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I think my new 9 month old kitten/juvenile Moose has a chicken allergy! I adopted him just over a month ago and he was on a fish based food packed with legumes which I hate hate hate, so I started transitioning him as well as my other cat to a new brand called First Mate as I really like their ingredients. Ironically enough it is a limited ingredient food. I bought their grain free chicken as well as their duck version to try and began with the chicken. This was ten days ago, I started with mixing and they are now up to about 80% of the new chicken food. Last night I noticed a red patch of skin on one of Moose’s inner ears, he also has some small light coloured hard bumps there. He has been itching his ears a lot as well as his neck, and overgrooming/gnawing on himself all over today which is out of character for him. He’s also acting pretty irritated in general. I highly doubt this is fleas as my other cat is showing no symptoms, and am pretty convinced it’s the new food, it’s been ten days, his old food he was eating at the rescue did not contain any chicken but it’s possible he has had chicken in the past, I don’t know.
I haven’t dealt with food allergies before, does this timing seem standard for allergy symptoms to appear (10 days)? And how long does it typically take for the itchy symptoms to ease up? I’ve read online that it can take up to 8 weeks or even more in some cases, but was wondering if it really took that long from your experiences. My plan is to stop the chicken immediately and see what happens, including any wet food that has chicken. He still has some of his old food (that I hate) as well as the duck version so I can start him on that mix instead, and we already have a wellness appointment scheduled at the vet on the 12th so I can discuss this all and bring up any further concerns then if it hasn’t resolved in a week.
I haven’t dealt with food allergies before, does this timing seem standard for allergy symptoms to appear (10 days)? And how long does it typically take for the itchy symptoms to ease up? I’ve read online that it can take up to 8 weeks or even more in some cases, but was wondering if it really took that long from your experiences. My plan is to stop the chicken immediately and see what happens, including any wet food that has chicken. He still has some of his old food (that I hate) as well as the duck version so I can start him on that mix instead, and we already have a wellness appointment scheduled at the vet on the 12th so I can discuss this all and bring up any further concerns then if it hasn’t resolved in a week.
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