Need Hypoallergenic Food Help

Hi Everyone,

Angel has had diarrhea off & on for a few days. I tried a little pumpkin in his food, sometimes it helped, sometimes it didn't. I know that it can also work the opposite way, so never put more than a teaspoon of it in his food. Anyway, after days of it not getting better, off to the Vet we went this morning.

The back story is this,

At the beginning of April, I noticed he had 3 small raw spots he had chewed on his side. This has happened before, the vet put him on Pretnisone, & suggested 1/2 of an allergy pill(he is 14lbs) to help w/ the seasonal itchiness. This has happened in the past, other times in the yr. , so don't think it's only outdoor allergy related (grass, pollen etc..)  (& by the way, before anyone jumps on me, he grew up an outdoor cat for 6yrs. & now, I take him out on a leach only, as a compromise).

Anyway, instead of going to the traditional Vet, & her only putting him on Pretnisone again, I

wanted to try & get to the root of the problem this time, to hopefully solve it.   I took him to a Holistic Vet we have in town w/ a 25 yr. background in Veterinary Chinese Medicine.  Through some test & a series of questions, he determined that Angel had too much damp heat in his body, therefore, creating the inflammation & itchiness. So he gave me some Veterinary Chinese Tea Pills to balance the spleen, as he said he needed.  Also in Chinese Medicine, foods are either cooling, warming, or neutral.

I had been feeding him mostly Turkey & Chicken, both witch are warming, so thus, adding to the problem. So, Fish is o.k., but even my regular Vet thinks that w/ possible allergies, it's best to stay away from. Duck is neutral, but it may have been giving him diarrhea. So, that leaves beef, beef is cooling. It took me a while to find one that didn't have other meats in it as well. (found Merrick's Cowboy Cookout, & Before the Grain Beef). Well, I didn't think that the new food could be the reason for the diarrhea, because he had been on it for 10 days before it started.  BUT, the Vet said that it could still be the reason.  So, we got sent home w/ some probiotics, Metronidazole antibiotics, to help stop the diarrhea, a can of Prescription z/d food & a sample of some dry Royal Cain Hypoallergenic.

So finally, my question is, does anyone have any suggestions for a good, clean hypoallergenic dry food that doesn't cost 55.00 a bag?  I can swing the canned food, that's actually a little cheaper (@ Pet Smart) than the Natural Balance he was eating, & that is mostly what he eats, but still likes some dry as well, especially when he hasn't been feeling well. I was paying 14.00 for Natural Balance Dry.

Sorry this was so long, I really appreciate any help!!

I need to pick some up ASAP.

Thanks!!

Kelly

I don't have an answer for you, but I'm kinda in the same boat with my cat. He's currently glaring at me from his cone of shame. I tried duck and it failed, now I'm not sure where to go. The vet is recommending z/d. I'll have to look into beef, venison and rabbit too.

Hope someone with some knowledge can help. I'll follow this thread good luck with your kitty. That's cool you have a veterinary chinese medicine specialist!
 

Hi Kelly..... I will ask to have this moved to Nutrition where you will probably receive many more suggestions for your precious Angel :rub:

Chumley had the same problem. He had very bad diarrhea that we could not solve with prednisone because it's contra-indicated for FIV (which he has), and the hypoallergenic food didn't fix the problem. He licked spots bare on the outside of his front legs, he was VERY itchy, nibbling at his feet all the time, and he "mowed" his abdomen clean. We also went to a holistic vet - a DVM trained in Chinese Medicine and nutrition. She made us up him on a grain-free, low carb wet food only diet. The "damp heat" is a combination of a Yin deficiency and a spleen Qi deficiency.

