Food Allergy

[jehammans]

My cat Lola is a 10 year old, medium hair, female cat who has dealt with food allergies most of her adult life. We have tried so many different types of protein but it always catches up to us eventually. She seems very uncomfortable at times and it causes her to throw up once or twice a week. Any suggestions for a dry food or otherwise that would be more agreeable for her?

 

[cejhome]

Might be time to try a prescription hydrolyzed protein food from your veterinarian? I don't like prescription diets, I feel the quality of the ingredients is not so good, but sometimes there isn't much of an alternative. Constant throwing up is very bad for anyone - cat or human. We had a cat that we adopted (years ago) at age 7-ish. We didn't have any special diets available back then - over 20 yrs ago. We finally figured out it was grain through trial and error. However, the damage was done. We took him to a specialist for a endoscopy. I can't remember exactly now, but his intestines/esophagus were so covered with scar tissue, it was was hard to find a clear patch to do take a biopsy sample from - there was so much scar tissue. The vet said he would develop cancer at some point because of all the damage. We had him for about 6 years before he did indeed develop cancer. Once we got rid of the grain, he didn't throw up anymore.

 

[jehammans]

Thank you for your response! We’ve tried prescription food and she’s been having grain free for years. Our veterinarian said we need to find a protein she’s not sensitive to and I feel like we’ve tried every protein possible, I’m just at such a loss on what to do to help her. I’m beginning to wonder if her allergy is environmental?

 

[lisahe]

My cat Lola is a 10 year old, medium hair, female cat who has dealt with food allergies most of her adult life. We have tried so many different types of protein but it always catches up to us eventually. She seems very uncomfortable at times and it causes her to throw up once or twice a week. Any suggestions for a dry food or otherwise that would be more agreeable for her?

What are you currently feeding Lola? And what are her known allergies/sensitivities? And (just to be sure) she's vomiting after eating, right, rather than regurgitating her food right after eating? Last question: how long has this been happening?

Our cats tend to have more difficulty with thickeners in foods rather than the proteins. Agar-agar and potato are definite problems. Gums, grains, and just about anything else can also cause symptoms. It's very individual. Our cats eat two homemade (cooked) meals a day. The recipe is very simple. If you haven't tried pork, I'd recommend it: our cats love it and it's generally easy to find in varied cuts. Our vet also thinks pork is a good choice for cats.

Given Lola's age, what cejhome says about testing particularly struck me because one of our cats -- who's about the same age and also has a history of food and vomiting issues -- recently had to have surgery. An ultrasound showed inflammation in her stomach. She needed to have part of her stomach (as well as two lymph nodes and her spleen) removed. The ultrasound also showed some thickening of her intestines, likely a sign of IBD. We'll never know what caused the inflammation but our vet thinks it may have been some sort of parasite; Edwina loves eating bugs. I realize her case is somewhat extreme but I mention this because food isn't always the cause of vomiting! And sometimes it's not even possible to know for sure what's causing the vomiting.

If there's any chance that your vet can arrange a low-cost ultrasound for Lola, that might at least give you a noninvasive way of getting some clues about what's causing the problem. We got to the point of ultrasound after attempting to sort through dietary changes, none of which had any lasting effect for Edwina. (She also had blood tests for pancreatitis; negative.) We're extremely fortunate that our vet regularly brings in a specialist for ultrasounds; the cost was under $300 and we got enough information to know she needed either an endoscopy or exploratory surgery.

 

[jehammans]

Currently she’s eating Farmina N&D Digestion formulated with quinoa, lamb, fennel and mint which is said to help with digestion. We did have allergy testing done several years ago, I would have to look at the report but I remember there being several specific insect allergies. She doesn’t throw up directly after eating, it’s very sporadic but I’m pretty confident it’s food related because we will switch up the protein with a new kind of food and she’ll go 6-8 weeks without any issues and then it’s like it catches up to her and we have to try something new.

 

[cejhome]

If Hydrolyzed Protein food still makes your kitty vomit, maybe do homemade? Raw or cooked? That way there are only the ingredients you add, no thickeners or weird stuff. Our kitty after Tumper (the kitty I described above) ended up having Stomatitis. She also came to us with liquid diarrhea. Day after we adopted her she was at the vet for about 4 days. She still had pudding poop but was doing better. We believe she was raw fed by her previous person (they died and Puddin ended up at a bad rescue). I was cutting up raw chicken breast while still a little firm from the freezer and she ran in the kitchen and started yowling. I figured "what the heck" can't make it much worse and gave her some. The expression on her little face was priceless - she was so so very happy. She ended up eating about 1/2 a large chicken breast and from that day on never had a problem with stool. However...a few months later found out she had stomatitis and had it for many years (the dental specialist was confident in that - but it looked like it had been well managed). Had to take her off chicken (I worked with our regular vet to do a proper raw diet for Puddin.) Ended up using rabbit and pork. She was so sensitive to chicken and fish, I couldn't even use chicken egg shell for the calcium source or fish oil. Our old vet (we moved to another State about 1.5 yrs ago) used to say God gave us the kitties that needed extra help because he knew we would do our best by them. Sorry to be so long winded. Anyhow, homemade, raw or cooked gives you the control over all the ingredients. I'd do as simple as possible, no veggies/fruit/greens, etc... Just the meat and whatever else is necessary. Like I said, been years since we raw fed a cat (none of our kitties since Puddy would touch it) and now I work about 50 hrs/week and help my in-laws in between, etc. I am feeding our new cat Buddy, the simplest canned food I can find. Turns out he is allergic to chicken, no vomiting, but scratched his ears bald. He is doing great now that he is on rabbit and lamb.

