Mystery Illness - Vet is stumped and I need help!

Hey everyone. I'll try to be comprehensive with this post but this has been somewhat ongoing and I'm afraid I might accidentally leave something out so please bear with me.

I have two domestic shorthair kitties. Gink - age 3, and Gozer - soon to be 2. Gink was my first kitty, and since she seemed to have separation anxiety issues I got her a sibling to keep her company when I'm at work or school. I'm a grad student, which unfortunately limits my funds for labs and other testing with regard to my furbabies. I try my best, and take them to the local wellness clinic that offers help for low-income families. The two cats get along just fine, and can be found curled up with one another grooming each other from time to time. Gozer plays a little rougher than I think Gink would like - she tends to be my shy little princess whereas Gozer lives up to his namesake and is my destructor. This is relevant insofar as I've been questioning whether depression or stress on her part might be playing a role in her mysterious illness.

The past several months Gink has been having a lot of bizarre issues that have the vet totally stumped. She is scratching a lot at her head, both at the ears and under her chin, and shaking her head a lot. The vet has already checked for wax, mites, and infection. None of these things are present except wax, and even that is not in quantities that would merit the severity of her symptoms and behaviour. I have both of them on Blue Buffalo's limited ingredient, grain-free food for cats with food sensitivities, and I have tried switching the flavour a couple of times to see if maybe it was the fish or the duck or the turkey that was causing some sort of food allergy but her symptoms have persisted. When the vet opens her mouth, there are little bumps on her tonsils - more so on the left side than the right. There are also bumps inside her ears. There is no odd colour or anything to the bumps, it simply manifests as a chicken skin or gooseflesh texture. I've tried dosing her with Vetadryl and Zyrtec, neither of which have had a noticeable effect and of the two the Vetadryl caused her to begin foaming at the mouth when I gave it to her. Beyond that she has been increasingly skittish, her fur texture has changed, and overall she seems totally depressed. She seems to hold her left eye slightly more shut than the right a majority of the time as well. Her sides feel somewhat harder than normal but I had her in to the vet recently to check out what seemed to be lumps on her sides and the vet is convinced they are normal fat pads. She said nothing about any sort of feeling of abdominal hardness or blockage. 

I've done countless searches online trying to find clues as to what in the world might be wrong with her but can't find any information. It's possible she has an allergy, it's possible she's stressed but I don't know what would be stressing her. Gozer is significantly more outgoing and demanding of attention, and I've contemplated that it might be she simply feels neglected because of how demanding he is. She's had bizarre behaviours before, most notably licking metal things until she and the floor around her are covered in drool. I had a blood panel run on her at the end of last year and there was no evidence that she had anaemia or anything else. 

I'm at my wits end simply trying to help her and it breaks my heart that I can't help her at all so far. No matter how many times I take her to the vet she seems just as confused as I am. I don't know where to turn and I'm praying someone on here will recognize what's going on and be able to help me somehow. Someone, anyone, if you know what it might be please help me!!

Has your vet suggested a trial of an antihistamine as a diagnostic tool? (If it works it suggests an allergy, if it doesn't work then that helps to rule it out).

There have been reports about people having sick animals on Blue products, I'll see if I can find a link.  @LDG posted one, I'll see if I can find it.  @StephenQ mentioned antihistamines, but I see you've already tried that.  Frankly, when it comes to food allergies, I'm not real keen on the idea of antihistamines and continuing to feed the offending ingredient anyway.  But, since your kitties are having an issue, I like having antihistamines on hand in case of a reaction while something else is tried.

I'd try a different food.  As in, a whole different company.  Actually, in that I ran into a different manifestation (IBS), I'd try a homemade diet.  We can help you in the raw/homecooked forum.  Yes there are things that shouldn't be missed (like taurine) but it isn't rocket science.  For starters, you can try plain meat.  We can help you balance it later.