There are a number of pills that can be used to correct this. To correct the loose stool, the vet had us order online a product called Consolidate Qi. It is a tincture - thankfully he just ate it when added to food. We started with three drops - I have the info in Chumley's health journal here. I'll get the link. But it resolved his chronic diarrhea (which he'd had for six months) in four days. For the damp heat problem, we ended up using Properous Farmer, one pill twice a day. (It's a large pill - we cut it in half, and put each half in a pill pocket. He just ate it. I think the pill must taste OK, because Shel often tried to steal it before it was in a pill pocket LOL). We could tell within a week or two it was helping. We didn't need to worry so much about food ingredients - these herbal meds worked so well and quickly for his condition. She did also have us give him something to soothe his GI system: we purchased loose slippery elm powder from the health food store, and aloe vera juice (we bought George's instead of organic - George's has no taste). We mixed 1/4 teaspoon of George's aloe vera juice with 1/4 teaspoon of slipper elm, and emptied the capsule of probiotic into it (we purchased an acidophilus supplement with 10 billion active cultures from the refrigerated section at the health food store). This "gels" up, and we just mixed it in his food. He had this twice a day. His hair all grew back, and he became completely symptom-free within about... a month or two. (The hair on his abdomen took a while to all grow back in).

Just FYI, since having switched to raw food, Chumley no longer needs any of the above stuff, and I don't worry about what protein I'm feeding him.

BTW, according to Patrick Mahaney, a DVM with training in Chinese Medicine, says that duck, egg, and turkey are cooling (Yin) foods, and that beef is neutral. :dk: http://www.patrickmahaney.com/anima...pet-from-the-perspective-of-chinese-medicine/

If you want the info on doses, or where I ordered stuff, just let me know!

BTW - personally, I'd skip the dry and give him freeze dried meat treats between meals. :nod: Whole Life makes FD turkey and beef filets. It's expensive, but you don't need to feed much of it. I use the chicken, but if you don't want to feed that, there are other options.

Another BTW - the hypoallergenic z/d dry is NOT hypoallergenic. It is low allergan. Only the canned z/d is hypoallergenic. The dry z/d has brewer's rice in it, and that was a problem for Chumley. The canned didn't help him at all anyway.

I don't know about limited ingredient kibble, but I'm sure others will come along with suggestions. I know Merrick Before Grain is limited ingredient - but they only have chicken, tuna, or salmon. Natural balance has limited ingredient, but I think of the proteins you want to feed, they only have duck in dry. :slant:

I haven't got any advice hun but just wanted to say hope you sort it and Angel gets better soonxx

Thank you all for your suggestions & support.  I did buy the z/d canned to keep him on for a while & see if the diarrhea gets better. It's a weird gel like consistency, so I added some warm water in it, & mashed it all up, he ate it better that way. The Vet told me that they had a less expensive hypoallergenic for about half the price of the Royal Cain. (sp?)  It was Purina HA (prescription veterinary), so, I bought that this morning.

Angel likes to munch on dry food during the day & a little @ night.  I did try to give him raw chicken once, but he wasn't interested at all.  I was fixing some

for stir fry last night, so I decided to try again. This time, I cut a few tiny pieces up (maybe 5-6)  & gave it to him, & said "Birdie, Birdie." LOL, anything to get him to eat!

He ate all but a couple of pieces, so there may be hope there. I just can't afford to feed him all raw, but I will continue to try & give him some when I have it, &

see if he eats it. (& I will look for the raw treats)   He did still have diarrhea yesterday morning, but thankfully when we were outside. (it was bad too!!)

(I was getting tired of mopping everyday!)

Nothing this morning though,

so I hope I don't have a surprise waiting for me when I get home from work.  ( If the antibiotics they gave us for the diarrhea don't work, then I will look into the

tincture you recommended DLG, as well as the other stuff. After the visit to the vet & buying the food, I'm tapped out for now.)

DLG, Thanks for telling me about the beef being neutral, & the turkey cooling. I thought that it was as well, but the Dr. here said the opposite.

(& Angel loves turkey) Anyway, the regular vet said that they were finding a lot of kitties having reactions to green pea, & it's in a lot of the healthier foods.

That's why I'm not giving him his dry Natural Balance that he usually eats, because it's the Duck & Green Pea.  (they do have that in wet as well, but I think that was causing diarrhea too).  The vet wants him on the prescription hypoallergenic only for a couple of months. She said that the proteins in it are broken down so small, that it is easily digested w/out the problems. So, I guess that's what I am doing, at least for a month, to give him a chance to recover. (I'm not sure I can afford to do it for two).

