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How do you determine WHAT foods your cat is allergic to?

post #1 of 5
6/18/11 at 1:31pm
Thread Starter 
Luna is about a year old. I got her at a shelter when she was around 10 weeks and that was last September. Only this past March is when I started noticing signs of allergies. In all my years as a cat owner, I have not had an allergic cat!

In March she developed an indolent ulcer which the vet treated with a steroid shot and it went away. I had not made any recent changes in her food or anything else to pin point the cause of the breakout so the vet thought maybe it was just a fluke. Then a few weeks ago she got a rash on her head. The vet gave her an oral steroid taper thist time and it went away. This time the vet surmised she must have food allergies.

I discontinued the dry food I was feeding her and switched her to wet food. Now tody I noticed that the outside of her mouth is red. No ulcer, but I hope one is not going to form.

So I am stumped. How can I determine what ingredient(s) in cat food she is allergic to? Thank you in advance for your advice.
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post #2 of 5
6/22/11 at 1:06am
You have to buy foods that have limited ingredients (sometimes called LIDs). One meat source and pea or sweet potato is the most common. Natural Balance makes those, but you can find others. Or feed her cooked chicken and rice. If she shows reaction, we know one of those two caused it. So then you would feed chicken and peas. If there was still a reaction, we would know chicken is an allergen.
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post #3 of 5
6/22/11 at 4:28am
Quote:
How do you determine WHAT foods your cat is allergic to?
Rotating foods was what always solved such mysteries for us. I never used unsupplemented home cooked foods even for a short time because I strongly believe they do more harm than good.
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post #4 of 5
6/25/11 at 7:10pm
Thread Starter 
Thank you for your replies! Luna went to the vet on Wednesday for another steroid shot. He gave me some hypoallergenic food by Royal Canin which she won't eat and cost 2.5 times what I was feeding her that didn't contain by-products as this food does. I will look into the LID food you suggest and see if they are successful.
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post #5 of 5
6/26/11 at 1:59pm
Yes I would try the limited ingredient foods. My cat Mr Grey wouldn't eat them so I had to use Royal Canin Limited Ingredient food from my vet, but he only liked their dry food and not the canned... My vet said to avoid poultry and fish as those are the most common allergens, so I've been using Nature's Variety Instinct Rabbit canned food which he likes. They also have other flavors like venison and beef.
Unfortunately I think my cat also has environmental allergies in addition to food allergies because although we've found the rodent ulcers are triggered by his diet, he still has other allergy symptoms which diet doesn't seem to change (itching, chewing/licking his skin/fur) and so far only steroid shots have helped with those symptoms.
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