Elimination diet working... well... kind of.

lilliann

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Nov 2, 2016
Messages
2
Purraise
6
Location
New Orleans, LA
My himalayan Lilli Ann (pictured) has unfortunately had chronic ear issues ever since I rescued here. I took her to the vet and they diagnosed here with an ear infection. The medication prescribed didn't work but luckily my mom suggested Zymox which works wonders on all of her cats and dogs. Sadly, after treating her with the medication her ears would clear up... then sadly get goopy a week or two later :( 

Jose, my alpha-male Main Coon rescue, sometimes plays rough with Lilli Ann... so all this time I thought these tiny scabs around her neck were from him jumping on her and biting her neck. 

That all said, a few months ago the scabs started getting pretty bad (no way my other cat Jose was doing this from rough play). No they don't have fleas, they are on medication since I brought each of them home (2+ years ago). 

Long story short - I switched them over to Rachel Rays Zero Grain chicken formula over a month ago and Lilli Ann's ears have completely cleared up!!!! The downfall is the scabs remain... and call me crazy but her eyes look a little irritated at times. 

Do you guys think I should try a fish (or other alternate protein) based grain free diet? Anyone else have a similar experience with this? 

FYI - I don't think it's airborne allergies because there is no sneezing or wheezing involved. The scabs are also only showing up on her neck. 

Thanks for any pointer!!! 

Lilli Ann and Sara
 

missmimz

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jan 11, 2015
Messages
2,301
Purraise
365
Rachel Ray foods aren't very good quality. While they are marketed as "grain free" they contain all sorts of other starchy fillers which can trigger an allergy. The ideal way to rule out a food allergy is to feed a limited ingredients wet food, or go raw, but you can't really do it with kibble. Absolutely do not feed a fish based food. 
 

tobilei

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Oct 30, 2015
Messages
407
Purraise
59
I spent a lot of time mucking around with my itchy boy (and my girl with GI problems, including doing a full fish diet which was a disaster, for well over 2 years, changing litters, washing powders, you name it, I did it). In the end I went with a full hypoallergenic diet (only because limited ingredient diets aren't available here). I do feed kibble, it's hydrolyzed. I don't like it but it works for my girl like nothing else does and also hydrolyzed wet. It's made it so that I can have a base level to go from, then introduce one thing at a time, see what happens and if things go badly I can get back to that baseline without too much trouble. I'm not advocating that that is the only way to do it, just wanted to voice my opinion that you can spend a lot of time fiddling and it's easier to get an answer if you can get that base line to measure reactions.
 
Top