Do cats really get allergic to eating the same protein? and does beef really cause inflammation?

"Cats become allergic to foods they have eaten for a long period of time (usually two years or more)."

site

"That work showed that the foods that caused the most inflammation - but not in every cat - were beef, lamb, seafood, corn and soy."

site

do you guys have any experience with either of the above?



sorry for all the questions, every time i google anything there are so many sites disagreeing with each other.    i recently did a thread on finding new protein for my cats who only eat chicken (with supplements). lol

I have to be quick but I'll just say the vet who wrote the second article you linked to sounds a lot like our vet. This pretty much sums up her approach, too:

What then to feed? My preference is to feed cats a poultry (chicken, duck or turkey) canned food that is low in carbohydrates.

She is also not a fan of beef. Or fish. And definitely no grains. We don't feed our cats beef but we do feed them lamb.

Also, I think the "not in every cat" in the line you quoted is key. And that's a big part of why all this cat feeding stuff gets so confusing! And frustrating, too, when you have a cat that prefers to eat only chicken.

my cats have eaten the same food for 3 to 4 years. they get 4Health dry food and fancy feast turkey.chicken. liver. and occasional fish. my middle cat only eats this one brand of kibble. we have spent tons of money on better quality food only to have the elder girl puke it up or constipate her. for now no puking and no constipation with help from miralax. i dont dare rock the boat-everyone eats well unless its hot outside then they just pick at it. i think each cat is individual. 

we all have different things we like right? Animals the same. what works for one cat may not work for another. the best food is one that the cat will EAT, as we  know that not eating can cause fatty liver disease and trust me you dont want to have to chase this. takes a month of intense supportive care to beat. so in the end make sure they EAT.

I feed a lot of beef. My cats LOVE beef. They don't have any issues with it. In fact I feed a lot of red meats (beef and venison). Some cats prefer that. There is a theory that beef is a higher allergy than others meats, hard to know how factual this is. Again, my cats love beef and no one has any issues with it. 

I'll chime in as I feel I have a decent amount of experience with food allergies and intolerances (unfortunately!)

MAX:
Highly allergic to beef and rabbit. The beef allergy began when he was just a few weeks shy of 6 months. He had been eating an assortment of Fancy Feast foods (since 4 weeks of age) when the issue began.
The rabbit allergy occurred the *second* time he ate rabbit (he was around 9/10 months old at the time.)

Max's reaction is skin based. He gets sores and his ears look like they have 2nd degree burns.

SIMBA:
Highly Highly allergic to chicken and all chicken products (eggs, chicken fat, etc...had reaction to Rabies vaccine as a result...it is made using eggs like our flu vaccine.)

Onset was literally within 2 days of taking him into the rescue. I have no idea what he was eating prior to coming to us, but know he was just fed scraps (he actually has retinal segregation due to lack of taurine in his diet.)

He has projectile vomiting if he ingests anything containing chicken.

He's also allergic to venison.

LUCKY:
This is my sweet RB baby that I lost a little over a year ago. He was fed Purina Cat Chow and Purina Naturals until her was 13 (was fed very little canned food). At 13 he got extremely ill (vomiting blood/bloody diarrhea). The vets could figure out what was wrong with him. For nearly 2 weeks he was medicated with antinauseas, metronidazole, barium to coat his stomach, etc...nothing worked! The vets put him on GI prescription foods (we tried EN and I/d) which seemed to make him worse. I went as far as to doing exploratory surgery thinking he had cancer. Biopsies came back just showing inflammation.

The timing of Lucky's illness corresponded with Max's first outbreak of skin issues. To make a long story shorter, after much trial and error in figuring out Nax's issues, I determined that Lucky was "suddenly" severely grain and gluten intolerant. He was also highly allergic to pork (contained in both of the prescription foods) and also was intolerant of carrageenan.

I FULLY believe that Lucky's diet of being fed solely Purina led to his illness and grain/gluten intolerance.

On the other hand, I know that a cat does NOT have to be fed a specific protein over the course of years to develop an allergy to it.

As it stands, Simba will only eat a diet mostly consisting of Turkey. He *can* eat Duck (and will on rare occasion) and he has recently decided he likes Salmon.

Also in the house are 2 dogs. One was raised on Beneful (wet and dry) and later put on Wellness (mostly the salmon or fish formula) . All before coming to me at the age of 6. This dog is now allergic to chicken and turkey.

The second dog I have no background info on. She is 2 and is also allergic to chicken (hives as well as diarrhea), beef, grains and even banana!

I'm glad CatPack outlined all those stories: they show how different food issues can be for cats. Some cats have problems with an ingredient from a young age (his Max, our Edwina) but others take years for the problems to build (his Lucky and our Brooksie, RIP to both). Some cats seem to live long, healthy lives without ever developing food intolerances.

With our cats, two Siamese mixes -- our vet says they're genetically prone to stomach problems -- I decided early on not to feed them certain ingredients, like carrageenan and grains. I also don't really feed them beef (I realized there is one food they get that has some beef but their overall beef intake isn't large) or fish. And no carby vegetables so no potato, peas, or other legumes. All this fits with the cats' preferences anyway: they like poultry (especially chicken) best, followed by lamb and pork. I do have concerns that they'll develop allergies or sensitivities to chicken because they eat so much of it. I've cut back a lot on canned foods with gums, too; feeding more homemade food has made that possible. That's had the side benefit of making Ireland, who's never been a truly "motivated" eater, into a much more eager eater; I think she may have a very slightly queasy stomach. I'm not sure if she's eat better because of the homemade food or cutting the gummy canned foods but I'm happy either way!

Limiting or cutting potentially irritating ingredients is good but of course it's impossible to know what might or might not cause a problem in the future. I don't think cats should be eating carrageenan, potato, or peas to begin with so don't have any regrets about not feeding those ingredients but there might not be any harm, in the short or long term, in feeding them more beef. Nobody knows because all cats a different.

In the broader sense, my view is that it's even more important to just be aware of how a cat is eating, using the litter box, and acting. Having been through the experience of seeing a cat's health deteriorate over many years because of probable IBD, I know to watch for vomiting, bloody poop, licking lips, and all sorts of other things. To end on a yucky note: though the idea of a Litter Genie sounds appealing (who really likes checking cat poop?!), I would never get one because it's too important to know what's coming out of the cats -- it was the litter box that gave us our first real indication that something was wrong with Brooksie's digestive system.

On that happy note, good luck, terestrife!

I don't have experience with either of my two cats becoming allergic to a protein that was eaten exclusively, however, both cats have food allergies, one more than the other.

For e.g., Mikey has had reoccurring neck lesions, severe itching, to the extent of having required steroids and antibiotics on several occasions. One vet diagnosed him with a chicken allergy. Another vet wanted to remove seven layers of his neck, the lesions and itching became so bad.

We did all kinds of LID elimination diets, raw mostly, rabbit or turkey.

Fast forward three years later and Mikey has a new vet and was food allergy tested (which has about a 50% accuracy rate, per our vet, environmental panel, about 80%). It turns out he isn't allergic to chicken or turkey but tested high positive for eggs and low positive for beef, pork and rabbit.

I rarely fed him beef, however, Rad Cat was a staple of his diet (egg yolks used). Instinct raw rabbit and pork as well, now all removed from his diet as well as a premix I had just started using for homemade raw and home cooked which also contained egg yolks.

I found it interesting that he wasn't allergic to chicken but the proteins are different. So now he eats chicken, turkey and duck and his neck is finally beginning to heal.

He is also being treated for a possible dust mite allergy which is common in pets, (no matter how often I dust and vacuum, it's impossible to get rid of).

Even though Mikey didn't test positive for a fish allergy, our vet, who is an advocate of raw feeding and home cooked meals, said "no fish". Aside from the obvious reasons, mercury, PCBs, contaminants, high phosphorus or sodium (except for the last two, Weruva might be the exception), fish (and beef) are high in histamine.

For cats that don't have food allergies, beef and fish may not be a problem but cats that are allergic, ideally should avoid foods with histamines.

I was pretty surprised about rabbit though. "How can Mikey be allergic to rabbit?" I asked his vet. "In the wild, wouldn't rabbit be part of his natural diet?" "If Mikey ate a rabbit in the wild it might not make him fell well and he wouldn't eat it again. But you have to remember", he said, "that Mikey is not a wild cat, he's a domesticated apartment cat with FHV and a compromised immune system who happens to be highly sensitive to various proteins."

And Molly is allergic to lamb, not allergy tested but she scratched her neck raw the size of a palm of a hand, after two weeks of eating both Instinct LID lamb and Ziwi Peak lamb.

