Turkey Allergy?

Is this common or unheard of with a cat? I have noticed lately that trying to feed Rex a sensitive system food that substitutes turkey for chicken is making his diarrhea WORSE. I obviously removed the food, but shouldn't a sensitive system food be something that helps with diarrhea and not makes it worse?

Could be the turkey I suppose? I've not heard much about that being a usual cat allergy but I guess it's not entirely impossible?

It could be something else in the food entirely though. I personally wouldn't be able to feed my own kitten any of the big brand name "sensitive stomach" foods because most of them contain grains or are highly processed, and she can't handle processed foods very well, and grains give her soft stools.

If he had diarrhea on both this new food and his old food, I'd try to see what ingredients the two have in common, and if perhaps the new food has any larger amount of a particular ingredient that was also in the old food.

I have to wonder what made food companies claim turkey would work when chicken did not... In most cases it is a poultry issue ... Turkey is harder to digest than chicken..

Those I too would be comparing to see if any grains or other proteins were in both foods... Remember Turkey on the front of package does not always equal turkey being the only meat.

I would definitely read the ingredients carefully. Turkey and Chicken are both Poultry. If there is a sensitivity established to Chicken then I am sure you would see the same result with Turkey. Not all sensitive foods are the same. I have read some labels that are labeled for sensitive stomachs and they contain Chicken-by-products, ground yellow corn, etc. Those ingredients are definitely hard to digest and I don't know how they could be good for a sensitive stomach.

I hope the diarrhea clears up soon.

Unless you are interested in feeding a raw diet, it may not matter much, but another twist is that cats can have a problem with the "processed" form of turkey, chicken, what-have-you and be totally fine on the fresh, natural form of the meat.

Likely, however, as others have mentioned, it's some other ingredient in the food that's causing a problem, especially if it's kibble and not a canned food.

AC