food suggestion for allergies

Hi there!

Short story to set everything up:
I got my lovely girl cat from the shelter overflow at my local Petsmart. She was freshly spayed and had a cute little pink belly.
It wasn't until over a year later that I realized she had food allergies. I knew she groomed a whole lot more than my other two cats, but didn't think too much of it until I realized one day, while rubbing her cute pink belly, that her belly should have grown back fur long before that point. She was grooming all of the fuzz off of her belly.

This started many years of trial and error in finding a good food for her. I started with higher end, limited ingredient, grain free brands like Blue Buffalo and Innova and worked through many brands. Some she did okay with, but it never cleared up completely.

Finally, a few months back, I turned to simple Purina One sensitivity formula. I've always stayed away from brands like that in the past due to their reputation. (read another rumor of pet deaths linked to Purina again within the past couple of weeks) BUT- this finally did the trick! No more over grooming! Plus, her drippy nose cleared up, something I never linked to the allergy, for some unknown reason. And a couple of months into changing she also started to lose some weight! Also a good thing!

Now for the problem: She's started to lose too much weight. She was chubby before, and now she is "technically" at the weight she should be according to her last vet visit, but she's also starting to feel bony. You can't see her bones, so she's not emaciated, but you can easily feel her backbone and hips when patting her.
Last night, when giving my 7 month old cat his kitten chow, she came rushing in when she heard him crying for it. She pushed him out of the way and proceeded to vacuum up his food faster than I've seen her eat in awhile, which is when I realized that her weight loss wasn't due to cutting out a food sensitivity, as I thought, but due to the fact she simply doesn't like the food enough to eat enough of it. She had been kind of picking at the new food, but I didn't really put two and two together until last night.

So...all of that to get to the question: Can anyone suggest a food for allergy prone cats that might be hard to resist, taste-wise? Playing trial and error is getting annoying. And there's no point in having her fur grow back if she's refusing to eat enough of it to stay at a healthy weight.

Other random info: She's (probably) 10, and would be sharing the food with a 4 year old male and 7 month old male (who is still also getting kitten chow) There's also a 10 year old male in the house, but he eats a prescription diet and isn't allowed to eat their food.

Are you looking for a dry food, wet food or both?

My cat has food allergies and for dry she has the Royal Canin LID prescription food. For wet she also has the Royal Canin LID prescription foods but I've now been mixing in some other novel protein cans from Wild Calling, EVO and Nature's Variety.

Welcome to TCS 

Has the vet confirmed that she is indeed allergic to food? Was she tested for any specific allergens by use of elimination diets? I think recommendations for food could be allergen-specific. I interviewed Martha Cline, a pet nutrition specialist (veterinarian) who works with allergic cats and she said that not all "sensitivity foods" are created equal in the sense that non-prescription ones can contain traces of the allergen. Of course, that's when you know what the allergen is, hence my question.

Anne said:

 
Welcome to TCS 

Has the vet confirmed that she is indeed allergic to food? Was she tested for any specific allergens by use of elimination diets? I think recommendations for food could be allergen-specific. I interviewed Martha Cline, a pet nutrition specialist (veterinarian) who works with allergic cats and she said that not all "sensitivity foods" are created equal in the sense that non-prescription ones can contain traces of the allergen. Of course, that's when you know what the allergen is, hence my question.

Click to expand...

Jikin:

I concur with Anne - has the vet diagnosed a food allergy? I would also be concerned about the weight loss, if indeed it is food related, seems it would be worthwhile also for a vet check-up although it does sound like maybe kitty doesn't like the food and is hungry, the way you described her eating the other cats food.

Our cats are allergic to chicken - scratched their necks raw to the point of requiring steroids, one cat ended up with a staph infection (scratching from claws which have bacteria as well as bacteria from cat saliva - licking the wound area).  Our vet knew immediately when he saw them, "I see this all the time", he said regarding raw neck wounds and food allergies; it wasn't fleas and both were tested for ringworm - negative.

If the vet diagnoses and recommends an LID diet, note that  some meats are fattier than others, e.g., duck is a fatty meat and might help put weight on an underweight cat while venison and rabbit are lean meats, better for a cat that needs to loose weight. 

Good luck.
 

Sorry for the slow response!

To answer some questions:
Mostly I'm looking for dry food. buying wet for 4 cats is a bit out of my budget, and you can't just feed one wet without the rest getting jealous! I give them wet once or twice a week, and an occasional serving of "normal" food doesn't seem to affect her noticeably.

No, I actually never thought of having her tested to find out exactly what it is. That's a good idea, but one that will, unfortunately, have to wait a bit. One of my other cats took up my vet allotment about a month ago, so I'm sticking to emergency only situations at the moment. (hopefully there will be none!) So, in the mean time, I'll keep on experimenting.

 Yes, I'm positive the weight loss was food caused. Within less than 48 hours there was already a noticeable difference. I've been trying to mix in some other stuff with the old to use it up and not waste it, and now, if there is too much of the old in her dish she just stares at it until I offer a different dish that has less of the old in it.

  A brief update: As I just said, she is gaining back the weight at a good pace, and is close to where she should be now. I haven't bought any of the suggested brands yet, as I want to do a bit more research first, plus I'm in between pet supply buying weeks, and can't spend as much as most of those brands cost right at this second. In the mean time, I found a bag of Authority brand ( I think this is PetSmart's in store brand?) that is a sensitivity formula. She is eating it much better than the Purina, and, so far, no over-grooming. Hopefully it will hold her until the next proper shopping trip.