It took three months for the fur to grow back.

Anyway.... Hope you and your kitties are well Terestrife, are you still doing U-Stew?

Edit: Mikey also tested high positive for corn and soy, however, since adopting both kitties at 2.5 months (now 5.5 years old), I never fed them any foods with corn or soy.

Very interesting links you provided, Terestrife, esp the second one which discusses the 1990 New Zealand study and foods that cause inflammation in cats.

thanks everyone! i appreciate all the help as always. 

i am going to save this page, as there is a lot of info, in case my cats ever show any reactions to foods i give them. i had no idea their diet could become so complicated especially with trying to figure out what is actually causing the allergy.   i had no idea it could get so bad as to cause them to scratch themselves until they lose fur. thank you all for taking the time to share, the help is very much appreciated.

LisaMarie12 said:

Anyway.... Hope you and your kitties are well Terestrife, are you still doing U-Stew?

Edit: Mikey also tested high positive for corn and soy, however, since adopting both kitties at 2.5 months (now 5.5 years old), I never fed them any foods with corn or soy.

Very interesting links you provided, Terestrife, esp the second one which discusses the 1990 New Zealand study and foods that cause inflammation in cats.

Click to expand...

yes,  my cats are okay =) they are still eating u-stew, its been over 6 months i believe. they still eat it everyday, but they dont eat it as hurriedly as they used to, so i think they are bored with me only giving chicken. lol i got a lot of awesome suggestions, so im trying to find new protein for now.

edit: but im going to be trying a new supplement soon, missmimz suggested Ezcomplete, so i'll be trying that when i can. 

I'm in the process of figuring out my boys allergies. When he was about 4 months old he suddenly became itchy. Then he developed horrible sores on his hocks that took months to heal even with antibiotics. He was itchy on and off for a number of months but by the time he was 8 months old he was itchy all the time. He'll scratch his fur out with his claws, he'll groom himself until he's bald, if he's not on cortisone tablets he will break out in a lumpy rash as well. One time his ear tips swelled up and turned purple like big hot blood blisters which eventually scabbed over and the fur fell out. He's currently just over 2. His diet has predominantly come from chicken and fish but he has eaten beef and turkey and duck as well.

He's mostly eaten chicken but he did spend a number of months eating fish.

Raw chicken gives him violent diarrhea that requires antibiotics to fix (which is why I'm now testing cooked chicken via a hypoallergenic diet).

Raw kangaroo will make him vomit about 24 hours after he eats it and the vomiting will continue along with avoidance of food and 'hovering" until  I stop feeding it. He seems okay with kangaroo in kibble but it's possible it's also making him itch.

My little girl kitty gets severe diarrhea (the kind that needs antibiotics to fix) any time she eats fish. I've tested this out 7 times and each time has ended in disaster. Even in small amounts. She is okay with fish oil in foods however. I noticed this from the time she was 15 weeks old so it's been life long for her.

terestrife said:

 
thanks everyone! i appreciate all the help as always. 

i am going to save this page, as there is a lot of info, in case my cats ever show any reactions to foods i give them. i had no idea their diet could become so complicated especially with trying to figure out what is actually causing the allergy. 

 i had no idea it could get so bad as to cause them to scratch themselves until they lose fur. thank you all for taking the time to share, the help is very much appreciated.

yes,  my cats are okay =) they are still eating u-stew, its been over 6 months i believe. they still eat it everyday, but they dont eat it as hurriedly as they used to, so i think they are bored with me only giving chicken. lol i got a lot of awesome suggestions, so im trying to find new protein for now.

edit: but im going to be trying a new supplement soon, missmimz suggested Ezcomplete, so i'll be trying that when i can. 

Click to expand...

Why not consider using EZ Complete, as well as U-Stew, to vary up the premixes? This would give the cats a different taste, if you aren't able to immediately change proteins.  Also, I remember you and I had the discussion re: breast meat being low in fat (I realize you are probably using something other than breast meat now), however, you may want to consider turkey breast meat - a quick saute in ghee would give it extra fat, or bacon. I made a few home cooked meals with EZ (before Mikey was diagnosed with the egg allergy), with low sodium / uncured bacon.  I received recommendations though for ghee from others who home cook, apparently the cats love it and have no problem digesting it.

