Grrr - Food Allergies

Some of you know my cat's many food problems, and how he has been allergic probably his whole life [crazy as it sounds.] and we've done a billion things to him, to the point he gets nasty when I take him into work [the clinic].

So I had a skin biopsy done. We got the results a week ago, and my vet/boss talked to a dermatologist about it. She said he's obviously showing signs of a food allergy with all of the trials we have done. He can be put on steroids, the best one being the most expensive. However, I don't want him being diabetic, I don't want to do insulin [he's less than a year old right now] plus he wouldn't be able to be on DM or the Diabetic food, yeah he could be on other food but you can't really give them steroid injections while they're diabetic, and they make Diabetic diets for a reason.

He can't go on a vegetarian diet [which in all reality would probably work well for him.] I'm just dying over this. I'm going to try probiotics, which they say may or may not work to balance his digestive system.

He's allergic to all Poultry: Chicken, Turkey, Duck, Pheasant.
He's allergic to Buffalo.
He's allergic to peas.

Right now he's doing alright on rabbit, but one of his ears is gunky. The problem is he could devlop an allergy to rabbit. I don't know if he's allergic to venison, if he is I don't know WHAT I'm going to do.

He did alright on Nature's Variety Venison diet, but then he started throwing it up [food allergy symptom] and would puke even just a little. I mixed it with z/d and he would just lick the z/d off.

He's still itchy on z/d, it makes his ears go bad and it isn't that healthy of a food anyways. z/d is the BEST hypo-allergenic diet. Purina has one, but it has soy in it

I'm running out of foods and ideas, on top of it all, it could be just a general protein allergy. It could be the way food is processed, it can be ANYTHING!

He hasn't been skin tested for inhaled allergies, however given the food trials I've done his reactions are consistent with a food allergy. I always switch him back down to z/d which calms the itching/ears down, then when you switch to a food he's allergic to the itching starts again.

I'm doing duck right now, and he is definitley allergic to it. I'll be putting him back on the rabbit, it's by Evanger's 100% rabbit that I supplement with taurine and lysine.

This is more of a rant I suppose than anything, but if anyone has ANY kind of food suggestion. I don't think anything bird is a good idea. I was also considering ordering frozen rats/mice. But then I'd have to watch him eat to be sure he didn't drag the bodies all over the house or something, and I don't know that I want to watch him eat them... or that he wouldn't be allergic anyways.

Thanks,
Suzanne

Did you try raw diet. I am thinking you just make what he isnt allergic too. You can do the rabbit..

Beef , Salmon( cooked and wild caught of course) , Sardines , Lamb( I was strongly warned not to give raw lamb to cats)

This reminds me of a 2 year old cat we adopted about 5 years ago. He was allergic to everything, even apparently himself. Poor guy. The "best" food for him was Natural Life canned lamaderm (lamb and rice). Plain, boring, lamb, rice... you get the point. It didn't solve everything but he grew a little fur back and didn't get sick so much. Plus he had an issue with his nose where it appeared to dry up and turned black - the vet said it would fall off eventually! And the lamaderm helped some of his nose heal up too.

Unfortunately I can't give you a happy ending on that. He took a turn for the worse, despite the food, and we had to put him down. NOT TO SAY that your cat would suffer that fate - they could very well have quite different issues - just that I don't know what would have become of that food. You might want to just try cooking up some plain ground lamb from the supermarket first to see if he reacts badly to that.

Oh he was on prednisone and some other stuff I can't remember - seemed to help a bit but not completely, obviously. But best of luck to you, and maybe just maybe the canned lamaderm would work for you.

i would defiently check out a raw diet. he could be allergic to the grains, too. If you dont have time to make your own raw, there are several premades that come in Beef, Venison, and i think some come in Rabbitt.

My Basset was allergic to grains and wheat corn

He's been on RAW before. Nature's Variety is RAW. The turkey I had him on was RAW. Unfortunatley he's allergic to alot of things, even proteins so it's hard to make a complete diet for him if he's allergic. I've had tons of holistic people say putting him on raw would fix things, and it didn't. He started throwing up the nature's variety, and he got itchy on the turkey diet I put together for him.

Thanks for the advice!

Not to sound like a broke record but did you try their other diets beside the turkey (which is turkey and chicken) since you said he was allergic.

Otherwise I have seen some good recipes in my research for a good complete diet just useing rabbitt.

raw diets that arent complicated Natures Pararie Is ...

Bravo you can get just meat or meat and veggie mixes ( i think)

Omas pride just meat or meat and veggies

Columbia Natural lots of different meats and you can buy veggies sep...

You said you were supplementing with taurine...so could you try a vegetarian diet, and supplement it with taurine? If I'm thinking correctly, the lack of taurine in vegetables is why cats can't be vegetarian. It probably wouldn't be the best thing in the world, but would probably be vastly better than itching and throwing up all the time.
So would a taurine supplement make vegetarian work, or is there more to it than that?

Amber

I've got an allergy diet recipe that you might be able to try:

120 grams of lamb cut into chunks
200 grams of cooked rice
1 tsp. of corn oil (Mazola)
1 1/2 tsp. of dicalcium phosphate
I'm not sure where you'd get the last ingredient, but others could probably help there.

Remove all fat from the lamb and cook thoroughly. Stir in all other ingredients.

I know a woman here who uses the recipe for her cat, and often substitutes tapioca for the rice.

Jamie had something similar today: 1/4 cup of cooked lamb, 1 TBSP. of cooked rice, and 1 capsule of salmon oil.