Thanks everyone for your rapid replies! @peaches08  how does a raw diet compare in terms of cost to storebought? As much as I love my furbabies and would jump at the chance to give them the best in all respects, I'm also a graduate student and can't afford to do so. Otherwise what brands might you suggest? I've been trying to stay exclusively grain-free with their food. They've not been super picky thus far about their dry food, but neither will touch wet food (bizarre, I know!) which is a lament of mine since it would make giving medication far simpler than having to pill them. 

Homemade raw is cheaper for me than commercial pet food from a store, but I have a deep freezer and buy meats on sale (like chicken thighs for $0.99/lb).  Cats eat less on a raw diet since they don't have all the fillers in it.  You could try offering plain meat and see what they do.

If you're spending the money on Blue, I'm guessing that EVO and Orijin are possibilities?  I'm not real familiar with the different dry foods anymore, but I'd try something else for sure.

Here are the links:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/258997/blue-buffalo and http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/blue_buffalo.html

Ah if I could find sales like that on meat I'd be eating better myself! I'll monitor the local stores and see if there are any comparable sales but I imagine being able to stock up in a deep freezer helps too.

Yes EVO and Orijin are possibilities if I can find retailers that have them. We have a number of small local places that sell a lot of products one can't find in big box stores like PetSmart, but I had gone looking for EVO at one point and had a hard time finding it. Is Innova a viable option? I know I can obtain that locally.

You can get free samples of Alnutrin and then try a raw meal.

http://www.knowwhatyoufeed.com/free_samples.html

Since you're on limited funds I doubt you'd want to purchase the Alnutrin, but you'd be able to tell if your kitty would accept raw meals without having to purchase all the supplements involved.

Have you tried a Feliway diffuser to see if stress is a big factor?

You can try feeding raw first as unbalanced raw.  There's also the Prey Model Raw option which uses little to no supplements.  Because of time and clinicals, I chose ground so I wouldn't have to police bowls.  Watch Craigslist for deals.  LDG got a deep freezer for $35 and it's still going strong a few years later.  She keeps hers outside under a tarp.  My upright freezer stays on an enclosed porch.

Pet Supplies Plus has several higher end foods last I looked, and see if there are any private pet food places around you.  They carry the higher end stuff too. 

@Raintyger  - A friend offered to lend me her diffuser so I'm possibly going to check that too. I think I'll probably try changing foods first, so as to only change one thing at a time and not have uncertainty if something does work, but I'll probably try feliway next and see if that helps. Thanks!

@peaches08  - I live in an apartment complex, soon to be moving to an efficiency, so I don't know how much room I'd have for a freezer beyond the one attached to my refrigerator. Do they make relatively compact ones? Otherwise I don't think we have a Pet Supplies Plus here... of the chain stores I know we have PetSmart but not PetCo. We have a lot of smaller local places that sell a lot of holistic and organic foods, which is why I say I know I can get Innova and I'm pretty sure Orijen is an option at at least one of them. 

Do either of you think I would have an issue if I do switch to a raw diet with the fact that the both of them dislike wet food?

I did pick up a smallish bag of Innova while I was out today. So far Gozer seemed very enthused about it - he did none of the hesitant sniffing at the bowl that he normally does and just dug right in. I set Gink down in front of the bowl and she ate a bit as well, and now the two of them are tearing around the place chasing one another. I'll keep an eye on her in the next couple days and see how things progress, but the fact that she seems a little more eager to move at the moment gives me a bit of hope.

They may take to raw food easily, they may not.  But there are plenty of transition threads to help you.  Mine were never crazy about wet food, but they ate it.  They took to raw like a duck takes to water, but mine were young (all around a year old).  Others have had to work at it.  For now, since the Innova is "edible" to them, I'd give it an honest shot.  I would try some of their canned too, since they seem to like the dry.  If you can get them on one meal of wet a day, you'll increase their water intake and that's a good thing!

They make freezers in various sizes, you can window shop at Lowes and such to see what might help you.  But since they like the Innova, I'd give it a try first. 

I also highly recommend raw.