Food Allergies: At a dead end.

I have 2 male year old brother cats, Jasper and Rumpus. 3 months after they were neutered and done with vaccinations, they started chewing the hair off of their back legs and feet. This was in October 2012 (they were 10 months old).

At the time, they were eating Wellness Core (original, chicken) both wet AND dry food almost exclusively. I also supplemented handfuls of Sold Gold Katz-n-Flocken once in a while (which one of the cats became addicted to). Once I noticed the fur chewing getting much worse in Rumpus, I immediately started doing research and came to the conclusion that they were probably allergic to chicken.

Their regular vet tried steroid injections which didn't touch their itchiness. I switched their food around several times, with no real pattern (because they're picky and if they weren't interested in one flavor I would switch to something else right away). So they initially didn't get an actual "food trial" and instead were exposed to lots of novel proteins. Chewing continued and Rumpus was now bald on his back legs, front legs, and where his tail begins. They were both eating the same foods and getting the same flea treatments.

I took them to a dermatologist when Rumpus developed what was diagnosed as an eosinophilic plaque from the food allergy. The dermatologist suggested Rayne Clinical Nutrician foods to me and I went and ordered the kangaroo and squash wet food and removed any dry food and treats from their diet. His plaque cleared up after eating the kangaroo exclusively for about 3 months and the hair seemed to be growing back fairly well. Unfortunately, the dermatologist was 9 months pregnant and probably not terribly focused on her job at the time that I brought them back in for their checkup. She concluded that they were not doing much better (buh?!) and that they were likely allergic to other things. She suggested allergy testing (without telling me the cost) and ran the blood tests on both cats. 600 bucks later (ouch!) they are allergic to some very random weeds that don't even grow in my area and she told me to re-introduce their old diet. Fantastic.

I shouldn't have listened. I had a variety of random cans of food left over from before the kangaroo trial so they were reintroduced to several different proteins instead of just one. The fur was pulled out at an alarming rate and due to my own stupidity, I'm still not entirely sure what it is they are allergic to. I should have just kept them on the kangaroo. Now they won't touch the stuff.

Here is a list of what they have eaten thus far:

Wellness Core chicken wet and dry

Solid Gold Katz-n-Flocken dry

Ziwipeak lamb wet and dry

Ziwipeak venison wet and dry

Ziwipeak rabbit and lamb

Nature's Variety rabbit, lamb, beef, duck, venison, pork (all limited ingredient which include peas)

Weruva lamburgini

Rayne Clinical Nutrician kangaroo and squash

Merrick grammy's pot pie (and other varieties)

Tiki Cat puka puka luau (and other varieties)

Addiction new zealand brushtail

California Naturals Herring/sweet potato, salmon dry food

Things I "suspect" they are allergic to:

chicken, peas, salmon/fish, lamb, turkey, duck (anything with a feather)

Basically they have been introduced to every protein under the sun by now. I wish I had done a little more research as to the way to properly conduct a food elimination trial in the beginning, but I panicked.

So, my questions for those of you who have gone through all of this are:

1. Could I have caused this by feeding them high protein food? I know they're supposed to be better, but any cat I've ever had and friends currently have that ate nine lives and purina have had no real significant health problems, assuming because there is no significant level of protein in them.

2. Could this all actually be a yeast infection of the skin? I recall reading that the symptoms are identical but I've completely lost faith in vets and haven't even approached the subject of it.

3. On that note, I also haven't brought up FHS to my vet because they all seem so dismissive of my cats' symptoms. (and probably think I'm crazy)

4. Is lamb a higher allergen than peas? Because at this point it's between feeding them ziwipeak lamb (which they love) and feeding them NV rabbit/pea. I suspect either one has an allergen for them. Just a matter of choosing the lesser of 2 evils at this point.

