Allergic to PEAS???

Peas aren't hypo-allergenic. Their use was originally beneficial because they where aa novel ingredient. But as you've noticed, many food makers use peas now - so there has been an increase in pets that have become allergic to them.

I'm not sure about flax, I've not seen anyone mention it on here, yet. But that doesn't mean it's not possible.

How old is Fiona now? Have you been able to figure out other possible allergens? Have, or will you be discussing this with her vet?

What stores do you have to shop for petfoods at? (Or are you willing to order food online?) And does she like wet food?

new foster mom, it sounds like your kitty definitely has some food sensitivities. Trial and error to find out what she can tolerate is the only way to deal with this. You may have to try grain-free and fruit/vegetable-free canned foods to see if she can do all right on those, then include ingredients one at a time to see how far you can go.

My Amy can't tolerate peas and, it seems, foods in general that contain fruits and vegetables. Canned or dry, makes no difference. Grains have also been a problem with her ever since she was a baby. (The problems started right after she was weaned.)
She also can't tolerate fish oil supplements that should be good for kitties like her.
I reached the point a long time ago where nothing surprises me any more when it comes to food sensitivities.

I know several kitties who have had serious reactions to flax seed or flax seed oil. So if you suspect a sensitivity, don't ignore your feeling about it.

A little bit of info on flax seed:

http://www.flaxseedshop.com/content/...ed-Allergy.asp

http://www.new-omega-3.com/flax-seed...e-effects.html

As mentioned Both are actually relatively common cat food allergies...IMHO peas are more likely ... flax is hard to digest

You never mentioned her age. If she's a senior kitty (7+ years) it may not be a good idea to put her on the higher protein grain free foods. Again, discuss that with your vet. If you say she's good with rice and chicken, that may be your best bet food wise.

I don't know if you have access to a Costco, but their Kirkland brand cat food is a good quality dry food at a bargain price - less than $16 for 25 lbs.

Reading the ingredients from the link above, I don't find any peas, but it does contain flax seed. If you think the problem may be more likely peas than flax, I'd give it a try. My cats love it and have had no problems at all from the food.

Some vets offer food allergy testing to determine the exact allergies. We did it for our dog who IS allergic to both peas and flaxseed. Unfortunetly flax is almost every food out there nowadays.
I have 1 cat who is allergic to beef. He was always getting scabby, pink ears, itching chin sores etc. Once we eliminated the beef he was fine.

Allergy test by prick and blood are not very accurate ...

So glad I found this recent thread while googling away this morning!
I just had an epiphany last night and I think my 7 month-old cat is also allergic to peas or flax seed... but most likely peas!
I got him a little over a month ago and sarted feeding him a chicken-based holistic mix which seemed to give him mild symptoms (sneezing/watery eyes). I then switched him to Halo Spot's Stew and my cat started scratching his ears, face and neck a lot. I changed a lot of things around the house (litter, litter mat, bowls, cleaning products) and fed him NB duck and peas, but his symptoms didn't improve one bit!
I took him to the vet's office last week, and the vet was more than happy to prescribe a few overpriced drugs for him... But the fact that my cat's symptoms hardly respond to antihistamines and prednisone seems to indicate it is indeed a food allergy.
I went over the ingredients of everything he's been fed so far and while the holistic mix just had "some" peas, Halo Spot's Stew has a lot of pea protein and peas are the MAIN ingredient in the NB duck and peas dry kibbles... which give my cat diarrhea, by the way!
I'm aware food allergies typically develop after eating the same food for a long period of time, but peas are anything but a natural food for cats, and my kitty may very well just not be equipped to digest them properly.
This situation makes me sad and I can't wait for him to get better since he's normally very sweet but has been pretty antisocial due to all those annoying symptoms.
I was advised to give him digestive enzymes (1/8 tsp mixed with wet food twice a day) and I'm considering it, but I'm also completely giving up on peas and flax seed (I've even been giving him extra flax seed oil, hoping the Omega-3 fatty acids would help with his allergies...!)
Also, I just started using witch hazel to soothe the itching on his ears and I've already gotten better results with it than with the rather expensive anti-itch spray for cats I got from Petco.
Apparently, it can take 8 weeks for food allergy symptoms to clear...
I hope our gut feeling is right! Best of luck with your kitty!

Hi There,

 

I feel relative certain that my cat is allergic to peas -- he had a similar experience on the Natural Balance Green Pea and Venison.  If your kitty previously tolerated chicken and rice, I would recommend California Natural Chicken and Rice.

 

Good luck! 

