Attempting to sort out allergy issue

Hello!

I adopted 2 cats from a shelter in mid Feb.  Here is a breakdown of what's happening and this is only with the kitty having all the problems -

- observing her at the shelter, she cleaned NON stop - loved to clean but did NOT have any sores on her body, just spent a tremendous amount of time grooming.  she continued this when we got her home

- got her home and she had soft poop with fresh red blood.  Figured this might just be stress from being moved to our home so I monitored her.  Shelter was feeding them Purina Naturals Turkey w. Cranberry ( apparently it's discontinued now ).

tested stool for parasites, came back normal but did 2 doses of de wormer Panacur and also flagyl for 14 days.  This resolved all the poop issues.

- switched to an all raw diet for both cats - went with Rad Cat and was feeding all flavors and both cats liked them all - switch to raw was super easy.

- found out kitty was NOT spayed so had to do that and this is when all the trouble really started.  Within 2 days of the spay surgery she developed a huge sausage like lump under the incision - vet said this was normal and a reaction to the internal stitches.

- 10 days later stitches are removed and she begins licking that area non stop - making scabs like crazy.  Eventually made scabs all over her sides and legs.

 - Tried only feeding the rad cat turkey, lamb and removing the beef and chicken from the rotation.  Licking continued....

After becoming completely desperate I took her back to the vet again and we moved forward with a punch biopsy and skin culture.  The biopsy came back as a severe allergic reaction with a bunch of other big lingo I don't fully understand.   We are still waiting on the fungal culture to come back.  vet insisted that I stop the raw diet and put her on the Hills Z/D which I wasn't happy about.   I played along and did switch her to the hydrolyzed diet and we also did an injection of Depo Medrol ( we tried prednisone pills but that didn't help much ).  We are also giving her 1/2 a Claritin pill  Also added revolution flea treatment every 2 weeks, just gave her dose #2 yesterday.   The itching seemed to stop within 2 days of the depo Medrol injection, change in food and adding the Claritin.  So, I think I'm doing good......

I hope I didn't make a mistake but I switched from the rad cat for the other cat to the instinct raw bites chicken just to try something else and today I let the one with all the problems have some ( not convinced she has a food allergy since she was doing this licking at the shelter eating crappy dry food ).  IF this was a food issue - how quickly will I see a change from allowing her to have the instinct raw bites?

The vet thinks feeing this hydrolyzed Z/D food long term is okay but I'm 100% opposed to it

I truly hope she does have a seasonal allergy and not a food allergy...

I was also using the big bag of clay clumping cat litter, I think precious cat makes it and it had the cat attract already mixed in.  I figured incase it's the litter possibly, I got rid of all that, sanitized the litter boxes with baking soda/vinegar and am now using the precious cat blue bag which is 99.9% dust free and hypo allergenic.

I wasn't sure on the rad cat possibly containing egg so that's why I switched to the instinct raw bites.  I'm also curious about a freeze dried raw, is freeze dried just as good as wet raw?

Poor girl. I hope I can help some.

Some animals are very sensitive to multiple things and build up an intolerance when they are in constant contact with it. While at the shelter your cat likely was having issues with the litter, cleaning chemicals, or detergent as well as stress that was causing her to lick herself. Board and stressed cats can start up licking habits that don't go away, I know this because it happened with our cat after she was hit by a car.

The shelter also didn't spay her, which I thought all shelters did, so that confuses me a bit. However, I will say, allergic reactions to the stitches or medication could be a major cause behind her licking so much. My mother had a bad reaction simply to the tape they used on her shoulder during the surgery so I know that sensitivity can crop up from the oddest things.

Changing the litter is good, medication to help the itching go down is good, you can also try switching the type of detergent you use on her favorite blankets or cat beds, not petting her when you have an scented perfume or lotion on your hands, and making sure she doesn't have access to any other chemicals.

I doubt the food is the only cause because the issue came up after the surgery. However, until the scabbing goes away I would suggest staying with what works. As she calms down you can offer back the food she had before and any reactions should be seen with-in a day or two. Our dogs have allergies to soy and they begin to scratch their ears and chew on their paws nearly non-stop so we feed soy-free dog food. Cats also are known to get allergies to fillers and preservatives in food, so along with the raw diet make sure all hard-food, canned-food or treats don't have dyes, preservatives or fillers that cause allergies.

All and all, the most important thing is to get the reaction under control and then slowly introduce her back to the food you had before and see if she starts to show any symptoms. Try everything one at a time, each ingredient and each new thing so that you can monitor for the reaction and narrow down the cause.

I hope this helps and she gets better soon.  Best of luck!

