Brewers yeast and yeast extract question

I was wondering if they are the same thing. I know my feral cats have a reaction to brewers yeast and brewers rice.

I have been feeding one of my feral cats First Mate Chicken Meal with Blueberries since October. She has been itching like crazy and pulling her fur out in clumps. This is what all the cats do when food has brewers yeast or brewers rice in it. She has issues with most foods but this was not making her lip and chin swell.

I was also wondering if two 3 ounce cans of Blue Wilderness Chicken Recipe for kittens would be enough food for the day. It is the only canned food she can have that does not make her lip,chin and paws swell.

I stopped the dry food Tuesday to see if that's what's causing her to itch so much. I'm hoping it's not the potato she is having issues with because the canned food has potato in it also. She has gained a lot of weight since I started the First Mate dry food and she was always my smallest feral cat.

I have treated her for fleas a couple times since October so it's not fleas. She is a little OCD when it comes to grooming but she has never looked this bad in the 7 years I have been feeding her.

When considering allergies, the ingredient list is useful since we don't care how much of the offending ingredient is in the food.  The bottom line is that we don't want any of the ingredient to be present.  Fish/seafood, beef, lamb, corn, wheat, and soy tend to be the most hyperallergenic ingredients for the cat - especially fish/seafood.

Often so-called "grain free" food has other things in it that a cat would not normally eat -- like peas and potatoes, for instance.  Blueberries are probably not part of most cats' diets either, nor are corn, wheat, soy and rice.  Basic Friskies and Fancy Feast pate foods may have less allergens than many of the new "designer" foods aimed at appealing to the new "grain free" trend.

As for the various forms of yeast, nutritional yeast is a dry deactivated flaky yeast, which you can sprinkle over food or popcorn, and yeast extract is a concentrated form of nutritional yeast usually in a paste, such as Vegemite.  Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the yeast most often used for baking and brewing beer.  Saccharomyces ellipsoideus or S. Minor is a wild yeast that is found on fruits, especially grapes, and grains.   There are so many different yeasts and molds, and they are all around us.  It is impossible to completely avoid them, but if your cat is allergic to them, you can do your best to avoid them, and that would include avoiding blueberries, blackberries, grains of all sorts, soy, barley, malt etc. 

I do think it's the dry food causing so many problems. I just thought it was working so well because it didn't make her lip and chin swell.

I have been feeding her one 3 ounce can of Blue Wilderness chicken recipe for kittens in the morning and another can in the evening. It will take awhile for me to see if her fur grows back but it is looking much better. Her lip and chin are staying pretty normal so I will continue feeding just those 2 cans for now.

I have tried every can of food out there and every time she eats a different canned food her lip, chin and front paws swell.

I even tried a food that was just Chicken, Chicken liver and the vitamins and that was a nightmare so was the Turkey, chicken liver and vitamins canned food.

She was on canned Friskies when all these problems started and I have tried Fancy Feast and those two are the worst for her. Her lip will swell even before she is done eating those foods.

I can't wait to see if her fur grows back by stopping that dry food.

Food allergies/sensitivities are notoriously hard to pinpoint - especially when it presents as itching/rashes rather than digestive upset. It will take a little time before you will know if removing the dry food has done the trick.

As a last resort, you could consider making your own cat food. Yes, it's more time consuming, but it does give you absolute control over the ingredients - and should work out cheaper than the premium limited ingredient/grain free diets. Check out the cooked recipie thread for nutritionally balanced cat food recipies.

I'm sorry I can't be of more help. When it comes to allergies, trial and error is, unfortunately, the only way to go. I hope you find a solution soon

Maddie is doing much better since I stopped the dry food with the yeast extract in it. Her chin is no longer red and swollen and it looks like her fur is growing back where she had been chewing on it for months.

She is also looking better weight wise, she's not nearly as big since I stopped her dry food. She is doing well on the two 3 oz. cans of Blue Wilderness Chicken Recipe for kittens.

Not the best picture, she looks like she's flipping me off. I'm just glad she is doing so much better and losing some of that weight.

Wonderful news!  So glad stopping the dry food is workiing.

Snugglecat said:

Maddie is doing much better since I stopped the dry food with the yeast extract in it. Her chin is no longer red and swollen and it looks like her fur is growing back where she had been chewing on it for months.
She is also looking better weight wise, she's not nearly as big since I stopped her dry food. She is doing well on the two 3 oz. cans of Blue Wilderness Chicken Recipe for kittens.

Not the best picture, she looks like she's flipping me off. I'm just glad she is doing so much better and losing some of that weight.

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I'm also glad to hear Maddie's doing better since you cut the dry food! That helps so many cats!

Maddie's very pretty and funny you mention that it looks like she's flipping you off: we're always joking that our cats are swearing at us.