Severe food allergies…what to do? What food is safe now?

kittywampus · Aug 6, 2015

Background

My stray kitty came to me with an ear infection. We battled it by removing a polyp in her ear and then it still raged for months even after nightly cleaning. My vet tested her for everything under the sun and the ear NEVER improved until she suggested it could a food allergy. We had tried every drop, every antibiotic, every anti fungal, every ear cleaning solution the vet could imagine and NOTHING helped and some made it worse. It seemed allergy was the ONLY thing left on the exclusion list.

We swiftly put her on a royal canin hypoallergenic hydrolyzed protein but did not see any improvement for almost 2 months. We moved cross country and slowly over the 5 day trek we watched her poor miserable little ear canal have less and less discharge. Two weeks in our new home and the allergy disappeared. Best we could figure it, we thought she had an environmental allergy to our old apartment. We were elated we had solved the mystery… until she started PROFUSELY vomiting and shaking about a month later.

We tried to figure out if she had been poisoned after vomiting 12 times in one day, with miserable yoweling and scratching at the ground and hiding before attacks. I took her to the emergency vet hospital and tests showed nothing wrong. I also noticed at the same time her limbs would start rhythmically contracting like she having a seizure when she was sleeping, but when i would wake her she was fine. This was not the normal trembling i have seen when cats sleep, it looked more like constant uncomfortable spasms that just never quit. And her BM turned into a rank, watery smelling affair that made the litter box unbearable to be around after just one day. I also noticed she was shedding like CRAZY, but i figured that was just because it was REALLY hot seattle summer.

These symptoms kept persisting through a third month on the food until she ran out of it, and we (stupidly) decided to try a slightly cheaper organic multi-meat, hypoallergenic dry food (which was the wrong thing to do I know now.) The vomiting entirely disappeared. The profuse shedding stopped. We are two weeks in with the new food and the spasming while she sleeps seems to have tapered to less and less but…gosh darn it… I saw her starting to scratch her ears and act agitated again.

I checked in the previously problematic ear canal and what do you know, the slight brown grainy discharge is back, and its bothering the other ear now to. Can't keep her on this food, and after reading the reviews of longterm use with the RC HP soy stuff, I am afraid her previous symptoms (vomiting, lethargy, excessive shedding, running bowel moments and maybe even the muscle contractions) were from constant use of a food not naturally designed for cats bodies as I saw many complaints of people complaining of similar problems when using it...

… Whats left???

Neither food works 100% so is there a diet out there you know of that most cats with food allergies can tolerate for a long time, not just short term? Is there a reasonably priced one as well?

Sorry for the novel. SOO very frustrated and depressed about this. To fight with the allergy for 9 months just to have it come back is maddening.

2cats4me · Aug 6, 2015

Kittywampus said:
Background

My stray kitty came to me with an ear infection. We battled it by removing a polyp in her ear and then it still raged for months even after nightly cleaning. My vet tested her for everything under the sun and the ear NEVER improved until she suggested it could a food allergy. We had tried every drop, every antibiotic, every anti fungal, every ear cleaning solution the vet could imagine and NOTHING helped and some made it worse. It seemed allergy was the ONLY thing left on the exclusion list.

We swiftly put her on a royal canin hypoallergenic hydrolyzed protein but did not see any improvement for almost 2 months. We moved cross country and slowly over the 5 day trek we watched her poor miserable little ear canal have less and less discharge. Two weeks in our new home and the allergy disappeared. Best we could figure it, we thought she had an environmental allergy to our old apartment. We were elated we had solved the mystery… until she started PROFUSELY vomiting and shaking about a month later.

We tried to figure out if she had been poisoned after vomiting 12 times in one day, with miserable yoweling and scratching at the ground and hiding before attacks. I took her to the emergency vet hospital and tests showed nothing wrong. I also noticed at the same time her limbs would start rhythmically contracting like she having a seizure when she was sleeping, but when i would wake her she was fine. This was not the normal trembling i have seen when cats sleep, it looked more like constant uncomfortable spasms that just never quit. And her BM turned into a rank, watery smelling affair that made the litter box unbearable to be around after just one day. I also noticed she was shedding like CRAZY, but i figured that was just because it was REALLY hot seattle summer.

These symptoms kept persisting through a third month on the food until she ran out of it, and we (stupidly) decided to try a slightly cheaper organic multi-meat, hypoallergenic dry food (which was the wrong thing to do I know now.) The vomiting entirely disappeared. The profuse shedding stopped. We are two weeks in with the new food and the spasming while she sleeps seems to have tapered to less and less but…gosh darn it… I saw her starting to scratch her ears and act agitated again.

I checked in the previously problematic ear canal and what do you know, the slight brown grainy discharge is back, and its bothering the other ear now to. Can't keep her on this food, and after reading the reviews of longterm use with the RC HP soy stuff, I am afraid her previous symptoms (vomiting, lethargy, excessive shedding, running bowel moments and maybe even the muscle contractions) were from constant use of a food not naturally designed for cats bodies as I saw many complaints of people complaining of similar problems when using it...