I would love to know if anyone has found any good allergy pet food (not too spendy) that does not contain peas? My cat is allergic to fish, chicken, duck, yeast, oats, milk, rice, pork, lamb, potatoes, peas and barley (according to her panel) and reacts even to the highly allergen free Hills feline z/d (which i'd rather not feed her because it's expensive and i think crap for nutrition!).

 

So...weirdly she can eat some of the common allergens like corn and wheat and soybean, but since she needs odd protiens, i find that food made with venison and rabbit always seem to have peas and rice and things she is allergic too.

 

Any suggestions?

I too am wondering about Peas now. My cats have been on Wellness for most of their lives. One girl has developed itchy waxy ears and digs at them. Vet said to switch off of wellness onto >> Natural Balance. OH MY, she started sneezing hysterically after a week or two. I noticed all the grain-free cans I fed her (venison with pea, duck with pea, salmon with pea etc..) all had PEAS. Welness had flaxseed, but didnt' bother my other cats. I am now gong to try Primal Raw Meals for cats. Pet Food store said all of their customers who buy it love it!! I've tried Nature's variety before and found them constipated more & anal gland issues. After looking at the ingredients & having researched nutrition for years in humans/pets I think it was the Clay which can be drying and bindnig if a lot of water is not consumed with it. Returning the rest of my natural balanced and Primal raw here we come!!

Hey,

My cat has almost the EXACT SAME allergies- chicken, beef, tuna, peas, barley, yeast, oat- I have her on california naturals venison and brown rice canned food- expensive but inexpensive for what you get which is good quality food, no allergens, and a happy non-scratching kitty!! Worked wonders on my insanely allergic cat who has been wearing a cone for a long time and is for now cone free!!!

Good luck- this brand really is great, you don't need that fancy perscription stuff- it's just all about doing your home work and checking ingredients and you can save a bundle!!

Oh I didn't see the rice allergy- don't do the california naturals venison and brown rice one then- that stinks your kitty is allergic to that as well! Check out EVO canned venison formula (I believe that's the name)- it's like 95% venison- expensive but it may do the trick!

Thanks for the continued comments regarding peas and the food recommendation (moonbunny). I did try her on one of the "Before Grain" foods (by Merrick) which was 95% turkey, to which she is not supposed to be allergic. Weirdly enough, she reacted to it. I know that "salmon oil" and things of that nature are commonly added and that it isn't supposed to (i think) cause a reaction in an animal that is allergic to fish....but i keep wondering if some of that 5% in the "single protien" foods has something to do with her allergies.

 

I am considering trying out a raw diet. I'd love to see her get over 6 lbs (and not show ribs!) and between my other cat stealing her food if we aren't looking (and we monitor very closely) and the lack of nutrition in her feline z/d, i'm wondering if it might be a solution....my only concern is monitoring how long it is left out, etc...we pick up their food after they've eaten, but i'm out of the house working all day and my 19 and 21 year old boys don't seem to think it's as big of a deal and I worry about them leaving it out and Cleo or Jax getting into some spoils....and at this point Cleo turns her nose up at anything but her z/d...and of course Jax's food - to which she reacts.

 

Ugh! It's as bad as having a child with severe allergies - i just can't imagine....you have to really watch and worry about everything our little one's digest!!

 

I do hope at her next urinalysis, her crystals are down...i bought them a water fountain and i have to say, it was a good investment, she just loves it!

 

 

ETA: Crosswinds - my cat also gets very waxy ears and is shaking her head and pawing at them....the sneezing, wheezing, etc....she has even gotten to the point of having a fever with trouble breathing and very lethargic, and that was also allergies....those times she didn't even break out in the pistules...but it was still a reaction...i haven't figured out if it's common for reactions to change, a sign it's more severe, or if there are different reactions to different allergens, i suppose that makes sense....

The waxy ears can be cleaned, might make her more comfortable.

Re; the waxy ears; a better word would probably be "congested" since her whole respiratory is affected, i think it's more about being swollen, etc. than waxy per se, (if that makes sense) and the minute she's done reacting she is fine, i don't notice any wax buildup, etc.

 

I am wondering with the Better than Grain foods (single protien, 96% beef or turkey, etc.) that she surprisingly reacted to, even though it didn't have any allergens (i thought) and now that i've read the ingredients again i see that it doesn't have fish oil. However, it does list yeast extract, as a lot of cat food seems to do....and she is allergic to yeast....i'm assuming she is reacting to that.

 

Went on another food search and came up short again, still can't find anything online or in stores (even the specialty shops - i'm in Los Angeles so lots of availability) that she would not be allergic to.