Thanks for providing the link, it's great!! I'm sorry Chumley has FIV. Angel has Feline Herpes, so lysine is added to his food everyday as well as some nutritional yeast.

Lokilove, If your baby has hot spots he's chewed, you do not want to give him venison, the holistic vet told me that was a warming food, so it will only make it worse.

According to the link above provided by DGL, rabbit is cooling.

Feralvr, & Ruthyb, Thanks for the support!!  

"I love this site!!" 

"Thank-You, Fellow Meowmy's!

Kelly

Just by way of FYI, feeding him a home made raw diet will be the least expensive option. It costs less to feed home made raw than canned, and often less than most kibble. It can take work to transition them (quick read on that thought: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/243850/an-interesting-development-tonight ), but I'd at least keep it in the back of your mind. Because they derive so much nutrition from raw food, they need to eat less of it than canned - and prescription food is expensive. With a home made raw diet, they receive no additives/ingredients that trigger the allergies. I resisted the idea for over a year, and thankfully Chumley improved due to the Chinese herbal treatment. But now that I have my cats on raw, I wish I'd made this switch as soon as the vet suggested it (or earlier! :lol3: ).

http://catcentric.org/nutrition-and...y-cat-or-i-can-afford-to-feed-commercial-raw/

Thanks so much for the info. I will definatly check into it! 

Hi, don't have much advice, but I have an allergic cat as well. He was already on a canned diet when his allergies started and when the vet said to try dry hypoallergenic food I said NO WAY. Millions of cans and a failed trial of 2docs allergy pills later, I finally figured out that the only thing he's NOT allergic to is fish. After months and months of a fish only diet, I'm finally starting to see if he can tolerate rabbit too.
My only advice is to pick ONE type of food. One brand, one flavor and stick with it for at least two weeks. If you try to jump around different foods too much, it just adds to the confusion and delays recovery. Believe me, I felt bad for him and kept trying to add and change foods (picking out new foods is fun for me), but it just made everything drag on forever. Good luck!

Thanks for the info & advise Minka, As of now, the vet wants him on the hypoallergenic perception food, ONLY.  As of last Friday, it's been two weeks,

 he has still had diarrhea. (so today,Tues. makes it, 2 wks & 4 days).

I called the Vet yesterday, because today will be his last day of the antibiotics that were supposed to stop it, but hasn't yet.  They want me to come in for a refill,

today, along with the pro-biotic kit that has the paste like kopeptate (sp?)  as well as the capsules. I wish they would have just given me that last week when we were there instead of the other pro-biotic capsules. Between the office visit, test, meds., & food, I have spent almost 200.00 in less that a week!

That's money I don't really have. Don't get me wrong, I will do anything to care for my baby, but I wish the vet would've just given the other pro-biotics

w/ the paste in the first place. (I am single, & don't really have extra money around, I struggle as it is).

Anyway, so that's the latest. We'll see what happens from here. I really think the paste will work though. He had to have that two yrs. ago when he got a parasite,

& had diarrhea for 3 wks!

I'll keep you all posted & thanks so much for the advise, & support from everyone!!

Kelly 

P.S. I think all of this only happened, when we changed his food to help the allergies (cooling foods), but as far as the allergies go, he seems o.k.

        He hasn't chewed any spots raw, or anything. I think once this all settles down, I will put him back on turkey only, for a good while.

        He does good w/ that, & loves it. (& it's cooling!) 

Why do you need to do exactly as the vet says in this instance? Btw, Natural Balance is co-manufactured by Diamond Pet Foods and they just had a massive recall. So be careful what food you're giving. I feed my two kitties Nature's Variety, Weruva, Soulistic, Petguard (all only grain free versions). Nature's Variety is novel protein foods and that's what you need to do. Start out with one flavor like chicken or duck, lamb, whatever. Then move on after several weeks. 

