Kitty Lumps?

About three months or so ago I adopted three kittens from an SPCA satellite home. Two came home the end of September and one came home about a month later as she is a little younger and didn't weigh enough to be spayed, then she stopped eating and dropped weight for no apparent reason (they did all kinds of tests but found nothing physically wrong - personally I think she was depressed as the day I brought her home she did a complete 180 and I never once had a problem getting her to eat - she was so high energy when I first met her, then when she stopped eating I went to visit her and she was so lethargic - not at all like the energetic little ball of love I first met! But after bringing her home when she was spayed at just barely two pounds, after agreeing to monitor her eating and to weigh her daily to make sure she was gaining, she was completely fine and returned to being energetic, happy and very affectionate). They've all had all their shots, been spayed and have been de-wormed.

Just a couple of days ago out of nowhere I noticed that the youngest, Faerydae, has a swollen lower lip. She doesn't seem to be in any pain and it isn't affecting her behavior or appetite but it was quite alarming regardless. So to the interwebs I turned to investigate what this could be! Best guess is EGC (Eosinophilic Granuloma Complex). As I understand it, it's fairly common for kitties to develop allergic reactions to plastic or possibly their food. While they eat out of glass bowls, their older "brother" (a short hair foundling that turned up on my doorstep about 4 months before I adopted my 3 babies) and their "mommy cat" (an adult Calico belonging to my roommate, none of the five are actually related) share a plastic dish that she may be snitching from when no one is looking. I feed them all at the same time and try to make sure they stay at their own dishes but that doesn't mean she doesn't go back during the day and pick at what may be left. They also all share a large plastic water dish - which my other roommate's dog uses too. So we've switched out the plastic dishes hoping that will help.

I don't think it's a food allergy as I feed them all a grain-free kibble formulated for indoor kittens, except for the two older ones but they are also on a grain-free diet. I also make a home made wet food of pureed chicken scraps for them as an occasional addition which they all love but she especially goes nuts for. Anyway as I said we switched out the plastic dishes for glass today but also  just today I discovered more small lumps, this time on the top of her shoulder. I suppose this could also be EGC as there are other types that are reported to appear just about anywhere on a kitty, but I'm concerned with how closely together they appeared, time-wise. Again, she doesn't seem to be in any sort of pain or discomfort, it's not at all inhibiting her mobility or affecting her behavior and her appetite hasn't changed.

Does anyone have any insight on how I might try to safely treat this at home? I read that 5mg of Zyrtec daily should help if it's an allergy but I'm kind of loathe to give her something that she may not need. For that matter, does anyone else know if this might be something besides EGC? The pictures others have posted of their kitties with swollen lower lips look exactly as Faerydae's does which is why I'm fairly sure it's EGC but still...I'd appreciate other opinions.

I pretty much live paycheck to paycheck and right now I'm broke so I unfortunately can't afford to take her to the vet I already had to pay money I wasn't expecting to for a fecal test for worms (even though they were supposedly de-wormed by the SPCA) which turned up positive, so I then had to administer two rounds of worm medicine. All of the cats were treated at that point too, not just the three babies, as I realized it would be pointless to treat three of them but not the two older ones - they'd just pass the worms back and forth otherwise. Starting next month they'll be resuming a monthly treatment with Revolution topical flea, tick and worm protection.

If the lumps haven't disappeared or at least reduced by the time I get my tax return next month than I will take her to the vet for tests - I'm just trying to keep my little baby safe and healthy as best as I can while keeping my bills paid in the meantime. Post-holiday is always an especially tough time of year as I have a seven-year-old son and am a single mom with NO support whatsoever. Thank you for any insight anyone might be able to offer. 

It sounds like possible allergies to me. She could be allergic to a protein in the food, like chicken. Could also be an ingredient like corn. It's also possible that it's mites or some other insect.

Don't give her any medication without taking her to a vet.

Thank you for the advice. I'm starting to lean more towards an allergy to something too. I inspected the bumps on her shoulder closer today, which was a challenging two person job as she squirmed a lot and has never taken to being "scruffed" like most kitties instinctively do. Most of them seem to be scabbed from her scratching but there were a couple I was able to find that are definitely under her skin. I just don't know. They must be itching her though to cause her to scratch them bloody I feel so badly for her. I will check the ingredients list on her usual food though and see if I can change it out for something different. With her previous eating problem I'm afraid she won't go for something else though - I tried turkey once and she didn't really want anything to do with it. Maybe seafood of some kind. Thanks again!

Can you post what foods you feed her?

