Food Allergy

dilly · Dec 30, 2013

Sylvester has a food allergy.

He's constantly licking and scratching, and has scabby spots, where his hair is missing on his back.

The vet suggested feeding him Hill's Z/D, or Royal Canin duck and green peas.

He said that even though some companies offer a limited ingredient, or low allergy food they may still cause allergic reactions because companies do not do a steralization cleaning between batches, becasue of cost to do so.

My first thought was Natural Balance, but now I don't kn ow what to do?

I'm looking for suggestions on what to try feeding,a nd what to eliminate, to help Sylevester?

laralove · Dec 30, 2013

Have you considered going raw?

peppermintplant · Dec 31, 2013

If you're trying to decide what to do, you might switch to a grain-free, limited diet with something like duck, rabbit or venison as the sole protein source (something he's unlikely to have eaten before) while you do your research and decide how to move forward. If you switch to one of the diets your vet recommends, it doesn't have to be forever or even long-term. If you're worried about what your vet said, with some limited diets not actually being limited, just make sure to check the ingredient lists and look for red flags like multiple protein sources, fish, stuff like cranberries or wheat gluten, etc.

Good luck! I hope you manage to narrow down the culprit and have your kitty feeling great again soon.

dilly · Dec 31, 2013

LaraLove said:
Have you considered going raw?

I prefer to feed a dry and canned food diet, if possible.

dilly · Dec 31, 2013

PeppermintPlant said:
If you're trying to decide what to do, you might switch to a grain-free, limited diet with something like duck, rabbit or venison as the sole protein source (something he's unlikely to have eaten before) while you do your research and decide how to move forward. If you switch to one of the diets your vet recommends, it doesn't have to be forever or even long-term. If you're worried about what your vet said, with some limited diets not actually being limited, just make sure to check the ingredient lists and look for red flags like multiple protein sources, fish, stuff like cranberries or wheat gluten, etc.

Good luck! I hope you manage to narrow down the culprit and have your kitty feeling great again soon.

Thanks. I'm going to start looking into the options.

He's driving me nuts with all the scratching, I can only imagine how he feels!

I had no idea cranberries were also a culprit.

I don try to avoid corn, wheat and soy.

My budget unfortunatley requires a canned food from walmart, and about a dollar per pound dry food.

peppermintplant · Dec 31, 2013

That makes it harder. I don't know if they have it at Walmart, but I know Sheba makes a lot of grain-free wet foods, and they have them at the local Target and CVS here. They're pretty cheap and pretty good quality for what you get, but they don't have duck or rabbit or anything. Still, they might be a good way to eliminate grain from the wet food for an affordable price and see if that's the culprit.

I stopped feeding my cats dry food and had them on prescription i/d for about five years before I took them off the dry, so I don't know much there to offer any advice, but there's a thread about cheap grain-free foods, including dry food, here: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/234367/cheapest-grain-free-cat-food

dilly · Dec 31, 2013

PeppermintPlant said:
That makes it harder. I don't know if they have it at Walmart, but I know Sheba makes a lot of grain-free wet foods, and they have them at the local Target and CVS here. They're pretty cheap and pretty good quality for what you get, but they don't have duck or rabbit or anything. Still, they might be a good way to eliminate grain from the wet food for an affordable price and see if that's the culprit.

I stopped feeding my cats dry food and had them on prescription i/d for about five years before I took them off the dry, so I don't know much there to offer any advice, but there's a thread about cheap grain-free foods, including dry food, here: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/234367/cheapest-grain-free-cat-food

They do sell Sheba at WM, but the cats didn't eat it very well.

I mainly feed FF pate classics.

I was feeding some of the Friskies pate's, and that was my first suspicion for his allergies. So I quit feeding that. He didn't improve.

In fact he got worse.

I've also fed some of the Meow Mix, little tubs of canned food. That's also making me wonder, since they're so fish based.

dianamc · Dec 31, 2013

You can avoid the fish with the FF Classics. I don't know if there's much difference between turkey and chicken allergy-wise but the Turkey & Giblets Feast has gone over well enough here. The classic Chicken Feast has fish in it, but is apparently very good. Tender Liver & Chicken Feast has no fish. Walmart is about all we have.

dilly · Dec 31, 2013

I

DianaMc said:
You can avoid the fish with the FF Classics. I don't know if there's much difference between turkey and chicken allergy-wise but the Turkey & Giblets Feast has gone over well enough here. The classic Chicken Feast has fish in it, but is apparently very good. Tender Liver & Chicken Feast has no fish. Walmart is about all we have.

I feed the beef, turkey and chicken feast of FF because they don't have any bi products or wheat gluten in them. I didn't know the chicken feast had fish in it

dianamc · Dec 31, 2013

I was surprised to see the fish in it too. Just "fish." In one of my threads, someone said beef sometimes caused issues. You could stick to either beef or poultry and see what happens. I expect someone else has said that poultry causes issues. I'd been feeding Dandy her kitten food for 4 or 5 mos. before I realized it had carrageenan!

Food Allergy

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