Possible fish allergy, foods without fish?

In the past my cat was fed whiskas dry food, then eventually science diet light. Also ate friskies canned food. Dish was made of plastic.

While on these foods my cat had bad gas, acne, dandruff, and bloody diarrhea and vomiting every few weeks. I read plastic causes acne, and all these foods had grains and seemed to trigger the digestive issues.

I switched to stainless steel bowls,?and switched to blue buffalo/wilderness dry/canned food which is grain free.

Acne, gas, and dandruff went away completely, vomiting was almost never, and I was lucky if twice a week stools were a little loose with almost no blood.

My vet now said to get rid of the stainless steel bowls and replace with clear glass, and to remove fish based foods totally.

I never heard of cat food without fish, as taurine from fish is needed for eye health. Do you think my cat is grain, plastic, fish allergic?

She is alot better, but not 100% like my other cat. I'm out of ideas on food to try I just spent the last year changing her diet totally and now this...

Make your own raw food and use a taurine supplement. http://www.catinfo.org has a good one.

Thats going to be impossible for me to do, it needs to be food already made.

Is there a reason it's going to be impossible? We make ours in a blender. My husband is also autistic and makes it himself, and if an autistic guy can make it anyone can.
 

Because im not the one paying for the cat food, and thus cannot buy ingredients and make the food each day.
 

taurine is also found in land meat. but i don't know why stainless steel would be a problem.

Metal allergies do exist in humans, even allergies to stainless steel, which is usually regarded as pretty benign. So, I suppose it's possible for a cat to have metal allergies as well!

Usually metal allergies are contact allergies - i.e., from piercings or jewelry worn right against the skin - so I don't really see how a metal food bowl would trigger allergic symptoms in a cat unless he's really dragging his tongue/face/lips against the bowl. But, it does seem possible, I suppose.

I doubt your cat has an "allergy" to plastic - usually the acne comes from bacteria that permeates and hangs out in the porous plastic. Eventually plastic starts to break down, and then it usually becomes even MORE bacteria-infested. So, for example, if you bought a new plastic dish for each meal and threw it away after and never used it again, a cat would probably not get kitty acne from just using plastic alone (I know that's an unfeasible situation - just using it as an example).

I'm a little surprised your vet recommended glass, and clear glass specifically. Sometimes colored glass can have additives that might be harmful to a cat, I suppose - but glass is just so .... breakable. It seems like it could be rendered immediately unsafe if it so much as chips or cracks.

If you haven't had any issues with the stainless steel, I'd say stick with it. I see zero logical reason to switch to glass bowls. I personally use a mix of stainless steel and ceramic bowls for my cat, but the glaze in ceramic bowls can crack over time and become unsafe. Stainless steel bowls last forever!

Cats can definitely have fish/seafood allergies, just like people. Fish isn't as "natural" of a food for "wild" cats as many people think. There are specific SPECIES of wild cats that catch fish as their primary food source, but your garden-variety wildcat usually doesn't have access to fish all that often, and most cats aren't built to actually fish! (i.e., fishing cats have webbed paws - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishing_cat  ) Sorry, went off on a bit of a tangent there. ;}

What brand of food are you feeding your cat right now? Usually most commercially-available cat food brands have a variety of flavors available, and you should be able to find one with chicken as its only "meat" ingredient. Fish, as I mentioned before, really is not the best food for cats. It's not nutritionally-complete for a cat's biology, it can contain high levels of histamines, it is low in calcium and thiamene, and often has other issues. So, I can see why your vet might want your cat off of fish-based foods, especially if you are feeding canned "wet" food. Fish is also not exactly the BEST source of taurine - the best source are organ meats from "land"-based proteins like chicken.

I know you said you just changed your kitty's diet, and that you aren't having any symptoms of poor digestion at the moment, but you can experiment around and see if eliminating fish-based foods is a possibility. I know you mentioned you aren't the one aquiring your cat's foods, but you can research the brand online and see what other flavors they offer and what ingredients are in those flavors.

Good luck!

I'm sorry - I'm not clear on what the problem is at this point? Everything's cleared up but diarrhea? :dk: Or you're saying she usually has normal stools, but twice a week or so she's got loose bloody stools?

There are quite a few foods without fish. And taurine is added to all commercial cat foods. Any food labeled "AAFCO complete and balanced" has the proper amount of taurine in it, so whether a food contains fish or not isn't at all important from the standpoint of taurine needs.

Nature's Variety Instinct is a canned food with single source proteins, simple ingredients, no carageenan or guar gum (both of which can be triggers for IBD kitties, or upsetting to stomachs of some cats with sensitivities). They do have peas and carrots. They're simple to pick out if you want to remove them.

I see no harm in changing to a glass dish. I use Corning appetizer plates for my cats. (They're glass, but not clear glass, they're white).

LDG said:

Nature's Variety Instinct is a canned food with single source proteins, simple ingredients, no carageenan or guar gum (both of which can be triggers for IBD kitties, or upsetting to stomachs of some cats with sensitivities). They do have peas and carrots. They're simple to pick out if you want to remove them.
I see no harm in changing to a glass dish. I use Corning appetizer plates for my cats. (They're glass, but not clear glass, they're white).

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Binky got an allergy and it came on so sudden.She was miserable, she pulled more than half the hair off of her butt area. I tried some of the more expensive grain free food, which worked a bit, but then I read that even though it was called lamb, it had chicken in it!  No good!  Nature's Variety Instinct Did binky a world of favors.  The label is a good read and Binkys has her beautiful plume of a tail back.

I guess I just want to say that it worked well for me. It is $$$ but even so it is well worth it.

Another thing. Glass and ceramic are rather the same thing I think.( as in the afore mentioned Corning ware) I know that ceramic glazes melt into a glass surface when heated. I am not wearing my chemistry hat at the moment but, ya, well , so sez i.