Please help cat with allergies won't eat

Hi I have 2 kittens 4 months old. One of them is always scratching and biting, took her to the vet, took a skin sample, microscope, and nothing. We are thinking it might be an allergy to something so I changed food. 

She was eating Instinct original chicken both dry and wet 50/50. To bring costs down I used to mix wet with fancy feast. But now I am feeding both Instinct LID Turkey 50/50. Unfortunately it is the only LID for cats we have in my country and even for dogs it is the only wet food. (I mention this since for instinct formula is the same)

 But they both hate it! They don't eat the wet food. I have been mixing un teaspoon of tuna and some tuna water in their wet food and they eat it (second day of this), and they'll eat it this way but I can't do this forever.

Please help what should I do?

Also any advice on aller|gies would be appreciated

Thanks

What country are you in? You def are going to have to move towards a limited ingredient food to try and pinpoint the allergy issue, and that's going to be not feeding kibble anymore. You may also want to look into making homemade food for them. We can give you more info if we know where you're located so we can give you things you can get where you are. 

Firstly, no matter what the problem, the most important thing is that the cats eat.  If the "not eating" continues much longer, you give them whatever they'll eat.

I don't know what country you're in, so it's hard to give specific advice, but there are prescription allergy diets if necessary and they work extremely well.

If you choose to make home made food for your cats, then you have to make sure it's a balanced diet, quite often these diets are low on Taurine (nutrient needed for heart health).

One of my cats, has Eosinophilic Granuloma Complex (Allergy related condition) and she has been placed on a relatively new medication to the United States, "Apoquel".  Not sure if this would be available where you are.

I would suggest a prescription hypoallergenic food, it does come in dry kibble and my experience is that they are quite palatable.

You mentioned scratching, this can be from fleas whether you see any or not.  You can Advantage cats up to once per week as necessary and hopefully if you have a good response stretch it out to every two weeks.  This was recommended by a Veterinary Dermatologist for one of my kitties.  The dermatologist said it was quite safe to apply the medication weekly if needed.  Of course, most animals only need it monthly, but for those who have a sensitivity, it can be given more frequently.  I do NOT know if this applies to other flea medications, only the Advantage & Advantage-Multi as that was recommended by the dematologist.

Of course, you have to take their weight into account and buy the dose that is within their weight range.

I hope this helps.

Thanks! I am in Mexico and LID food is only available in instinct turkey. Maybe royal canin has some hypo food but I think it is not good. (Lots of carbs)

The vet saw her and found no fleas or virus so concluded it mist be an allergy.

They do eat, just not as much as they did almost half.

So I really dont know what to do please help.

Royal Canin does make an HP food and it is a lot of carbs, only 23% protein which worked well for me because I also had a cat with kidney disease that ended up on the diet.

It would concern me having a 4-month old on a food that low in protein, but I guess it depends how bad the allergy is as to which problem takes priority.

Just because a vet doesn't see a flea, does not mean that there are no fleas. Especially if a cat has an increased sensitivity to fleas, they don't need much contact at all to suffer from the allergies.

You could try the Advantage initially (given every week and then if you have a good response, try every 2wks) and see how that goes. A hypoallergenic diet only helps if the allergen is food related and that's not necessarily the case. It may be, but if the cats are not eating properly, then it isn't really an option and with young cats, the preference is for higher protein diets.

It's true that pretty much any allergy a cat has shows up in their skin, but if they were having a food allergy, there would most likely be diarrhea associated with the allergy. You did not mention diarrhea, so am assuming that's not the case.

I don't know about Mexico, but in the United States, you can get Advantage over the counter. I would strongly recommend giving that a try and putting your kitties back on their regular diet.

You also didn't mention whether these kitties get to go outside. If they are outdoor kitties or indoor / outdoor kitties, I would recommend making them indoor kitties and continuing to treat with Advantage (5-9lb) once a week in the beginning and if your allergy-prone kitty does well, taking it to every 2wks and seeing how your kitty does then. You may be able to take it to every 3-4 wks after that if they continue to do well and hopefully stopping as long as fleas are under control indoors.

Regarding the Advantage, it comes in doses pending on the weight your kitties are. I assume at 4-months, that they're over 5lbs, but if not, you may want to try and buy a dose or two of the 2-5lbs and once they're over 5lbs going up to the next size. And then if they get over 9lbs, there's a new size.

Hopefully this helps. I think there's a strong chance it's flea related given the biting and scratching. I live in San Diego, so it's hot and dry most of the time and treating regularly with Advantage helped my kitty who does have severe allergies. I have now made her an indoor cat and she has done well.

If this doesn't help, then there may be medications, but if you can avoid it, you don't want to put such a young cat on steroids like prednisone because it can induce diabetes and that's worse than the original problem.

As M missmimz said, homemade food might be a good option for you. Check out the [thread="263751"]​[/thread] and [thread="272287"]​[/thread] for ideas. Do read this article too: [article="31801"]​[/article].

Something else worth doing is some careful reading of cat food labels. Here in the UK, we don't have many brands labeled as LID, but there are many foods that fit that profile once you read the ingredients lists. The key is working out which ingredients your cat is allergic to

Good luck - I really hope you're able to find a food that works for your kittens very soon :cross: