Floor Cleaner that's safe for cats?

My cat has an allergy to something. Her mouth gets irritated and inflamed. We've taken her to the vet and they just said it's an allergy to something and it might just always be there. Unless it gets infected or very large, we don't need to worry as it doesn't seem to bother her. They told us to feed her in stainless steel bowls and to clean them every night. Didn't help.

I think I've figured it out though. Sometimes she likes to eat her food off the floor. She'll use her paw to spill out a drop of food, and she'll eat it off the floor. She also likes to flick her water out of the bowl with her paws and make a mess on the floor as well. I don't think she licks the water off the floor though. Just likes to play in it.

I'm wondering if the fact she eats off the floor sometimes (not always) is causing these sores. I don't clean the floor every day under her food, but I'm thinking I need to start.

What would the best product be to clean with and kill any bacteria? I don't want any chemicals to give her a reaction either.

Would vinegar be something safe? Or maybe that would not smell good to her and she wouldn't eat?

(ETA: I'm sorry I posted this in the wrong place I think)

White vinegar is a good cleaner, I'd clean the floor around her bowl every day, just spray with vinegar and water, wipe it off, then with just water.

I doubt it s your floor cleaner, though. What food does she eat?


I am a human who is allergic to most cleaners, myself!

And no problem, I moved it to Cat Health for you!

It's the only thing we can think of. She's eating Purina One food right now. And Iams wet food (which they ate at the shelter and is pretty much the only wet she'll eat). We thought it was from the plastic bowls we had before. The vet suggested to change them to stainless steel but it hasn't helped. Which made me think maybe I wasn't doing a good job of cleaning the floors.

She's been on this food for 8 months now and she just started having this problem about a month ago. She's 11 months old. Can an allergy come out of no where like that? Or is there something we're doing differently in the last month that could have caused this?

We WILL be changing the food soon though as she will be needing the adult food. We will be starting to switch her this week.

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Originally Posted by MissKit

It's the only thing we can think of. She's eating Purina One food right now. And Iams wet food (which they ate at the shelter and is pretty much the only wet she'll eat). We thought it was from the plastic bowls we had before. The vet suggested to change them to stainless steel but it hasn't helped. Which made me think maybe I wasn't doing a good job of cleaning the floors.

She's been on this food for 8 months now and she just started having this problem about a month ago. She's 11 months old. Can an allergy come out of no where like that? Or is there something we're doing differently in the last month that could have caused this?

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Sadly, allergies CAN come out of nowhere. I can attest to that, from personal experience!

Purina One has many different kinds, I would look for a grain-free food, or a simple lamb and rice one, and try transitioning her onto that to see if it goes away.

Cats do not NEED grain - corn is often the cause for a cat's allergies, or wheat, and when I looked at the Ingredient list for Purina One Inddor only, it said

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:Turkey, brewers rice, corn gluten meal, poultry by-product meal, soy flour, whole grain corn, fish meal, dried yeast, powdered cellulose, soy protein isolate, animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of Vitamin E), :

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most of which is not good for cats to ingest! The turkey is fine, but everything else is an immediate red flag!

If it is indeed the food, and I changed the food to a better, higher quality kind, how long do you think it would take for the allergy to clear up? I have two cats, so after the first bag is finished, should I see results?

The prices of the "better" cat foods are like, 3X what I pay now. I would only stick to it if it got rid of her allergy.

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Originally Posted by MissKit

If it is indeed the food, and I changed the food to a better, higher quality kind, how long do you think it would take for the allergy to clear up? I have two cats, so after the first bag is finished, should I see results?

The prices of the "better" cat foods are like, 3X what I pay now. I would only stick to it if it got rid of her allergy.

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It will take a couple weeks, most likely. Look around and read ingredient lists, and the good thing is, with a better quality food, you end up needing to feed less, so it often is not much more expensive in the long run. Their bodies cannot digest all that grain anyway, so they need more to get the "good stuff" in them!

