cat has allergies?

[MyCatPaulie]

This is the wellness he's eating
Wellness Salmon, Salmon Meal & Deboned Turkey Dry
Salmon, Salmon Meal, Whitefish Meal, Rice, Ground Barley, Ground Rice, Chicken Fat (preserved with Mixed Tocopherols, a natural source of Vitamin E), Deboned Turkey, NatUral Chicken Flavor, NatUral Fish Flavor, Cranberries, Olive Oil, Chicory Root Extract, Cranberry Extract Powder, Cranberry Fiber, Flaxseed, Potassium Chloride, Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), Thiamine Mononitrate, Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Beta-Carotene, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D-3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Biotin, Vitamin B-12 Supplement), Choline Chloride, Minerals (Zinc Proteinate, Zinc Sulfate, Iron Proteinate, Ferrous Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Copper Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Manganese Sulfate, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), