Violent Reaction to Fancy Feast?

It happened with the beef kind so I just figured i'd try the other kind. It was given as a treat because he's been doing so well.

He completely wigged out. The results would be the same if you gave a 10 year old cocaine.

He seems to be hallucinating, he trashed his food bowl and waterbowl area. He was working on his litterbox before I got to him.

He ran into my legs like he didn't even see me. His head is twitching. He ran into the wall running sideways with his tail curved over his spine (imagine an S shape). and now he's under the couch.

Is this some kind of crazy food allergy?

I would take the food you have left, or the can and save it. Call the company after the holiday it almost sounds like it could be tainted food. The company deserves to know that this type of reaction happened. I use FF all the time, all flavors for newcomers. Never had a problem with it yet.

Wow, I have no idea. My kitty eats Fancy Feast - it is the only canned food she will touch. But she only wigs out on catnip.

he'll do the catnip thing too, but this is different. This is abnormal behavior in the extreme. Almost like he's been drugged with a stimulant or hallucinogen.

The cat may be allergic to the beef and having a serious reaction. Have you fed him beef before?

It frequently causes allergies in cats. I'd also avoid venison, which my vet told me was rather similar and also provoked allergies in susceptible cats.

Is your boy all right now?

I wouldn't be surprised at all if this is an allergic reaction.

Fancy Feast is a food I frequently hear people complaining their cat has allergy symptoms to. Beef is also one of the biggest cat allergens around. I stay away from anything at all that has beef, fish, grains or more than a couple veggies (some of the holistic brands load up on veggies which makes very little sense to me).

My 3 cardinal rules of food-shopping for cats that I tell adopters:
1. Wet is definitely necessary to a balanced kitty diet, because it provides moisture and digestable proteins. I reccommend feeding wet only, or at a minimum, half wet/half dry.
2. Make sure the first ingredient is either meat or meat meal.
3. Avoid grains of any kind and by-products of any kind. There are several brands where you can avoid both altogether.

See if you can also limit the number of ingredients in his diet. Some cats do better with a more simple diet and FF's list is like 10 miles long if I remember correctly. Try feeding him poultry food only and see how he reacts. He might not NEED a unique protein diet (the venison, duck, pheasant....as someone above suggested) because cats usually do ok with chicken and turkey. So, watch that and take him to the vet if you see any more symptoms, or if these recur.

At this point we're stumped. We're not ruling out some kind of mood disorder right now. I know he's new to the home but his behavior is extremely erratic and he is showing some symptoms of bipolar disorder.

The last couple of days he has regressed to hiding under the couch again (which he had almost completely stopped doing) and has started nipping again after he seemed to be calming down.

We're going to set up an appointment with the vet to get him in sometime in the next week to have some additional tests run to rule out physical issues.

I know it may sound funny, but I've never seen any cat or dog run sideways and smack into a wall unless some idiot had given the animal some kind of illegal substance as a "joke" (and yes, sadly, when I was a kid I knew people who did this. bleah.) But the reaction to the fancy feast literally floored me because he acted similarly.

As a side note, he figured out this morning that he could use his paw to open the cabinets. I was laying in bed and heard the cabinet door shut in the kitchen and then there was total quiet, so I came out to check and found him sitting in one of our large mixing bowls inside the cabinet. I went and got back into bed and heard the door being opened, I sat up, looked, and sure enough, he was using one of his paws to open the cabinet door, it was sort of like watching your child learn something new, it was incredibly cute. (though we'll have to stop that from happening so he doesn't get stuck). He's an extremely smart kitty, he may just have some special needs that we need to take care of. I hope it's not too serious.

It's only a matter of time before he figures out how to open doors, I've seen him eying them when my wife and I use them the same way he has been watching us use the cabinets for the past week or so. hehehe. He's even flushed the toilet a few times (though I hope that doesn't become a habit, our water bill would skyrocket if he decided he liked doing it. hehe)

If he is having an allergic reaction to the Fancy Feast, it can take a few days to subside. A severe allergy can cause very strange behavior sometimes.

I would take him to the vet soon. Was the can dented or anything? That could be botulism . That can cause blurred vision muscle weakness and vomitting. It can be fatal if not treated.

Originally Posted by dont_eat_bambi

I would take him to the vet soon. Was the can dented or anything? That could be botulism . That can cause blurred vision muscle weakness and vomitting. It can be fatal if not treated.

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Nah, no dents. No weakness or vomitting. My wife's a nurse so we won't even buy dented canned goods. Just crazy behavior. He's calmed down a lot now and is behaving more normal. he has an appointment to see the vet next week.