Sure! I feed her Blue Buffalo Freedom Grain-Free Indoor kitten food. She really seems to like it and has been on that pretty much since she came home. The adult calico and my juvenile also eat Blue Buffalo but theirs is Wilderness high protein formula (my roommates Calico was pretty lethargic so we thought perhaps increasing her protein would help - he basically used to feed her whatever was cheapest, meaning a lot of filler and grain based food - just figured I'd include that since it's possible baby Faerydae is snitching when everyone's backs are turned - and Callie the calico has exhibited higher levels of energy and has been both more playful and affectionate since the switch - I do try to do my best by my non-human babies, even when they aren't *mine*!). Both are small kibble (they look pretty much identical) and both are the chicken recipe (this is because before I was able to bring Faerydae home she stopped eating for no reason anyone could find, including the vet - she was syringe fed formula for a few weeks to maintain her weight and try to get her up to the 2 pound requirement for her to be spayed, I'm not sure what exactly the formula was though, and then her first few meals contained chicken baby food, as suggested by the operator of the SPCA satellite home). I also have a bag in my freezer of chicken bones and scraps. Any time I make anything with chicken I put all of the raw scraps into a gallon freezer bag (unless I happen to have enough to work with right away) and save them for making home made wet food (don't worry, the way I make this results in very soft bones which are then pulverized into puree in my food processor along with whatever bits of flesh, fat, skin and broth - no risk of splinters causing damage this way). I wasn't kidding, if kitties could cartwheel, she would be, she really does go that crazy for it as soon as she sees or hears me open the jar - so much so that opening a jarred candle causes her to come racing from wherever she happens to be! I can it and store whatever I'm not using immediately back in the freezer to prevent any kind of spoiling too. Oh there are bagged treats too, given on an occasional basis. The Purina brand Whisker Lickins soft treats, usually in chicken and cheese flavor but sometimes just chicken (usually chicken and cheese is what I find though and they all like it so I've stuck with it). That's it. I've also once in a while given her a tiny tidbit of human food as a treat too, but I've only stuck with cooked unseasoned chicken and tiny bits of cheese - I keep that kind of thing to a very minimum though and I only give her things that are as close to wholly unprocessed as I can. 

I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out what could be causing this - she's a very inquisitive kitten (she's only about 4 1/2 months old or so), she's been gaining steadily ever since she came home (so much so that she outweighs her smaller older "sister" by one ounce as of her last visit to the vet last month in which they all got their rabies shots) and like I said before, she really isn't acting any differently (other than scratching at her neck but even that doesn't seem to be abnormally so). I know garlic and onions are toxic to cats - my kitchen is small so I usually keep my bagged yellow onions on top of my chest freezer. I've never seen her up there but that doesn't mean she hasn't been. So many questions!

She could very well be allergic to chicken. Can you try a different protein?

I'm also guessing a chicken allergy. Can you try switch her to a Limited Ingredient food (one without chicken.) Chicken allergy is pretty common in cats, since most cat food has chicken in it. They can get over exposed to one protein and become allergic. Switch her over slowly by mixing more and more new food to her old food.

Merrick makes a bunch of Limited Ingredient Diet foods. LID foods are foods that only have one source of protein. They are sold at Petco if you have one near you. There's a Limited Ingredient Turkey kibble that you may want to try. They also have a bunch of LID wet foods you can supplement with as well. Don't worry that it's not "kitten food." Most foods are okay for all stages. Kitten food is just higher calorie. 

While you figure out if she has a chicken allergy, you'll have to keep the other cat's food away from her, so she doesn't snack on it and get exposed to chicken. 

I know for a fact that she doesn't like turkey but I will try a different protein. I'm thinking she has some kind of allergy to something in her food as she is an indoor baby. Thanks for the suggestion!

*****IMPORTANT UPDATE!!!!!*****

Ok, I found out some disturbing information that I think should be shared with all pet owners. I will no longer be giving any of my pets Blue Buffalo brand food, in any formula, variety or flavor. My reasoning is that after extensive research I discovered this website: 

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/blue_buffalo.html

The reviews about what people's pets (mostly dogs reported but there are issues with the cat food too) are nothing short of appalling. I've noticed that one of my kitties has lost a small amount of fur on her face - I originally didn't think much of it, I thought maybe she was just shedding a bit and as she's all black and the fur in the area above her eyes is short and thin to begin with I thought it was just more obvious because of the location. 3 of my kitties now have lumps in the area on the back of their neck that are clearly very itchy (they've all scratched themselves bloody) and it's all happened within days of each other. I'm pretty sure it isn't an allergy to any ingredient at this point (although I acknowledge that is still a valid possibility and will still look into it to ensure all bases are covered) as they all started getting these lumps after eating from the most recent bag of Blue Buffalo food I bought. I started giving Faeriedae coconut oil, applying it to her swollen lip to keep it moist as well as to the lumps on all 3 kitties backs to help with the itching and help prevent infection, as well as letting them all consume a small amount of it every couple of days or so. It's helped some, Fae's lip is less swollen having done that and the lumps aren't quite so nasty looking, but are still there. I'm doing my homework and completely switching brands because I don't want to be taking risks with my fur babies' health by continuing with the Blue Buffalo. Granted none of them have had anything as severe as what is reported on the web address I provided, but given the timing of the appearance of the lumps coinciding with a new bag of food and it suddenly becoming an issue in 3 of my babies...I'd rather ere on the side of caution. Just for the record, there are no pests in my house. No fleas, no mites (I've checked them very carefully and they've been checked at the vet too to be certain) I don't have ants or any other kind of common household pests - I don't even see spiders in my house, at worst is an occasional fly in the summer months. So I really don't think it's a reaction to any kind of bite or interaction with an environmental allergen of any sort as I have central air and they stay inside. And now being the cold winter months, everything is shut up anyway. Also, the fact that this started during the winter months makes me that much more inclined to believe it's something in their food, not environmental or pest related. I'm not ruling out an allergy entirely but I'm seriously thinking it's something in Blue Buffalo. This company just isn't what it used to be ever since it stopped being family owned. I encourage everyone to do their homework about what's really going into your pets' bodies and please, PLEASE check out the reviews in case any of you are having any kind of weird problems with your cats or dogs - you may find you aren't alone and the food is to blame. Just food for thought (pun semi-intended).

Thank you all for your suggestions and taking the time to make them. I'll post an update for everyone in about a month to let you know how everyone is doing with the diet switch (or sooner if I notice improvement sooner). Take care all and blessed be!