Thanks!  Well, it was a hot mess right from the start with these 2 cats.  I adopted them under the assumption that the little one with all the problems was spayed and that she was just over 1 year old.  The 2nd cat was supposed to be 3 years old.  Turns out that the 3 year old was relinquished by her owner who was an older man who said he couldn't care for her any longer - turns out she's 10!!!!!!  Well......after all this mess with the little one and her poops with the fresh blood the vet caught that the paperwork showed vaccinations were done at a spay/neuter clinic.  Anyways, after a ton of digging and contacting the original shelter that they came from ( they came from this 1, were both sent to a transfer facility and then ended up at the shelter in Illinois where I got them from ).  Apparently the little one was NOT spayed and they only spay them when the animal is directly adopted out of their facility.  Apparently if they are just transferred that they don't pay the cost for the animal to be spayed, they make the next shelter cover that.  So weird but that really screwed me over.  I don't use any harsh cleaning products in my house so no pinesol or mr. clean to clean the litter boxes, someone years ago told me just to use vinegar and baking soda.  I scoop the boxes 2x per day and have 4 total litter boxes for the 2 cats so there are plenty of fresh potties all over.  I agree, it seems that since the spay surgery that really set her into over drive.  We did also suspect that the licking could be behaviorial and tried gabapentin and amalytriptaline ( spelled wrong I'm sure ) but after that didn't help matters and doing the skin biopsy and culture, we know for sure that it's not a behavioral issue but a true allergic reaction.  She's 95% better, the scabs have healed, there are only 2 small spots left on her from where they did the punch biopsy.

I use all free and clear laundry pods and don't use dryer sheets or fabric softener.  Also, my rule is when I put on hand lotion that I don't touch the cats so momma tends to have dry hands!  LOL

What do you think of the Instinct brand food raw bites - I was feeding rad cat but that had egg in it and I tought IF that was the trigger then the instinct doesn't have egg in it.

I'm still waiting on the fungal culture results.  The Claritin really seems to have helped unless it was the depo Medrol steroid injection but that seemed to not work initially.

For what it's worth - the vet says her lymph nodes in her groin are very large but a friend told me that if she had a bad allergic reaction then there is inflammation in her body and it's just going to take time to resolve and for them to go back to normal size - apparently this is a slow process - I have no idea if that's true or not.

I'm trying so hard - it's been such a bumpy start....

Ugh. I hate that your vet suggested crappy terrible "hypoallergenic" food rather than supporting Rad Cat, which is nearly the best commercial food out there. If this was my cat I'd switch back to RC but I would stick with one protein for a few weeks to see how that goes. Perhaps venison or lamb, as those are more novel proteins. Egg allergies are pretty rare, although you could move into making your own raw if you really think it might be the egg. Have you tried giving Zyrtec for allergies? 

I'm currently giving Claritin 1/2 pill daily. What do you think about the natures variety instinct raw bites?

Cat princesses said:

I'm currently giving Claritin 1/2 pill daily. What do you think about the natures variety instinct raw bites?

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raw bites are okay, but it has more fillers (aka more things that could trigger an allergic reaction). Freeze dried is not as good as actual raw.

Rad Cat is leaps and bounds better.

Maybe @LisaMarie12  could chip in, she has a cat with a confirmed egg allergy. 

Ok so it's better to go back to rad cat. Yes, interested to know if there are any ther raw brands out there that I could work with. Scared to even attempt to make my own food. Do you?

Cat princesses said:

Ok so it's better to go back to rad cat. Yes, interested to know if there are any ther raw brands out there that I could work with. Scared to even attempt to make my own food. Do you?

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I think @LisaMarie12  uses some frozen raw instinct because she has a cat with a true egg allergy confirmed via test. Rad Cat is really the best commercial raw, though. I do make my own, but I also use Rad Cat (variety). Making your own is pretty easy, actually. I make my own with boneless meat and use EZcomplete (which is a premix) and boom, all done. i also use meat/bone/organ grinds from Hare Today, add alnutrin and that's it. There are different ways to make raw, but those are two easy ways. Ezcomplete does use eggshell for calcium, however. 

missmimz said:

 
raw bites are okay, but it has more fillers (aka more things that could trigger an allergic reaction). Freeze dried is not as good as actual raw.

Rad Cat is leaps and bounds better.

Maybe @LisaMarie12  could chip in, she has a cat with a confirmed egg allergy. 

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I addressed the egg allergy issue to Cat princesses on her original thread:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/319514/...about-rad-cat-and-other-possible-food-options

Cat princesses said:

I'm currently giving Claritin 1/2 pill daily. What do you think about the natures variety instinct raw bites

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Sorry to hear about your kitty Cat princesses although it sounds like kitty is improving if the lesions are healing.

Maybe the steroid is helping, I know it's a temporary fix though only, having used steroids for Mikey's allergy flare ups, about four or five times. 