What antibiotic is being used? And theoretically to treat what? Some can cause real problems for cats. Carolina's Bugsy was put on clavamox, and it ruined his already fragile system. He had diarrhea for over a year - until she switched him to a raw diet, in fact.

This is a scrip from the holistic vet?

finnlacey said:

Why do you need to do exactly as the vet says in this instance? Btw, Natural Balance is co-manufactured by Diamond Pet Foods and they just had a massive recall. So be careful what food you're giving. I feed my two kitties Nature's Variety, Weruva, Soulistic, Petguard (all only grain free versions). Nature's Variety is novel protein foods and that's what you need to do. Start out with one flavor like chicken or duck, lamb, whatever. Then move on after several weeks. 

Click to expand...

He hasn't had any Natural Balance for over a month, but thanks for the info.  Turkey is a cooling food in Chinese Medicine, & will help keep him from feeling so itchy,

ie.. chewing spots. I don't think Duck agreed w/ him, & I think lamb is a warm food, so that's out.

Chicken is warming, but it's the only flavor the z/d comes in as well as the HA, but so far he seems o.k.

I am doing what the vet says, because they know best right now. We have to rule out anything that could be causing the diarrhea, so only bland prescription food for now.

I also think it's best, because I don't want his system getting overwhelmed, when he's been through so much already.

They even had me stop adding his lysine & nutritional yeast for now. I know these things aren't causing any problems, (even though he needs the lysine)

but maybe the least his system has to deal w/ right now, to get better, the better.

I'm just doing the best I can.

I know it's overwhelming.

Just FYI, Chumley was diagnosed with the same conditions. The prescription diet did not help his diarrhea at all.

If he's not as itchy, it seems the herbals prescribed are already helping him. :cross: We saw the improvement in Chumley pretty quickly.

But instead of continuing with MORE antibiotics, and whatever paste that is, I suggest you ask about using slippery elm with aloe vera juice (1/4 teaspoon slippery elm powder and 1/4 teaspoon aloe vera juice) with the probiotic (not whatever paste that is) mixed in. We gave that to Chum twice a day (mixed into his food after it jelled up). And instead of the kaopectate paste, ask about using Consolidate Qi to stop the diarrhea. If they OK this, I can send you an unopened bottle of Consolidate Qi. It stopped Chum's diarrhea in four days. :nod:

Oh, and if you have a health food store around, the slippery elm here costs $0.70 per ounce, which lasts quite a while. :nod: The Aloe Vera juice was... $7 for 32 ounces I think? Not organic, but George's, no taste, also sold at the health food store.

LDG said:

What antibiotic is being used? And theoretically to treat what? Some can cause real problems for cats. Carolina's Bugsy was put on clavamox, and it ruined his already fragile system. He had diarrhea for over a year - until she switched him to a raw diet, in fact.
This is a scrip from the holistic vet?

Click to expand...

Hi Laurie,   They have him on one that is supposed to help stop the diarrhea, that's why they put him on it. It is, Metronidazole 50mg/2x/day.

                     No, not a script from the Holistic Vet. He doesn't have a lab, regular meds etc.. so went to my regular vet.

                     I really think the kaopeptate kind of paste stuff is going to work.( It's Kaolin/Pectin liq. I will give him 1 ml. 3x/day.) ,

                    I just wish they would've given it to me last week, when I was there, instead of just the other pro-biotics.

Thanks for the recomendation, but already bought the meds from the vet, so going to go the course, Then take it from there.

I hope the kaolin/pectin does help. :cross:

The metro shouldn't hurt, anyway.

IMO carageenan is also a likely culprit, research has shown it to cause bowel inflammation in some cats and humans.  There are only a few brands that don't have carageenan as a thickener, Nature's Variety is one of them. 

If what you really want is a bland diet that is easy on his system, I would use a food that he is Not allergic too (or whatever protein source the hypoallergenic food is made of), and feed him that plus rice. When my vet prescribed hypoallergenic food, I refused and did trial and error on my own instead. I absolutely did not want to put my cat back on dry food after I had just weened him off of it. (And the ingredients in the hypo food scared me too much...)

It's totally up to you though.