 

[Astragal14]

Our cats tend to have more difficulty with thickeners in foods rather than the proteins.

I agree with lisahe about the possibility of non-protein food sensitivities. This would be ingredients like carbs, fruits & vegetables, gums and thickeners - basically anything that isn't a protein or vitamin & mineral.

My cat has IBD and a diet trial showed no sensitivity to proteins, his problems are with several filler ingredients commonly found in foods. And he has varying levels of sensitivity, too. Potatoes cause him to feel terrible within a day or two, whereas pea products can take 4-8 weeks.

I wonder if Lola's issues are more closely related to filler ingredients rather than proteins. Farmina is a high quality brand but they put a lot of fillers in their foods, even in their digestion-specific foods (for example, my cat can't have it due to the pea starch). I would try some other dry foods first, unless your vet specifically wants her on a hydrolyzed diet. There are only two dry foods I can recall that don't have any of the common filler ingredients - Instinct Ultimate Protein (duck and chicken varieties) and Dr. Elsey's (many varieties but varying availability). There are certainly other options, but these two brands are a good place to start.

INSTINCT Ultimate Protein Grain-Free Cage-Free Chicken Recipe Freeze-Dried Raw Coated Dry Cat Food, 4-lb bag - Chewy.com
https://www.chewy.com/instinct-ultimate-protein-grain-free/dp/146298
DR. ELSEY'S cleanprotein Chicken Formula Grain-Free Dry Cat Food, 2.0-lb bag - Chewy.com

 

[lisahe]

My cat has IBD and a diet trial showed no sensitivity to proteins, his problems are with several filler ingredients commonly found in foods. And he has varying levels of sensitivity, too. Potatoes cause him to feel terrible within a day or two, whereas pea products can take 4-8 weeks.

The timing of reactions is so interesting! This really speaks to why food trials take time.

As for dry food, Dr. Elsey's chicken is very good stuff: we use it as a treat/topper for our cat who can afford the calories, she absolutely loves it. (And will eat anything I sprinkle with that food...) I wish Dr. E's other dry foods didn't have chickpeas in them.

 

[Astragal14]

The timing of reactions is so interesting! This really speaks to why food trials take time.

As for dry food, Dr. Elsey's chicken is very good stuff: we use it as a treat/topper for our cat who can afford the calories, she absolutely loves it. (And will eat anything I sprinkle with that food...) I wish Dr. E's other dry foods didn't have chickpeas in them.

This is actually very interesting and it's something I've discussed at length with our veterinary nutritionist. I wish I had an external source I could cite and provide a link, but I've hardly seen this referenced anywhere. The fact that Lola is having issues 6-8 weeks after switching foods makes me think she may have some mild to moderate sensitivities.

From discussions with our veterinary nutritionist:

While true food allergies do exist, and are more specific to proteins, they are actually somewhat rare. Food sensitivities & intolerances are much more common and encompass non-protein ingredients and to varying degrees. And having a sensitivity to varying degrees also means that a certain amount of a triggering food can be incorporated into a diet without issues up to a certain point. High sensitivity to certain ingredients can mean a cat is intolerant of any foods that incorporate said ingredient. But a mild sensitivity to certain ingredients can mean that a cat can have small amounts of said ingredient, as long as it is less than a certain percentage of their diet. And of course, the problem is identifying which ingredients and how much can be tolerated.

I'll use my IBD boy as an example. He is sensitive to high disaccharide foods (potatoes, sweet potatoes), legumes (lentils, pea products) and gums. He is highly sensitive and completely intolerant of any potato products; these lead to nausea and vomiting within 24 hours. He has a mild sensitivity to legumes; lentils will make him feel nauseated (very "blah") but he won't vomit or regurgitate. He is much better at tolerating chickpeas; while still a legume, he is less sensitive to these than lentils and can eat foods with chickpeas several times a week. I don't know how many chickpeas are too much because we've always limited the amount to a small percentage of his diet.

 

[lisahe]

That's a great summary, Astragal14 , thank you! I've never seen or heard this explained so concisely and logically... though this is essentially how I've come to see things, after combining all sorts of anecdotal information and vet advice, plus observing the cats' reactions to various foods and ingredients over the years. As with your cat, potatoes were a clear problem (with multiple symptoms) for Edwina. Agar-agar bothered both cats (!) almost immediately. But it took a long time for green-lipped mussels to cause issues for Edwina and even then there wasn't a well-established pattern. I also have suspicions that xanthan gum irritates Edwina so have taken it out of the cats' diet.