I agree re: fillers in commercial raw. I am using NV Instinct raw for Mikey (the chicken/turkey frozen bites), but only temporarily for two reasons: I don't like the spinach in the food - spinach is high in calcium oxalates, not good for kitties' bladder health and 2) I try to minimize the amount of raw with bone, only about 50% of his diet.

I want to do homemade raw, I had just started with EZ Complete, however, due to Mikey's egg allergy, I had to discontinue it.  I want to try again though, with homemade raw but this time it will likely be with Balance It to supplement (for boneless meats).

There is one egg free premix for raw, I think Feline Instincts, if you decide to do your own homemade raw.  Good luck to you.

Thanks @lisamarie12! So far she has been eating the hydrolized and the nv instinct raw bites chicken from the other kitty's plate. I haven't seen any increase in licking at all. With a food allergy, if she's eaten this 4x in a row, would I see something at all regarding a reaction? I just finished all the instinct bites so I think I will go back to the rad cat and try again.

missmimz said:

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Maybe @LisaMarie12  could chip in, she has a cat with a confirmed egg allergy. 

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Actually, where food allergy testing is concerned, I don't even think it can be confirmed; our vet said the food panel is "50%" accurate, the environmental, which I hope to also do soon, 80% accurate.

But we are desperate to have Mikey without having to wear a bib around his neck to protect it so I'll take the 50% and work with that.  Poor little guy, a friend of mine said having to wear something on him all the time would likely "make him crazy". ;(

Cat princesses said:

Thanks @lisamarie12! So far she has been eating the hydrolized and the nv instinct raw bites chicken from the other kitty's plate. I haven't seen any increase in licking at all. With a food allergy, if she's eaten this 4x in a row, would I see something at all regarding a reaction? I just finished all the instinct bites so I think I will go back to the rad cat and try again.

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It's hard to predict really. I've read that it can take up to a week after eating whatever is causing trouble, for the symptoms to show up. Our Mikey is always itchy (although less so the past three weeks since eliminating those proteins but still itchy).  Our vet also said it could take "several months" after removing those proteins for his itching to subside completely. I guess that's why vets, when they suggest the "novel" protein / elimination diet -- one single protein and one carb only (whether it's Rx or a commercial LID diet) to do the diet for a minimum of 6 - 8 weeks. 

When was the steroid given? The effect of the steroid to curb the itch can last for about 3 weeks or so, maybe a little longer. So again, kind of hard to predict.   You could keep doing what you are doing and if you see an increase in itching then you may have to stick with one or the other - the Rx hydrolized or NV raw.  The reason vets suggest elimination diets is b/c after the two month trial, if kitty is still itching then the process of elimination is supposed to be easier, you just have 2-3 ingredients to guess what may be aggravating kitty. 

I'm not familiar with the Rx diet you mentioned other than a former vet of MIkey's recommending it but I did not want to use it b/c of the ingredients. 

If there is an allergy, sometimes that shows up in the liver enzymes from the blood work, the eosinophilic count will be slightly higher.

You may want to take a look at this article by Dr. Karen Becker, very informative:

http://healthypets.mercola.com/site...012/05/07/protein-diets-for-pets-allergy.aspx

(Note the Mercola site is a bit controversial, however, I've always appreciated her articles, independently of the site itself.)

I have an itchy kitty too. We're currently embarking on a food elimination trial for him (I have him on the Royal Canin Hypoallergenic). I hate the food too but we've spent 18 months with him on almost constant cortisone steroids, pulling out his fur, sores and scabs, rashes and blisters. We've trialed him on a routine for flea allergy (fwiw Revolution did NOTHING for fleas on my cats. I might as well have given them nothing. We did the flea allergy trial with comfortis, every 3 weeks for 12 weeks, itching did not improve but boy did it kill off the fleas).

His eonsophil count is through the roof, even on prednisolone so we know we're dealing with allergy. Just trying to figure out to what.

The way I'm trying to look at it is 12 weeks of this crummy food won't hurt him in the long run and if it doesn't work at all and we can rule out food issues or figure out which food is causing the issue (suspect on chicken) then we'll be able to feed him whatever we want (any allergies detected aside of course).

It could be that it's not food allergy, but yes, the cortisone shot will likely still be working so it could be that it's masking any reaction to the freeze dried food too.

You can do a food elimination trial using a raw food. Single novel protein, for 12 weeks. It doesn't need to be balanced/supplemented for the 12 weeks (but if you need to continue with it after that time it does).

Thanks so much for all the feedback!  I'm going to just feed the rad cat lamb flavor to both cats and see what happens.  The little one that is having all the problems doesn't seem itchy at all anymore so I'm really hoping that the Claritin is helping.  The depo Medrol injection was about 3 weeks ago.