5. They HATED home cooked meats so don't even bother suggesting I go that route. My cats prefer pate to anything else and home cooked chicken, home cooked kangaroo (holy expensive!) and home cooked beef did nothing to please them. I also tried PRIMAL foods raw stuff and they weren't having it.

Sorry for this extensive post! I'm just at my wits end and feel so badly for my furbabies!

I don't have a lot add except tons of good vibes headed your kitties way There are a number of folks here who's knowledge, solutions or supplements, to their own kitten/cat's allergy issues have helped me tremendously.

We are at the very beginning of a 30 day novel protein food trial to see if we can put a finger on what is causing our newest little 5mo male to be so itchy and/or causing the little scabby areas on his body where food allergies generally show up - beneath the ears, bib and hindquarters.  He too has licked so much fur off himself we just feel horrible for him.

Our vet, did however, tell us to find one novel protein flavor and stick with it (kibble too if he ate kibble), rather than switch them around.  Luckily our young male is not as finicky food wise as our older boy.  He does not yet seem bored with the food.  Since all the wet foods we rotated were either chicken or turkey, with the occasional salmon, we chose Instinct Rabbit and the Rabbit Meal kibble.  I And we add the alaska salmon oil.

We also started a very short round of 5mg prednisone.  Within 6hrs of the first pill, although he is still grooming, it is almost back to what we consider normal grooming - just after meals or a trip to the litterbox.  And now he's not flat out pulling at his fur until it comes out.  So we're hopeful.

I'm sure there will be others with far more experience than myself chime in soon with some good thoughts and great into.

Verissmd, where are you located?

I ask, because we rescued a feral cat that had "allergies." We tried the hypoallergenic diets, the novel proteins, etc. etc. etc. After six months and his going nuts ripping his hair out on his legs and belly and with horrible diarrhea, I decided western medicine wasn't working. I searched for a vet - a D.V.M. - but additionally trained in Chinese Medicine.

She had his diarrhea resolved inside of a few days, and the herbs she put him on for the "allergies" were clearly working inside of a week or two, though that itching/overgrooming took longer to resolve (2 - 3 months, though the crazy itching/scratching/hair ripping significantly slowed down those first few weeks - that's how we knew it was working). We did stop feeding kibble altogether on her instruction, and switched to high protein, low carb canned foods that had limited ingredient lists (we didn't use novel proteins or anything, we just avoided starches and grains), but as all of our cats were older, that transition took some time.

The bottom line? "Allergies" are an immune system gone haywire. There are SO many potential reasons for this - but it isn't a high protein diet. Cats NEED that. And using steroids can help - but all that does is suppress the immune response. It doesn't resolve the problem. Western Medicine just isn't very good at working with immune systems that are out-of-whack. Yes, identifying the triggers and removing them will help, definitely! But IF you can find a good alternative vet to work with, it's actually possible to treat the underlying cause - just not in any western sense of "medicine." If you're in the U.S., consider seeing if you can find a vet trained in Chinese Meds. You can search here: http://www.ahvma.org

Our Chinese Med trained vet also wanted him on a raw diet once things had calmed down for him. I took my time with that (like a year!) but his health issues were long resolved by then. He's just much healthier on the unprocessed, fresh food diet. Who wouldn't be? People do much better on unprocessed food, too. For some cats, just switching to a raw diet resolves the "allergy" problem, though using a novel protein may be needed at first. There are a lot of commercial raw options out there now that make it a lot easier as an option. Just something to consider - especially if your kitties are suffering and you're ripping your hair out trying to figure out how to help them. For many, it's been worth the try....

Thanks for your replies!
-@bluebird I'm sorry youre going through it! It's a very taxing process. Best of luck to you and positive vibes to your kitty!

-@LDG I'm in Albany, NY. I think I will have to find a Chinese trained vet. I'd rather avoid medicines and steroids if I can. Hopefully I can find one and have a positive outcome.

