Food Allergies and Weight Gain

Hello all! I am new here, but wondered if I could ask for help.

My cat Milo is having an extreme allergic reaction to what I suspect is the wet food I have been giving him to try and get his weight up (as he is very skinny). His symptoms include swollen face and itchy skin (so itchy, in fact, that he has scratched all the hair off from around his ears). I have been putting medicine on the places he has scratched and bandaging it so he can't scratch. Have any of you had this problem? If so, do you know a healthy alternative to commercial wet food so that my cat can gain weight but not have this terrible skin condition?

Have you taken your cat to the vet lately for a check up? If not, that should be the first thing to do. The vet can rule out possible health issues like skin disease which may be causing your cat's symptoms. The vet may also have suggestion on what to feed for a food allergy.

What were you feeding before? Did your cat have any reaction to it?

What brand of food are you currently feeding? Members can suggest other brands. Try Nature's Variety Instinct Limited Ingredients canned. Limited ingredient foods are meant for cats with food allergies. It would help to know what food your cat is allergic to. Chicken and eggs are common. The only way to figure this out is to try food with different proteins. It takes a few weeks for an allergy to show up so you'll have t be patient as you try different proteins one by one.

A raw or home cooked diet may be an option. With most of these types of diets, you can select what ingredients to use and avoid the ones that causes a reaction.

To gain weight, some people feed high calorie kitten food or a supplement such as NutriCal.