What To Feed A Cat That's Allergic To Everything

[HelpNottieEat]

My boy Nottie is a sweet older guy that's got food allergies, IBD, a heart condition, feline herpes, the list goes on.

I've tried different diets and can't get him to stop itching. Right now he's on Instinct LID Rabbit, and the itching continues. My guess is that the peas in it are causing this.

So, it seems he can't have chicken, Turkey, any sort of fish/seafood, or peas. Since he has IBD his carb content needs to stay pretty low. He's also a bit picky and prefers pate or dry food only.

Anyone have any ideas for my poor guy?

 

[Neo_23]

Food allergies are actually not all that common in cats. I think many times when cats have intolerances to food we label it as allergies, but I think it would be strange for your cat to have that many allergies. There could possibly be an environmental allergen. These are much more common with cats.

Nontheless, some things you can try are adding an omega 3 supplement for the itchy skin, some probiotics for digestion, and perhaps considering raw food because it has naturally occurring enzymes that make it easier to digest.

 

[Columbine]

I don't know US brands, but I've just done a quick search on Chewy.com. Are either of these possiblities?
www.chewy.com/walk-about-grain-free-wild-kangaroo/dp/163838
www.chewy.com/hound-gatos-original-paleolithic-diet/dp/165340

Hopefully some US members will have more options/ideas for you

Crumbled Purebites treats are wonderful toppers to persuade finicky cats to eat. They'e 100% meat, and come in lots of flavours, so there are bound to be a few your boy can tolerate.

 

[LTS3]

Is a raw or home cooked diet not options? Neither has to be time consuming or expensive to make. There's a forum just for those diets here on TCS with more info.

Have you tried novel protein foods? Your favorite brands of "novel protein" canned cat food

 

[Neo_23]

What I don’t understand about the LID foods is why they always have to have a carb source? Why not just make it rabbit plus supplements? My cat can’t eat the LID foods either and I’m prerry sure it’s because of the peas.

 

[Columbine]

I don't get it either The LID diets I know of in the UK are just that - meat, vitamins and minerals!

 

[Neo_23]

I don't get it either The LID diets I know of in the UK are just that - meat, vitamins and minerals!

I’ve noticed that! We don’t have anything like that here in North America. I’m pretty sure it’s just because it’s cheaper to use peas than to use all rabbit.

 

[duckpond]

Hound & Gatos has some flavors that might work for you, unfortunately my cats did not like this brand, but mine are not so fond of pate, so yours may love it many seem to. a new food i have seen on chewy lately is walk about, they have some you might try, they also have Goat. have you tried one of the Freeze dried formulas, like primal or stella and chewy, they have some formulas that do not have the ingredients you listed. im not a fan of the peas either, gives mine some bad gas if there is many peas in the food.

 

[lisahe]

Given that it seems like a lot of things are causing Nottie's symptoms, I wonder if it might be one of thickeners or other fillers in the food: ingredients like gums, carrageenan, tapioca, and potato starch are often added to wet foods and dry foods are filled with ingredients that cats don't really need and/or can't really process efficiently. Either way, it can be hard to sort and separate out what's causing symptoms. Peas and potatoes are both terrible excuses for cat food ingredients because they're carby and can cause gas and vomiting: our cat can't eat potatoes and duckpond 's can't eat peas! They just don't belong in cat food. (That's not just me saying that: our vet said it about potatoes when I told her about Edwina's vomiting and gas!)

I remember seeing other Cat Site members mention that gums and/or carrageenan caused problems for their cats, so one approach would be to avoid all those thickeners. There aren't a lot of options in commercial canned foods: Rawz is great food (soft pate) but a bit expensive, Feline Natural (medium-texture pate) is also good but more expensive, and Koha's duck stew (slice-like chunks) is a bit cheaper but still not inexpensive. All those brands are gum-less and carageenan-free. Tiki Cat may also have foods without them; our cats don't like Tiki anymore so I haven't kept up with their ingredient changes. LTS3 's thought of homecooked food is excellent: I make cooked food for our cats using EZComplete, a supplement that's added to raw or cooked muscle meat. Our cats love it and our vet has been very happy with how they look.

duckpond also mentioned freeze-dried raw food. We feed a lot of that, it's the biggest piece of our cats' diet. They cats love it and I love that there aren't any gums or carrageenan in it. Given your cat's itching, simple is probably good again: Northwest Naturals and Stella and Chewy's have the most basic recipes (though I go light on S&C because it's very bony, which can cause constipation) but Primal's very popular with some cats. Primal has small amounts of non-carby produce, for nutrients. The food's a little inconsistent but our cats really like it (especially the pork) and it's more reasonably priced than, say, Feline Natural, which is great food that they love... but which has gotten very expensive.

LTS3 also mentioned novel proteins, which would be a slightly different route: Primal makes frozen and/or freeze-dried foods with proteins like duck, venison, and pork; and Rad Cat makes frozen raw food with venison, pork, and lamb. There are definitely options to try in canned, too, particularly from companies like Koha (our cats weren't fans of guinea fowl but, well, if it works it works!) and Hound and Gatos, a brand our cats also aren't fond of (it's also pretty thickened...). In any case, the big thing would be to choose an approach -- for example getting rid of thickeners or trying one novel protein for a few weeks -- and strictly stick with it.

Good luck!

 

[Pouncecat1]

Yes i feel your pain. My poor boy has terrible allergies and nothing has worked. We tried allergy shots and that didn't work either.

He gets frequent baths, eye drops (on almost a daily basis), predinisolone tablets as needed, and is on loratadine daily. The loratadine can't be given with Prednisolone. He gets animed ointment placed on his sores. He gets bathed with either chlorhexidine or benzyl peroxide wash (on affected areas). The chlorhexidine is safest because you can sponge it on and if he swallows some it won't hurt him. So if he needs daily bathing, I use chlorhexidine and apply it with a makeup cotton pad.

If I am giving him a full bath he gets either septiderm v shampoo or the benzyl peroxide. The Benzyl is almost too strong for him so we don't use that much. The septiderm shampoo is great stuff.

He was on pork by Hound and gatos, we switched him back to Instinct turkey but I don't think he did as well. Right now, I'm considering putting him on kangaroo...