Cat with allergy to his food ?

Question

I have a male orange tabby, about 9-10 yrs old.He weighs 16 lbs.

Took him to the vet today because he has been pulling out the fur in his lower belly area and upper legs on the inside.

Doctor also found a slight ear infection and some dried skin around the infected ear.

Based upon this information,He told me the cat may be allergic to his food.He suggested a perscription food that his office just happens to sell for a small fortune.

I have three other cats also .

Does anyone have any experience with their cat having allergies ?

What do you think ?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Don't buy the prescription food.  (It's Hill's Prescription Diet, right?)  For one thing, Hill's is an evil company that conducts horrific testing on animals:

http://www.uncaged.co.uk/petfood.htm

For a list of commercial pet foods that are not tested on animials, visit:

http://www.iamscruelty.com/notTested.asp

Back to Hill's Prescription Diet.  It's like Cap'n Crunch for pets in that it is extremely low quality and not the least bit nourishing in the way that food should be.  We had our dog on w/d, and the first three ingredients are:

Water

Egg Product

Ground Whole Grain Corn

Absolutely revolting!  So we recently got a homemade diet formulation for our dog from the Nutrition Clinic at the UC Davis VMTH (Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital). You don't actually need to take your pet there -- all you have to do is fax them the forms, which include information that your vet will provide about the cat's medical history--including the suspected allergies. The diet will be tailored specifically to your cat. It is $200 for the service, but if you have the means, it's well worth the expense.

I believe they also provide (and I think this service is free) simple nutrition consults, which means they advise you as to what commercial diets are available that would suit your cat.

If you're interested, you can reach them at [phone] or visit their website:

http://www.vmth.ucdavis.edu/vmth/service...

Also, check out the following online resources -- but whatever you do, don't change your cat's diet until you've cleared it with your vet:

http://www.catinfo.org/commercialcannedf...

http://www.catinfo.org/commercialcannedf...

http://www.catnutrition.org/

http://catnutrition.wordpress.com/

Answer 2

go to petco and look for the Wellness brand.

http://www.wellnesspetfood.com/

Answer 3

Go to a petstore like petco, petsmart, ect and ask about hypoallergenic foods. there are many all natural foods that are great to help with allergies. Nutro is good stuff and runs about 30 dollard per 20lb bag. its kinda spendy but totally worth it. Also if you dont wan the other cats eating it try and keep them in seperate rooms when they eat and set up feeding times so you dont get them mixing foods.

Answer 4

Hi Cammie,

The most important thing that you need to find out is what your cat is allergic to - such as what kind of food (beef, chicken, turkey, wheat, corn, soy, alfalfa etc. With this information in hand, you can easily shop for food that is void of the allergen. I am sure your vet is fast to point out that you should purchase the overpriced RX food but bear in mind that you can locate food for yourself outside of your vet's office as well.

Several studies have shown that some ingredients are more likely to cause food allergies than others. In cats, the most common offenders are fish, beef, and dairy products. As you may have noticed, the most common offenders are the most common ingredients in both cat and dog foods. This correlation is not a coincidence. While some proteins might be slightly more antigenic than others, many proteins are similar in form and the incidence of allergic reactions are probably associated with the amount of exposure.

So, demand that your vet tell you what kind of ingredient your cat is allergic to. Simple tests can be performed on your cat to get the result. As many has mentioned, you do not need RX food that put a dent in your bank account.

Answer 5

It's very possible that your cat is having allergy problems. I'd avoid whatever the vet prescribed though. I bet it's Science Diet or something crappy like that? I'd just switch to a higher quality food (no idea what you're feeding now). Maybe a grainless one.

Not all pet food is made equally. A lot of it is full of corn, by-products, dyes, unhealthy preservatives, filler grains and all sorts of nasty stuff. A lot of pet food companies are perfectly happy to dump cheap leftovers in. Will it kill your cat? No, it has to be nutritionally complete and safe to even be marketed. Is it healthy? Not by a long shot.

Corn is a low quality ingredient you never want to see in your pet food. Corn and low quality grains are two of the biggest culprits when it comes to food allergies in our pets.

Thankfully, there are some excellent cat foods being made these days that include organic, human grade ingredients rather than trash not fit for human consumption.

Examples of low quality foods to avoid: Anything you can find in a grocery store will be low end, Purina, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Royal Canin, Whiskas, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Meow Mix.

Examples of high quality foods to look for: Innova, Wellness, Solid Gold, Felidae, Fromm, Merrick, GO Natural, Nature's Variety, Nature's Logic.

Although the high quality foods are more expensive, you're getting what you're paying for. Less filler material means more concentrated nutrients... this means you typically need to feed far less of the high quality food than you would of the low quality one. Which also means less p**p!

A great option is to go with an entirely grainless diet. Diets high in grain have been attributed to problems with diabetes in cats. Cats are obligate carnivores, so why should there be grain in their diet? Many of the high quality foods now put out grainless formulas. Some good grainless diet's include: Innova EVO, Wellness CORE, Blue Wilderness, Nature's Variety Instinct, Orijen, Fromm Surf & Turf, Now!, and Sold Gold Indigo Moon.

Some of the high end foods can be found in common pet stores. Petsmart carries Blue Buffalo products (such as the excellent grain free diet Blue Wilderness). Petco carries Wellness and Solid Gold. If you can't find a food, most of the high quality food brands have websites with store locators on them.

Remember that foods should be switched gradually, especially when switching to a higher quality one, so as not to upset tummies.

Another option for feeding cats is to feed raw. This is something that should be thoroughly researched before being attempted:

http://www.barfworld.com/

http://www.rawfedcats.org/

http://www.rawfed.com/

http://www.wysong.net/controversies/rawm...

Now the question is, do you feed wet or dry? Wet is the correct answer. The reason is, in the wild, cats normally get most of their water content directly from their prey items and drink very little. Domestic cats are no different, and because of the fact that they are designed to take in water with their meal, they have a very low thirst drive. Cats often just don't drink enough. This leads to urinary tract infections and crystals. The bit about dry food being better for teeth is a myth and has not been proven in the least. Canned/wet food is better because it more closely mimics the cat's natural diet. More on why canned food is best:

http://www.catinfo.org/  (Excellent cat nutrition information by a vet)

http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/canne...

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?ac...

Another option to get cats to drink more would be a cat fountain. Cats tend to like to drink from running water and cat fountains see to that need, encouraging cats to take in more water.

More:

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_... (Dog food reviews. It's for dogs, but most of the high quality brands also put out excellent cat foods. Anything with five or six stars is a great food.)

Answer 6

I am guessing that you're feeding him dry?  If so, then that probably is the cause of his itching.  A great many cats are very sensitive to corn, which is the main or at least *a* main ingredient in most dry foods.  One of my own cats is very allergic to foods with corn, but his problem is tummy upsets.  Try finding him a food with no corn, and no chemical preservatives or dyes.  You'll need to go to the pet store to find one, but you'll have plenty to select from there in all price ranges.  It may take a couple of weeks to see a difference, but it just might help.  Incidently, that diet the vet sells is probably Hills?  It's got lots of corn in it.

Another thing you might want to try - one of my cats does fur pulling also.  She happens to have a mite allergy.  Her fur pulling is kept under control by using Revolution.  Advantage and Frontline only kill fleas, but Revolution gets the mites (which cannot be seen with the naked eye).  It's worth a try with him, and sure won't hurt him.