LDG said:

 If you're in the U.S., consider seeing if you can find a vet trained in Chinese Meds. You can search here: http://www.ahvma.org

Our Chinese Med trained vet also wanted him on a raw diet once things had calmed down for him. I took my time with that (like a year!) but his health issues were long resolved by then. He's just much healthier on the unprocessed, fresh food diet. Who wouldn't be? People do much better on unprocessed food, too. For some cats, just switching to a raw diet resolves the "allergy" problem, though using a novel protein may be needed at first. There are a lot of commercial raw options out there now that make it a lot easier as an option. Just something to consider - especially if your kitties are suffering and you're ripping your hair out trying to figure out how to help them. For many, it's been worth the try....

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I, too, appreciate the info on where to find alternative vets.  We have no options where we are on the island, but will be headed back to the Dallas/Fort Worth area March 1st for a couple of month stay.  I hope to contact and see one if little Monty is still suffering from the issues.  Even our vet said the simple fact that we're moving to a different area in Texas it might go away on it's own in a different climate  .  Although I generally go to PetsMart I did find out today that they sell the NV raw bits, medallions, etc. so that's the next option I will try.

Bluebird Gal said:

Although I generally go to PetsMart I did find out today that they sell the NV raw bits, medallions, etc. so that's the next option I will try.

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I used NV to transition to raw. They didn't have the raw bits then: they had the medallions and the patties (and chubs). The smaller the size of the delivery (bits vs patties, for instance), the drier the result. I'm seeing a lot of ... mixed success with cats liking the bits. Some love them, some don't. You may find you need to mush them up in some warm water.

If you try raw, just bear in mind that it has a completely different texture and MUCH less smell than other forms of food. The younger the kitty, in general, the more easily (generally) they take to it. For older kitties, like mine (most of mine were 9 at the time of transition), I had to mix small bits into their canned food, and slowly increase the amount of raw and reduce the amount of canned.

LDG said:

I used NV to transition to raw. They didn't have the raw bits then: they had the medallions and the patties (and chubs). The smaller the size of the delivery (bits vs patties, for instance), the drier the result. I'm seeing a lot of ... mixed success with cats liking the bits. Some love them, some don't. You may find you need to mush them up in some warm water.

If you try raw, just bear in mind that it has a completely different texture and MUCH less smell than other forms of food. The younger the kitty, in general, the more easily (generally) they take to it. For older kitties, like mine (most of mine were 9 at the time of transition), I had to mix small bits into their canned food, and slowly increase the amount of raw and reduce the amount of canned.

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It could not hurt to try for sure.  I was thinking about the medallions and how I could cut them into small strips & the strips into bites to migrate into their wet food.  And you know all the gadgets in RVs -- we have something called a Konstant Hot tap next to our kitchen faucet - like it much better than the microwave.  I add warm water to their food daily now, but it's actually capable of scalding their stainless dishes after washing.   I'm still using 1000mg of Lysine for Monty daily, and he gets a 1/2 a squirt of alaskan salmon oil every 3 days.  I've yet to try switching litter.  We have the Tidy Cat breeze which is 99.9% dust free and non-scented.

I'm about to receive from amazon the lactoferrin that seems to be helping a number of the community here.  I think we're really down to a food allergy based on my vet's discussions and my research here.  The little scabby patterns, so I'm told, are classic for food allergies.  Just under the ears, bib/forearms and hindquarters.  I feel awful we were at the Prednisone step next just to get this little guy some relief.  Ugh.  Thankfully it's a small dose for a very short time. 

Like Verissmd, I really don't want this baby on steroids. 

I found a holistic vet trained in chinese herbs, but she is on maternity leave! So I made an appointment with the covering vet who happens to be trained in acupuncture. In researching their symptoms, I'm starting to really think they have FHS, on top of the probable food allergies.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get an appointment for a month, but I'm going to be optimistic that this will be the path to healing my kitties.

I also found out that my pet store carries Bravo raw in rabbit, so I'm going to give that a shot.