I've read they eat less of the more expensive stuff, but I can't see it lasting three times as long to balance out the cost. I have two cats and I feel like they don't eat a lot now. A little less than half a cup of food each a day. And then I feed some wet 1-2 times a day, but not a lot at once.

I'm not complaining about the cost, exactly, but I don't feel the need to spend more if it turns out the food they're eating now is fine. When we took her to the vet for her mouth, the vet couldn't believe how soft and shiny she was. She asked what we fed her because her coat was so healthy looking. I like what I feed them now, but if changing it will heal her sores then I will do it.

What food would you suggest? Ingredients aside, how important is protein content?

Looking at Wellness Indoor Health, the crude protein content is less than 30%. Comparing to Purnina One Indoor Hairball and Weight Control (which is probably what I would switch to had this allergy not occured) has 38%. Fat is higher in Wellness at 13% and Purina has 8.5%.

Blue Buffalo is higher with the protein at 34% but super high in fat at 18%. I also feel like they're biased as I did the "True Blue Test" against the Purina One and it said that Purina One doesn't have real meat as the first ingredient - which it does. So that tells me I can't believe the results. But I know it's grain free, so it has that going for it.

You could try a floor steamer. It just uses hot water to clean and kills bacteria at the same time.

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Originally Posted by MissKit

What food would you suggest? Ingredients aside, how important is protein content?

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Cats are obligate carnivores, in the wild they eat almost exclusively meat. Good, digestible protein - that you recognize - for example "chicken" instead of "chicken meal" or chicken byproducts" is important. Are you wanting a wet food or a dry food?

Here's a good explanation: http://feline-nutrition.org/answers/...ate-carnivoreq

And I may be able to ask the vets on a radio show I do on Thursday. I know one of them would recommend cooking for your cats right now, at least until you figure out what's causing the itchiness!

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Ingredients aside, how important is protein content?

Looking at Wellness Indoor Health, the crude protein content is less than 30%. Comparing to Purnina One Indoor Hairball and Weight Control (which is probably what I would switch to had this allergy not occured) has 38%. Fat is higher in Wellness at 13% and Purina has 8.5%.

Blue Buffalo is higher with the protein at 34% but super high in fat at 18%. I also feel like they're biased as I did the "True Blue Test" against the Purina One and it said that Purina One doesn't have real meat as the first ingredient - which it does. So that tells me I can't believe the results. But I know it's grain free, so it has that going for it.

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So I asked the vet, and she said the best protein content would be 100%. That rules out most dry food, because they put all that carbohydrate in so it will last a long time on the shelf, but cats need absolutely NONE of that, so essentially, you are paying for a high percentage stuff that at best, will just pass through, at worst, can cause allergic reactions, and make a kitty sick.

So wet food with very high protein would be best, other than cooking for your kitty of course.

Do not think, by the way, that cats "need" dry food to keep their teeth clean. Lots of people believe this, but in fact, the opposite is true. The carbohydrates in dry food are what stick to cats' teeth and cause problems.

Thank you Karen for all your help! I wanted to post a bit of an update here since it's been a couple of weeks.

I decided to try cleaning the floor first, before going out to buy new food. I have two big bags of cat food to go through yet, so it felt wasteful to get rid of it - especially if it wasn't the food that was the problem. I couldn't quite rule out the floor just yet. The vet had told us that the plastic of her old dishes could be the cause, so why would our plastic-y linoleum/whatever kind of floor be any different?

I've started cleaning the floors every single night with vinegar and water. It's been about 2 weeks I suppose, and it's like magic. Her mouth is 100% fine now. We were away on the weekend so there was about 3 days that I wasn't able to clean the floors for her and I noticed a tiny bit of swelling on the side of her mouth on Monday but it seemed to have disappeared yesterday.

I'm still going to keep an eye on it, but I think the problem may be solved.

Good to hear you found a solution - and vinegar you can buy a big bottle cheap! :)

What a wonderful solution to the problem! Well done!

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