly to dustmites and you have to spray treat your house to get rid of them yearly. our phoebe has major allergies to all types of meat and most grains we have her on Royal Canin Hypoallergenic. She does excellently on it. We tried the one protein thing and she just vomited all of them up. lamb, venison, rabbit, chicken, fish, turkey, beef nothing she gets really bad dry skin and wax in her ears when something gets to her. poor lil sod. since we put her back on the RC Hypo she's been back to her playful self, not itching as much and her coat is sooo soft. she's 8 yrs old this year.

Hi all, I am having the VERY same problem as we're trying to figure out what's going on with our kitty. She's 1 1/2 years old, and has been on the same diet since we've had her. We left for a vacation and had someone check in 2x a day while we were gone, and when we returned she had wounds on her face.

This was in July. Now the wounds healed quite nicely and were good for a while until we went away again in September....and right before we left we noticed the wounds re-appeared. In September I started changing her dry food to a more natural dry food with less junk in it.

So now I'm up against, is this an allergy, is it separation anxiety, was it a 1 time thing that she's now scratching to death because it's itchy?

We've been to the vet a few times over this, and had steroids, multiple topical creams, ringworm tests, antibiotics, and now today we put softclaws on her so that we can hopefully stop her from scratching the wounds.

I never really thought about a food allergy. Yikes....I guess I'll go back to the original food we were feeding her (which was regular Purina Cat Chow), because that's the only thing that changed. I don't want to down grade her food again, but I'm at my wits end.