What would you do in my situation??
As some may know, my cat Grimalkin has been losing fur on his tummy and legs, presumably from over-grooming.
Well, so I got him to the vet today and he thinks it's allergies.
He was going to put him on prednisone, but then I reminded him that Grim is FIV+. Since I couldn't remember if Grim had been officially tested for FIV, he did another test. Grim came up as not only being FIV+, but also being immune suppressed, so no prednisone allowed.
So we talked a lot about allergies, and what we can do, and he thinks the first step is to see if it's a food allergy. So of course, out comes the z/d. While he was out of the room, I looked at the book he brought out on skin conditions, and I saw a hypoallergenic food that looked much more promising than the others: Iams Eukanuba Veterinary Diets Response Formula LB, which not only comes in canned, but the first ingredient isn't a veggie or by-product like the others. I asked him if I could try this one instead. He said he wasn't sure since they don't carry it, and they know that the Hills works; he said we wanted to use the hydrolyzed proteins. So then I asked him if I could use the wet version then. He seemed hesitant, but said that would be fine. (Wet isn't hydrolyzed though...) They were out of it, so they would have to order, but the price really scares me. $54 for 24 cans. >___<
Okay, now before I give my options, here is some random info and good things from today:
Firstly Grim has no ear infections!
His ears are as clean as a whistle. The vet thinks the itchiness and head shaking is just another symptom of allergies.
The vet was Highly surprised at how well Grim has been losing weight.
He wanted to know exactly what I was feeding and commented 'well, whatever you are doing, it's working.' (Although he was so surprised he was skeptical and thought it might be a symptom of something. But after he saw Grim's bloodwork from March, he decided it wasn't.)
Somewhere in between talking about how he may be allergic to what I'm feeding him, he mentioned that other patients there feed 'home-made diets'!!!
The new diet has to be implemented for 90 days in order to know if it is effective.
SO... if you were in my situation, what would you do:
A. Get rid of the new food (Blue Buffalo) and new litter that I introduced this month (because there was no over-grooming before then) and keep an eye out for improvement.
B. Chose a non-prescription diet like Natural Balance LID (since not only were LID diets in the vet book, but also the canned he approved wasn't hydrolyzed anyways)
C. Find a vet that will prescribe the Iams LB and use that since it was in the veterinary book
D. Buy the HILLS d/d canned either from PFD or my vet
E. Bite the bullet and buy the dry Hills z/d originally prescribed
As some may know, my cat Grimalkin has been losing fur on his tummy and legs, presumably from over-grooming.
Well, so I got him to the vet today and he thinks it's allergies.
He was going to put him on prednisone, but then I reminded him that Grim is FIV+. Since I couldn't remember if Grim had been officially tested for FIV, he did another test. Grim came up as not only being FIV+, but also being immune suppressed, so no prednisone allowed.
So we talked a lot about allergies, and what we can do, and he thinks the first step is to see if it's a food allergy. So of course, out comes the z/d. While he was out of the room, I looked at the book he brought out on skin conditions, and I saw a hypoallergenic food that looked much more promising than the others: Iams Eukanuba Veterinary Diets Response Formula LB, which not only comes in canned, but the first ingredient isn't a veggie or by-product like the others. I asked him if I could try this one instead. He said he wasn't sure since they don't carry it, and they know that the Hills works; he said we wanted to use the hydrolyzed proteins. So then I asked him if I could use the wet version then. He seemed hesitant, but said that would be fine. (Wet isn't hydrolyzed though...) They were out of it, so they would have to order, but the price really scares me. $54 for 24 cans. >___<
Okay, now before I give my options, here is some random info and good things from today:
Firstly Grim has no ear infections!
The vet was Highly surprised at how well Grim has been losing weight.
Somewhere in between talking about how he may be allergic to what I'm feeding him, he mentioned that other patients there feed 'home-made diets'!!!
The new diet has to be implemented for 90 days in order to know if it is effective.
SO... if you were in my situation, what would you do:
A. Get rid of the new food (Blue Buffalo) and new litter that I introduced this month (because there was no over-grooming before then) and keep an eye out for improvement.
B. Chose a non-prescription diet like Natural Balance LID (since not only were LID diets in the vet book, but also the canned he approved wasn't hydrolyzed anyways)
C. Find a vet that will prescribe the Iams LB and use that since it was in the veterinary book
D. Buy the HILLS d/d canned either from PFD or my vet
E. Bite the bullet and buy the dry Hills z/d originally prescribed