Tobilei said:

 
I have an itchy kitty too. We're currently embarking on a food elimination trial for him (I have him on the Royal Canin Hypoallergenic). I hate the food too but we've spent 18 months with him on almost constant cortisone steroids, pulling out his fur, sores and scabs, rashes and blisters. We've trialed him on a routine for flea allergy (fwiw Revolution did NOTHING for fleas on my cats. I might as well have given them nothing. We did the flea allergy trial with comfortis, every 3 weeks for 12 weeks, itching did not improve but boy did it kill off the fleas).

His eonsophil count is through the roof, even on prednisolone so we know we're dealing with allergy. Just trying to figure out to what.

The way I'm trying to look at it is 12 weeks of this crummy food won't hurt him in the long run and if it doesn't work at all and we can rule out food issues or figure out which food is causing the issue (suspect on chicken) then we'll be able to feed him whatever we want (any allergies detected aside of course).

It could be that it's not food allergy, but yes, the cortisone shot will likely still be working so it could be that it's masking any reaction to the freeze dried food too.

You can do a food elimination trial using a raw food. Single novel protein, for 12 weeks. It doesn't need to be balanced/supplemented for the 12 weeks (but if you need to continue with it after that time it does).

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If there are (or were) fleas involved, flea allergy is #1 at the top of the list for allergies in cats / dogs, before food allergies.  Itching from one single flea bite can last for months.

I understand your desperation, if you feel you need to keep him on the Rx diet (and the cooked chicken diet as you mentioned in the other post)? Whichever food you do use, keep it as minimal (in ingredients) and simple as possible. If you are going to do the Rx then just do the Rx diet, or the homecooked, just the cooked (with a premix or supplements, I'm assuming you know already). This way, when / if the symptoms return, you'll know what to eliminate.

You may want to look into diatamaceous earth - must be food grade, for the prevention of fleas. Many dog owners use this, it dehydrates fleas, it's safe for cats. You can use a small amount, (use gloves and not near their face, it's a bit dusty) but not toxic if ingested, if they lick themselves.

I'm currently using food grade DE to treat / prevent Mikey for dust mites. No matter how much I clean, dust mites are impossible to get rid of, cats wanting to sneak under beds, corners etc... Dust mites account for allergies in 30%-80% of pets and can also make them very uncomfortable.

You can do a food elimination trial using a raw food. Single novel protein, for 12 weeks. It doesn't need to be balanced/supplemented for the 12 weeks (but if you need to continue with it after that time it does

Can you please explain this further? If I were to just keep feeding the rad cat lamb I though all their foods were complete, would I need to do something different?

Things seem to be okay with my little one that is having all the problems. All of the areas that did have scabs are fully healed. I have been feeding her the rad cat lamb and mixing some of the hydrolized in with that just because they seem to like the hydrolized. I have noticed that she is licking just a little more but it's not for long periods of time but it seems faster and she is doing some of that nibbling. Now, it's been beautiful in Chicago this past weekend and I have had the windows open for the past 3 days enjoying the fresh air in the house. I am still giving her the Claritin. I wonder if having the windows open even with her on the Claritin could still cause an issue if this truly is a seasonal allergy? Again, there are no open sores or anything, just a slight increase in speed of licking. Last night I gave her another 1/2 Claritin before bed just incase it was from Windows being opened. Still waiting to hear back from the vet regarding the fungal culture results from about 3 weeks ago when we did the punch biopsy. I am so new to this so I"m making an assumption here but if it was the rad cat that set her off before ( which I still truly don't believe to be the case ) I would think by now feeding it for 5+ days that I'd be seeing something right? Woudln't she have gone into a full on frenzy of making sores if it was the food?
I had to go yesterday to buy more rad cat and they only had 1 tub of the lamb so I bought that and also bought the venison - is that a mistake or do you think I should be okay feeding that flavor as well?

I'm with you, I don't believe it's the diet that is causing her to have allergies. If you do feed the venison, make sure to make no other changes so you can watch for a reaction. It should be safe, just keep an eye on her for any signs of access grooming, upset stomach, sneezing or wheezing, or strange behaviors like obvious discomfort (aggression is one way to note this) or hiding.

I'm glad she seems to be feeling better.

The only thing I have noted is that when she does clean it seems faster but I keep checking her over and there is no redness or any more raw sores. No wheezing or sneezing.

Tobilei said:

You can do a food elimination trial using a raw food. Single novel protein, for 12 weeks. It doesn't need to be balanced/supplemented for the 12 weeks (but if you need to continue with it after that time it does).

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I would not feed unbalanced food for 12 weeks. Who told you that was okay, a vet? Supplements are rarely the allergy issue. I don't really understand where this idea is coming from, but 12 weeks is too long to feed unbalanced food.