 

So sad :-(

Hummm...... What panel? Those allergy panels the vets do? Do know that is that is what you are talking about.... Luckily for your kitty, because otherwise by the list you are giving in your post, it wouldn't really be able to eat...), they are highly unreliable.....
You are right..... They are not supposed to cause a reaction.... When a cat is allergic to the protein, it is not allergic to the fat - different type of molecules. The allergen is the protein. Chicken fat - such as the one used as a preservative, for example, is not an allergen, when chicken is - same thing with fish oil.
Raw

Thanks for your informative reply - i really appreciate it. Especially the knowledge about the protien vs. the fat, that helps me sooo much to feel better about trying something with say salmon oil, even though the "panel" says she is allergic to fish....do you know if this would apply to "extracts" as well (like the yeast extract).

 

The panel that was done was done by VARL (Veterinary Allergy Reference Laboratory) and is called a LiquidGold Allergy Test (looking at the document). They did an Extended Foods panel that represensts the levels of IgE antibodies specific to the allergen they are testing for. The panel rates the allergens from a Class 0 (being absent or undetectable) to a Class 6 being an ultra high level. She didn't come in higher than a 2 on all these things, however, i can tell you that after trying a gazillion foods...I have found nothing that she does not have an extreme reaction to within a matter of 3 days (day 1 she is usually shaking her head and going at her ears and her face looks swollen, by day 2 she'll start getting red pimples/pistules all over her head especially above the eyes and scratching like crazy until she bleeds, and usually by the third day she's miserable and sometimes even wheezing and feverish). Sometimes she'll get some symptoms and not the others, other times she'll get everything super fast and really bad. According to the vet, she shouldn't react so strongly...yet she does. i think she is just a sensitive kitty. In fact, she even reacts to the feline z/d dry food, although the wet does not seem to bother her (sadly i think it is nutritional junk just because it's so boiled out or whatever and she hates it LOL). As i mentioned above, even trying her on a single protien with no other ingredients, she still started reacting :-(.

 

I should also add that my two cats are indoor only, have never been outside, are monitored during eating times (well at least by my and often by the kids, though i'm not home, so err....) so they don't eat each other's food, and i don't use anything else on them - so it definately is a food issue, even if panels aren't reliable....

 

What i think i hear you saying, is that because blood test allergen panels are unreliable (why?), that perhaps i should go ahead and try some foods with the supposed allergens, in case she isn't really allergic to them....

 

I'm definately considering making my own cat food or trying the raw, however it really doesn't fit with our lifestyle too much so i really really hope to find something canned that she can eat, especially for times when we can't monitor them as much and put food up, etc...

 

I don't know if it matters, but she was a rescue cat who had been found on the streets at about 3 1/2 months old, apparently part of a litter that was left in a home when the occupants moved in the middle of los angeles....at least that is the story i got (she was also pregnant at the time, but they took the babies when they spayed her)...so in my head, i figure either the family fed the animals a lot of table food or she dumpster dived (or whatever cats do on the street) and perhaps that is why she has allergens to substances she should have never even eaten before (like peas). Also, her highest levels (the class 2s, are the starches - oats, rice, potato and peas....). But again, i have found that she really does react to isolated things (for instance milk which i let her try, and is listed as an allergen - had her itching and scratching)....

 

I'm concerned about her, she's lost half a pound during the last year even though her diet is the same, she has crystals in her urine, and her ionized calcium is high, though she didn't show any thyroid issues and i did have them do the additional testing of the thyroid that supposedly gives back a result that when positive, is 95% reliable indication of a cancer somewhere...that test came back inconclusive....

 

Sorry if i've hijacked this thread - but i sure hope anyone else that has such problems comes across it and maybe doesn't feel so darned alone. Poor thing is only 4 and i just want her to be healthy and comfortable!

You can try raw and see how she does.... There are commercially prepared foods that can benefit her - especially single meal novel protein for example, Rabbit, venison, goat, lamb, quail, pheasant.... there is even llama!..... there is plenty of variety out there to try. The ones I feed are all single proteins, and all meat - no vegetables, no grains, no additives - they are complete/supplemented with vitamins and taurine, of course. The cost is less than canned, including shipping - some I get in my local store (i.e. Rad Cat)
You will have to change things around in your life style, but it CAN fit most people's life - I feed mine around my work schedule - a meal before work, in the morning, a meal after work, in the early evening, and a late meal, at 11pm before I go to bed.
In between preparing, feeding and cleaning, it takes me about an hour.
There is no leaving the plates behind for the kids to clean up. You prepare the food, you serve, make sure she eats (from the time you serve, she has only 20 minutes or so to eat - mine eat faster at this point, but in the beginning it took longer), then you pick up, wash the dishes, wipe the area really quickly with a clorox spray of vinegar, and you are done.
It has been nothing but a small miracle for my boy Bugsy -

Hope this is a solution for your girl too........ something need to be..... for her sake and yours!