Food for Cats with Severe Food Intolerances

Hi! I have 2 cats who are a year old. Soon after we got them at around 10 weeks, we found out our cats had giardia and coccidia. After multiple rounds of treatment over the course of around 8 months, we were finally able to get rid of both, but one of our cats was still having pretty bad diarrhea. We were feeding both cats BFF wet food and Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diet (LID) dry food. We stopped the dry food for a short time and suddenly his symptoms improved. We have ruled out protein allergy/intolerance because he does fine with salmon wet food but can't tolerate salmon dry food. I've learned that LID foods are typically intended for cats with allergies. Does anyone have any other recommendations of dry foods that can be well tolerated by cats with allergies? I have a friend who has recommended Hill's Prescription D/D, but I'd love to find something a little bit more affordable if possible. Thanks so much!!

Nature's Variety Instinct LID: http://www.instinctpetfood.com/instinct-limited-ingredient-diets-for-cats

Merrick LID: http://www.merrickpetcare.com/cats/limited-ingredient-diet-grain-free

Blue Buffalo: http://bluebuffalo.com/for-cats/product-lines/basics-cat-food/

TCS threads:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/286882/...ted-ingredient-diet-cat-food-do-you-recommend

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/181578/good-dry-limited-ingredient-diets

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/247426/limited-ingredient-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/89403/need-hypoallergenic-limited-ingredient-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/306947/your-favorite-brands-of-novel-protein-canned-cat-food

Is it possible to completely eliminate the dry food? If the diarrhea stopped when you temporarily stopped the Ntural Balance dry food, then your cat just might be sensitive to a dry food ingredient. Allergies / sensitivies aren't just limited to proteins. Sometimes grains and gums and starches and other things can cause a reaction.

Seafood isn't great to feed every single day. Some cats get addicted to eating it and won't eat anything else, some cats may develop urinary issues, seafood tends to be low in protein and some types of fish can contain mercury. There's more info here: http://www.littlebigcat.com/nutrition/why-fish-is-dangerous-for-cats/ Seafood is best limited to once in awhile meals or treats. BFF is nearly all seafood based. Have you tried the other foods made by that company? Weruva, Cats In The Kitchen, and Soulistc have meat based foods as well as seafood.

I would ASAP add probiotics to their food. Here's info on which probiotics to get and how much to give. I'd also look into homecooked or raw, here's info on that too. This is a site dedicated to IBD, but food allergies and IBD are very closely connected.

http://www.rawfeedingforibdcats.org/probiotics-for-cats---why-and-which-ones.html

http://www.rawfeedingforibdcats.org/raw-feeding.html

I had a similar experience with one of my cats. I found out when I adopted him at 3 months that he had coccidia. Even after he was treated and tested negative, he continued to have persistent loose stools for several months. The vet tried all kinds of medications and two different kinds of prescription food for gastrointestinal issues--Hills and Royal Canin I think. I eventually tried Blue Buffalo Basics Duck and Potato dry food. Within three days, his stools were firm and normal and remained that way. In all honesty, it could have been the medicine finally kicking in, but it seemed to be too much of a coincidence. There has been some controversy surrounding the brand, but it could be worth a try.

By the way, he does eat some wet food too.

Thanks so much for your response, Tabbysia! We'll definitely have to give that a try! We started them recently on Nature's Instincts dry food, and they seem to be doing pretty well with that, so hopefully that'll keep up. Thanks so much again!!