Perhaps cooked lamb/mutton, goat, salmon, or shrimp mixed with a bit of rice or tapioca and a veterinary supplement would do the trick for you?
If the worst comes to the worst, I would try the frozen rats/mice, and simply not watch him eat if it bothers you.

When Jamie was having allergy problems, he was put on an Italian brand called "Green Fish", which only contains tuna, vegetable gelatin, and herbs. I've found some similar (unfortunately European) brands that consist of meat or, more often, fish in water or gelatin, with the proper supplements. His problem was grain, not protein, though.

Originally Posted by jcat

I've got an allergy diet recipe that you might be able to try:

120 grams of lamb cut into chunks
200 grams of cooked rice
1 tsp. of corn oil (Mazola)
1 1/2 tsp. of dicalcium phosphate
I'm not sure where you'd get the last ingredient, but others could probably help there.

Remove all fat from the lamb and cook thoroughly. Stir in all other ingredients.

I know a woman here who uses the recipe for her cat, and often substitutes tapioca for the rice.

Jamie had something similar today: 1/4 cup of cooked lamb, 1 TBSP. of cooked rice, and 1 capsule of salmon oil.

Perhaps cooked lamb/mutton, goat, salmon, or shrimp mixed with a bit of rice or tapioca and a veterinary supplement would do the trick for you?
If the worst comes to the worst, I would try the frozen rats/mice, and simply not watch him eat if it bothers you.

When Jamie was having allergy problems, he was put on an Italian brand called "Green Fish", which only contains tuna, vegetable gelatin, and herbs. I've found some similar (unfortunately European) brands that consist of meat or, more often, fish in water or gelatin, with the proper supplements. His problem was grain, not protein, though.

Click to expand...

Jcat thanks for the reminder
A vet I talk to on a regular basis( not my own) ... gave me the same recipe only with beef .... and a multi instead of the calcium

Originally Posted by sharky

Jcat thanks for the reminder
A vet I talk to on a regular basis( not my own) ... gave me the same recipe only with beef .... and a multi instead of the calcium

Click to expand...

There are a few suppliers here who offer a multiple supplement for people who feed raw or home-cooked - I imagine that would be better, and easier to get.
Since I do feed commercial food, I don't bother with supplements when I cook for the cat(s). Jamie (and our "guests", ZsaZsa and Miezi) are perfectly content with just cooked meat, though Jamie won't eat poultry. If I add rice, I use the "natural" kind, which all three seem to prefer, although they'll eat Basmati rice.

Thanks for the recipe, I'll look into it. I'll have to initially see if he's allergic to lamb. The Venison diet he was on was Venison as the first ingredient, and then lamb, lamb liver etc.

I hadn't even considered goat! I've never actually been to a butcher shop... a butcher shop should have lamb right?

If I can't find anything we'll have to move onto mice, I'm going to look around and see if I can find a local butcher who deals witht hings other than beef, ham, and chicken.

Originally Posted by Plebayo

Thanks for the recipe, I'll look into it. I'll have to initially see if he's allergic to lamb. The Venison diet he was on was Venison as the first ingredient, and then lamb, lamb liver etc.

I hadn't even considered goat! I've never actually been to a butcher shop... a butcher shop should have lamb right?

If I can't find anything we'll have to move onto mice, I'm going to look around and see if I can find a local butcher who deals witht hings other than beef, ham, and chicken.

Click to expand...

Most supermarkets carry lamb .... I love the local butcher as they get all sorts of meats includeing wild game but I am not in a real urban area

Although it doesn't sound nearly as severe, my cat has food allergies too. Poultry and corn, as near as I can figure (he hasn't been through the tests at the vet, we just did trial and error and discussions with the vet). We have him on Authority's Lamb and Rice. It's not the best quality food in the world, but not the worst. But the big thing with us is that it was only ONLY one at Petsmart that didn't contain either chicken or corn. (I drove my husband nuts reading all of the labels on every decent brand of cat food in the whole store!)

Originally Posted by Plebayo

Thanks for the recipe, I'll look into it. I'll have to initially see if he's allergic to lamb. The Venison diet he was on was Venison as the first ingredient, and then lamb, lamb liver etc.

I hadn't even considered goat! I've never actually been to a butcher shop... a butcher shop should have lamb right?

If I can't find anything we'll have to move onto mice, I'm going to look around and see if I can find a local butcher who deals witht hings other than beef, ham, and chicken.

Click to expand...

i wouldnt reccomend pork for kitties. everything i have read is against it.

Originally Posted by ScamperFarms

i wouldnt reccomend pork for kitties. everything i have read is against it.

Click to expand...

cats and dogs shouldnt eat pork .... the fat is indigestable and it is a high allergy meat ( that is from sevan different vets and various articles._

Yeah, my cat can't be on anything like a Lamb & Rice diet, I think he's allergic to the BHA, BHT, Eth- whatever because he itches even on z/d, and z/d is the BEST hypoallergenic food on the market. Purina has an HA and it contains soy [which most animals are allergic to] I've had people reccomend Iams Kangaroo diet, but again they put in alot of extra crap into their food that my cat I'm sure would react to.

He hasn't been on a complete diet in a LONG time because they simply contain way too many ingredients.

I'm going to look into alligator or kangaroo [vet tech thought of that one] as well as Lamb [although the allergy tech said it's not really non allergenic for most animals anymore] and I'm going to see if I can get ahold of some elk or venison.

I personally have feed a dog the kangaroo diet and it helped /// she had both grain veggie and meat allergies///