Tobilei said:

 
I'm in the process of figuring out my boys allergies. When he was about 4 months old he suddenly became itchy. Then he developed horrible sores on his hocks that took months to heal even with antibiotics. He was itchy on and off for a number of months but by the time he was 8 months old he was itchy all the time. He'll scratch his fur out with his claws, he'll groom himself until he's bald, if he's not on cortisone tablets he will break out in a lumpy rash as well. One time his ear tips swelled up and turned purple like big hot blood blisters which eventually scabbed over and the fur fell out. He's currently just over 2. His diet has predominantly come from chicken and fish but he has eaten beef and turkey and duck as well.

He's mostly eaten chicken but he did spend a number of months eating fish.

Raw chicken gives him violent diarrhea that requires antibiotics to fix (which is why I'm now testing cooked chicken via a hypoallergenic diet).

Raw kangaroo will make him vomit about 24 hours after he eats it and the vomiting will continue along with avoidance of food and 'hovering" until  I stop feeding it. He seems okay with kangaroo in kibble but it's possible it's also making him itch.

My little girl kitty gets severe diarrhea (the kind that needs antibiotics to fix) any time she eats fish. I've tested this out 7 times and each time has ended in disaster. Even in small amounts. She is okay with fish oil in foods however. I noticed this from the time she was 15 weeks old so it's been life long for her.

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Sorry to hear that Tobilei.  I empathize, especially when cats scratch themselves raw, break skin and then end up with secondary infections requiring further medication, as you mentioned, steroids and / or antibiotics.  The itching and subsequent licking becomes a viscous cycle.

What I've read about kibble and allergies - kibble is high in starch, even the best kibble. Plus we don't know when it was packaged, its' susceptibility to mycotoxins and aflatoxins. 

Well, now you know definitely fish is out of the question, indeed, it's high in histamines, so is beef.  Our vet said no fish, even though Mikey didn't test positive for fish.   Have you tried rabbit?  It sounds like you said you are testing cooked chicken to see how that goes.  Sometimes you have to be careful even with grocery store meats b/c those meats also have additives, e.g., "natural flavor" is suspect. 

Did you find the raw kangaroo via exoticmeats.com?  I considered it initially since kangaroo is a lean, low phos meat but decided against it.  Red meats can be difficult for some cats to digest.

Fish oil, usually, consists of the fatty acids and not the protein, which is why your kitty appears to be able to tolerate fish oil in foods. Some cats who may be highly sensitive though, cannot.

Good luck to you, it's a tough nut to crack unfortunately.

terestrife said:

 
thanks everyone! i appreciate all the help as always. 

i am going to save this page, as there is a lot of info, in case my cats ever show any reactions to foods i give them. i had no idea their diet could become so complicated especially with trying to figure out what is actually causing the allergy.

  i had no idea it could get so bad as to cause them to scratch themselves until they lose fur. thank you all for taking the time to share, the help is very much appreciated.

yes,  my cats are okay =) they are still eating u-stew, its been over 6 months i believe. they still eat it everyday, but they dont eat it as hurriedly as they used to, so i think they are bored with me only giving chicken. lol i got a lot of awesome suggestions, so im trying to find new protein for now.

edit: but im going to be trying a new supplement soon, missmimz suggested Ezcomplete, so i'll be trying that when i can. 

Click to expand...

I bolded that line because I know that we certainly didn't recognize the signs of food sensitivities and allergies when our previous cat started showing symptoms: many symptoms, like itching, can be attributed to other things (like "stress grooming" when we traveled) and get ignored. I think the best we can all do is to feed our cats good food (whatever that might mean beyond maximum meat and minimum unnecessary ingredients!) and be aware of warning signs so we can deal with problems when/if they arise.

And I like LisaMarie12's thought of feeding homemade with both supplements -- maybe that would give your cats the illusion of more variety! Ghee is a great idea, too!

LisaHE said:

 
And I like LisaMarie12's thought of feeding homemade with both supplements -- maybe that would give your cats the illusion of more variety! Ghee is a great idea, too!

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Simple recipe, w/o the use of any plant oils - cats can't digest well. Uncured/ low sodium bacon or ghee:

http://www.recipetips.com/kitchen-tips/t--416/sauteing-turkey.asp

LisaMarie12 said:

 
Why not consider using EZ Complete, as well as U-Stew, to vary up the premixes? This would give the cats a different taste, if you aren't able to immediately change proteins.  Also, I remember you and I had the discussion re: breast meat being low in fat (I realize you are probably using something other than breast meat now), however, you may want to consider turkey breast meat - a quick saute in ghee would give it extra fat, or bacon. I made a few home cooked meals with EZ (before Mikey was diagnosed with the egg allergy), with low sodium / uncured bacon.  I received recommendations though for ghee from others who home cook, apparently the cats love it and have no problem digesting it.