… Whats left???

Neither food works 100% so is there a diet out there you know of that most cats with food allergies can tolerate for a long time, not just short term? Is there a reasonably priced one as well?

Sorry for the novel. SOO very frustrated and depressed about this. To fight with the allergy for 9 months just to have it come back is maddening.

I am so sorry you and kitty are going through this . Such a difficult situation . I don't know of a lot of hypoallergenic cat foods . They sell one on Chewy. Com that looks good . It has very limited ingredients . Mixed reviews but some very good ones .. Maybe this would help your cat ..

http://www.chewy.com/cat/feline-caviar-limited-ingredient/dp/35281

lisahe · Aug 6, 2015

I'm also sorry to hear you and your cat have been going through this. It sounds like it's been very difficult! I would probably suggest two things, the first of which would be finding a cat vet, preferably one with a strong interest in diet and allergies, if you haven't already. Our previous cat had food issues and her vets didn't recognize many symptoms as indicative of allergies or sensitivities--taking our new cats to a cat-only vet is a whole new world because she really knows cat health quirks. Your cat's spasms sound particularly worrisome.

Following on what @2Cats4Me suggested, I'd also look at foods with very limited ingredients, preferably canned foods that are just meat and nutrients without any fillers, and preferably a protein source (duck, perhaps?) that your cat isn't likely to have eaten before. (The Feline Caviar food 2Cats4Me linked to sounds pretty good for a dry food, which has to have fillers, but I'd be concerned about the fish and chicken, which are fairly common allergens. Of course allergies are difficult to predict and finding the right food can take a fair bit of trial and error and, who knows, that food might be just the ticket!) Several brands offer limited ingredient canned food lines: two are Nature's Variety Instinct and Merrick, though Merrick's do have chicken eggs. (Our cats love the Merrick duck and turkey.)

Raw foods are another option. If you'd like to try those--or, for that matter, home-cooked foods--you could start a thread in the raw/home-cooked section of this site's nutrition forum. Some cats with food issues seem able to handle a protein in a raw form but not a cooked form.

Good luck!

mrsgreenjeens · Aug 6, 2015

LisaHE said:
Raw foods are another option. If you'd like to try those--or, for that matter, home-cooked foods--you could start a thread in the raw/home-cooked section of this site's nutrition forum. Some cats with food issues seem able to handle a protein in a raw form but not a cooked form.

Good luck!

This is what I was thinking. Either homemade or raw. This way YOU can control the ingredients completely. Here's a thread where you can read up on it. http://www.thecatsite.com/t/263955/helpful-resources-raw-home-cooked-cat-food-forum

abbyntim · Aug 9, 2015

Agree with LisaHE and mrsgreenjeens about considering home-cooked and/or raw. Tim has a lot of food sensitivities and cannot eat fish or chicken. Dry food dehydrates him and makes him constipated. Gums and fillers found in most canned foods upset his stomach so much that he vomited and had diarrhea on a regular basis and coughed up hairballs very frequently. He also developed struvite crystals and asthma, and was diagnosed with HCM (thickening of the heart) when on canned. So far he is tolerating a mix of commercial raw brands, a small amount of home-prepared raw, and a small amount of canned that does not contain any gums. Nature's Variety Instinct is the only canned I was able to find that offers varieties without chicken and fish, and without gums and lots of extra fillers. I examined just about every brand available in the United States during the spring of 2014.

I also agree with the advice to find a cat-only vet, or at least a vet with some knowledge of nutrition. A little over a year ago, we changed vets because I felt Tim's many problems were food-related and wanted more support in making diet changes than our previous vet could or would provide. Eliminating suspect food items made such a difference for Tim. Everything listed in the first paragraph is gone, even the HCM (evaluations with veterinary cardiologist confirmed). I was able to take him off all medications, with help from our new vet. Tim's stomach is still sensitive and probably always will be, but we are managing with diet and we have "safe foods" that we can retreat to when necessary. Tim's (and Abby's, as we modified her diet, too) food is much more expensive than dry, but Tim is visiting the vet a lot less frequently and is off all medications, so it may be a wash. Not to mention the time saved from fewer vet visits, and less stress for all of us.

tramcl · Aug 13, 2015

My cat had allergies. She would bit and scratch her front leg raw. I tried steroids and different foods and medicines for over a year. Finally, I took my cat to a vet dermatologist. He helped a lot. She is now eating Natural Balance L.I.D. Venison. She likes it and she has no more problems.

Severe food allergies…what to do? What food is safe now?

kittywampus

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2cats4me

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lisahe

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mrsgreenjeens

Every Life Should Have Nine Cats

abbyntim

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tramcl

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