What would you do? (FIV, allergies, ugh)

What would you do in my situation??

As some may know, my cat Grimalkin has been losing fur on his tummy and legs, presumably from over-grooming.

Well, so I got him to the vet today and he thinks it's allergies.
He was going to put him on prednisone, but then I reminded him that Grim is FIV+. Since I couldn't remember if Grim had been officially tested for FIV, he did another test. Grim came up as not only being FIV+, but also being immune suppressed, so no prednisone allowed.

So we talked a lot about allergies, and what we can do, and he thinks the first step is to see if it's a food allergy. So of course, out comes the z/d. While he was out of the room, I looked at the book he brought out on skin conditions, and I saw a hypoallergenic food that looked much more promising than the others: Iams Eukanuba Veterinary Diets Response Formula LB, which not only comes in canned, but the first ingredient isn't a veggie or by-product like the others. I asked him if I could try this one instead. He said he wasn't sure since they don't carry it, and they know that the Hills works; he said we wanted to use the hydrolyzed proteins. So then I asked him if I could use the wet version then. He seemed hesitant, but said that would be fine. (Wet isn't hydrolyzed though...) They were out of it, so they would have to order, but the price really scares me. $54 for 24 cans. >___<



Okay, now before I give my options, here is some random info and good things from today:
Firstly Grim has no ear infections! His ears are as clean as a whistle. The vet thinks the itchiness and head shaking is just another symptom of allergies.
The vet was Highly surprised at how well Grim has been losing weight. He wanted to know exactly what I was feeding and commented 'well, whatever you are doing, it's working.' (Although he was so surprised he was skeptical and thought it might be a symptom of something. But after he saw Grim's bloodwork from March, he decided it wasn't.)
Somewhere in between talking about how he may be allergic to what I'm feeding him, he mentioned that other patients there feed 'home-made diets'!!!
The new diet has to be implemented for 90 days in order to know if it is effective.



SO... if you were in my situation, what would you do:

A. Get rid of the new food (Blue Buffalo) and new litter that I introduced this month (because there was no over-grooming before then) and keep an eye out for improvement.

B. Chose a non-prescription diet like Natural Balance LID (since not only were LID diets in the vet book, but also the canned he approved wasn't hydrolyzed anyways)

C. Find a vet that will prescribe the Iams LB and use that since it was in the veterinary book

D. Buy the HILLS d/d canned either from PFD or my vet

E. Bite the bullet and buy the dry Hills z/d originally prescribed

Firstly I want to say thanks for trying to help. *hug* I know there are so many factors that go into this, my head is spinning.. X___X

Thanks for your opinion Michael. (Isn't that what you said you liked to be called?)

I think if I do this, I will also pick only one food to feed him. The question is, Innova or Before Grain?

I switched first to pine pellet litter, but it was a flop because pine litter smells funky. :< Now I'm on pine/corn that has the texture of clay. I'll switch back to FreshStep tomorrow.

I just REALLY don't want to switch him to dry food again. It's been a struggle to get his weight down to under 17lbs, and I don't want to lose that progress.
And then of course the ingredients are hideous and since he still can't fully groom himself, I worry that the rest of his coat will go to poop again and he'll have dandruff.. Ugh.

Before Grain is a complete diet.

But see, there were no itchy skin symptoms with the clay litter, so I'm not worried about it having bothered him. It's the pine/corn litter now that could be causing it.

When I first started from clay to pine pellets, I simply added a handful of pellets to his litter everyday. Unfortunately as I was almost done, I realised pine smells awful and switched to a pine/corn non-pellet litter. This one was easer, just mixed the clay and pine/corn together. He doesn't like it as much as the clay though.

P.s. - only one meezer

Update: I have decided to put Grim back on his old food and litter (Innova, Before Grain chicken & quail) and only use Seventh Generation cleaners in my room.

Can anybody think of something else I should do?

That's the thing, I never really saw him over-grooming. He does a lot of normal grooming: his paws, his sides, his butt, etc; but none of those areas have hair loss. I see him lick his legs and tummy, but only once a day. Only two times did I actually see him nibbling the fur on his stomach. But I guess I will watch the areas and compare photos to make sure it's not spreading.

Oops, sorry for the lack of updates, I kinda forgot this thread was here.. xD

So, I switched him to Natural Balance Duck and Pea and he's been on it for 10 days. I'm honestly not sure if he is any better though. I mean it doesn't look like he's missing More fur but I'm not sure he's gained any back either..

Do you guys think switching to the Venison kind would help? I made sure to pick Duck and Pea because there is no duck in any of his food so I knew it wouldn't be an allergen he's come into contact with, but now I'm thinking maybe it's poultry in general... :/

Thanks so much for replying!! I didn't think there were any other FIV and allergic kitties out there. I thought I just had bad luck.

Don't remember if I mentioned this in the first post, but the only things that had changed when this first started were his food and his litter and I got rid of both of those right away and I think maybe it's helped? I really don't think it's anything else I'm using, though I did change my cleaners to natural 7th Generation stuff, and he's never had fleas so I know the carpet or cat tree aren't contaminated.

Huge question though... When we went to the vet, he was going to give him a steroid shot/something similar to it/something that would basically suppress his immune system; however, that could not be done because he is apparently in the 'actively suppressed' stage of FIV. Will allergy pills be okay for a cat that is actively suppressed? Do allergy pills suppress the immune system further?

I might try those wipes though, who knows, they might help.

If I remember correctly, the Turkey flavor of BG is a different texture than the other flavors right? He was on Innova and BG Chicken & Quail before, but he really didn't like those BG flavors/textures, and I do need him to eat every day..

*visits allergy link* WOW, they are so inexpensive too! Thanks!!

Also, he luckily isn't gouging anything, just nibbles the hair real short on his tummy, licks the fur off on his front legs and scratched a patch of fur out behind his left ear.

Definitely going to contact the owner of that website to see if the allergy pills are alright for my cat.

I was going to change his food, but since he's only been on the new food for just over two weeks AND the little rascal keeps getting his paws on naughty foods (spaghetti sauce, Goodlife Treats, his old dry food...), I think I will stick to what I've got for some more time. It's so hard seeing him with bald patches though.

I'm still fighting that struggle between finding a food that is allergy friendly (especially since i have no idea what he is allergic too) and one that is high protein/low carb. He just reached 16lbs flat today and I'm so proud and it's so hard to say screw it to all that effort.

AND it doesn't help that I'm still struggling with keeping him out of other food!! He's so good at finding the empty plates left over from food and licking them clean... And I'm sure each time he does that basically restarts the whole process.

So I guess still looking into the allergy pills and NB for now..