Click to expand...

thats my plan.   last month i bought a 6 months supply of ustew, im just waiting to get paid to try buying the small size of ezcomplete.

And yes, it took forever, but i finally got them away from the chicken breast. it was a mission. i had to go from completely chicken breast, to slowly phasing it out to get them to eat only chicken thighs. it was a mission, there were times i didnt add enough chicken breast, and i would have to add in more and defrost everything and mix it all together.   my cat is very stubborn, and spoiled, thats my fault really. lol

but thanks for the suggestion of turkey breast with ghee! i tried making them recently food with only turkey thighs, and they hated it. does the amount i use matter?

also, i made a recipe last night of half beef/half chicken thighs. Kitty didnt like it at first, but today she ate it just fine.   hopefully, she wont change her mind. lol 

edit: thank you for the recipe! i saw it after i posted my response. 

edit: also, i apologize if i didnt respond to someone personally, there were lots of responses and i read them, and appreciated them all. =) thanks again everyone! 

LisaMarie12 said:

 
Sorry to hear that Tobilei.  I empathize, especially when cats scratch themselves raw, break skin and then end up with secondary infections requiring further medication, as you mentioned, steroids and / or antibiotics.  The itching and subsequent licking becomes a viscous cycle.

What I've read about kibble and allergies - kibble is high in starch, even the best kibble. Plus we don't know when it was packaged, its' susceptibility to mycotoxins and aflatoxins. 

Well, now you know definitely fish is out of the question, indeed, it's high in histamines, so is beef.  Our vet said no fish, even though Mikey didn't test positive for fish.   Have you tried rabbit?  It sounds like you said you are testing cooked chicken to see how that goes.  Sometimes you have to be careful even with grocery store meats b/c those meats also have additives, e.g., "natural flavor" is suspect. 

Did you find the raw kangaroo via exoticmeats.com?  I considered it initially since kangaroo is a lean, low phos meat but decided against it.  Red meats can be difficult for some cats to digest.

Fish oil, usually, consists of the fatty acids and not the protein, which is why your kitty appears to be able to tolerate fish oil in foods. Some cats who may be highly sensitive though, cannot.

Good luck to you, it's a tough nut to crack unfortunately.

Click to expand...

Thank you! Yes, it's been a long road poor boy. Although at the moment he's been on the RC hypoallergenic dry for just 4 days (no wet yet, still on his regular wet as I transition slowly) and already we've managed to half his prednil and so far no itching. Then today he ran around the house with his tail in the air! This is exciting. It's usually drooping along behind him, I have never seen him run with his tail fluffed up in the air!

I know kibble isn't great. Generally I don't like it much but I do feed a mix (mostly wet, 3 times a day, dry overnight and in between). I have had him on an all wet diet before but it didn't help.

I have not tried rabbit. It's hard to get here and he won't eat home cooking at all There are no commercial foods available that use it either and he won't eat raw consistently.

The roo I just buy from the supermarket (I live in Australia and it's readily available). It was human grade. They don't put many fillers in our meat here (yet). The one's that do are labelled that they're tenderized or enhanced. He does okay on raw beef and lamb, he just won't eat enough for it to be his main diet.

Thanks for the well wishes! Hopefully in 3 months I'll be able to get more answers

terestrife said:

 
but thanks for the suggestion of turkey breast with ghee! i tried making them recently food with only turkey thighs, and they hated it. does the amount i use matter?

Click to expand...

Maybe you could try mixing turkey breast with turkey thighs or .... chicken breast and turkey thighs? Or maybe when you try another premix they'll like turkey thighs?  Maybe but the thighs aside for now or just do a little bit, e.g., 25 % turkey thighs and 75% breast meat. 

Tobilei said:

 
Thank you! Yes, it's been a long road poor boy. Although at the moment he's been on the RC hypoallergenic dry for just 4 days (no wet yet, still on his regular wet as I transition slowly) and already we've managed to half his prednil and so far no itching. Then today he ran around the house with his tail in the air! This is exciting. It's usually drooping along behind him, I have never seen him run with his tail fluffed up in the air!

I know kibble isn't great. Generally I don't like it much but I do feed a mix (mostly wet, 3 times a day, dry overnight and in between). I have had him on an all wet diet before but it didn't help.

I have not tried rabbit. It's hard to get here and he won't eat home cooking at all There are no commercial foods available that use it either and he won't eat raw consistently.

The roo I just buy from the supermarket (I live in Australia and it's readily available). It was human grade. They don't put many fillers in our meat here (yet). The one's that do are labelled that they're tenderized or enhanced. He does okay on raw beef and lamb, he just won't eat enough for it to be his main diet.

Thanks for the well wishes! Hopefully in 3 months I'll be able to get more answers

Click to expand...

Ah, you live in Australia .... that explains things. But also I think I responded to another post of yours in which you indicated your kitty was being treated for fleas - and as I mentioned, flea allergies are the #1 reason, before food or environmental (e.g., pollen, dust mites, etc) allergies that cause itching in cats. 

All it takes is a single flea bite to cause misery for a poor cat.  I would still avoid any fish but it sounds like kitty is managing well on the Rx diet for now.  Glad kitty is improving.

I am so fearful that my kitten will develop protein allergies.  I hope to avoid protein allergies by providing various meat meals to her.  The only time she regurgitated a meal was when I fed her a Sardine, Shrimp & Crab pate.  I think the whole can (3 Oz) was too much for one siting and the gelee made her stomach react.  I don't believe it was an allergy because there have been no other symptoms besides the one event of vomiting.  And the amount of vomit was small.

LisaMarie12 said:

 
Maybe you could try mixing turkey breast with turkey thighs or .... chicken breast and turkey thighs? Or maybe when you try another premix they'll like turkey thighs?  Maybe but the thighs aside for now or just do a little bit, e.g., 25 % turkey thighs and 75% breast meat. 

Click to expand...

thats a good idea, maybe i can try phasing out the chicken from the turkey like i did with the chicken breast.   thanks again for all the help!

TheGreyStalker said:

 
I am so fearful that my kitten will develop protein allergies.  I hope to avoid protein allergies by providing various meat meals to her.  The only time she regurgitated a meal was when I fed her a Sardine, Shrimp & Crab pate.  I think the whole can (3 Oz) was too much for one siting and the gelee made her stomach react.  I don't believe it was an allergy because there have been no other symptoms besides the one event of vomiting.  And the amount of vomit was small.

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my cat did that too, 5 years ago. it was right after i adopted her, i gave her 3 oz meal, and she ate it all really fast. i think she was scared of not having food and ate it too fast. hasnt happened again since. she only vomits the occasional hair ball.

LisaMarie12 said:

 
Ah, you live in Australia .... that explains things. But also I think I responded to another post of yours in which you indicated your kitty was being treated for fleas - and as I mentioned, flea allergies are the #1 reason, before food or environmental (e.g., pollen, dust mites, etc) allergies that cause itching in cats. 

All it takes is a single flea bite to cause misery for a poor cat.  I would still avoid any fish but it sounds like kitty is managing well on the Rx diet for now.  Glad kitty is improving.

Click to expand...

Yes You did, I remember reading it in my email but I don't think I've replied yet (sorry I got distracted yesterday!) Yes he is. I actually have 2 kitties. The one with the fish allergies isn't the one that is itchy. She was easy to figure out. Fish = diarrhea next day. Every time. Itchy is much harder. We've had him on 3 weekly comfortis now for about 26 weeks so our vet doesn't think it's fleas (I do know that one single bite can cause much itching for a number of weeks). I do suspect it may be environmental. Our house gets a lot of mould. I stay on top of it as much as I can but there's always some that is missed and with 3 kiddies I can't get all the dust all the time either He did have a test with some sticky tape to check for fungus that showed a lot of pollen in his coat which was odd because he's an indoor cat and I don't have indoor plants. It did make me wonder about litter/plants near the house and environmental allergies. I do need to rule out the food though (mostly because of the roo and the raw chicken making him so sick). I guess it's possible multiple things are making him itch and I may never know exactly what. I noticed he's been a bit itchy today and has decided he'd rather not eat than eat the RX food (sigh). I'm persisting though. We're not even on day 2 of 100% RX yet!

Thank you!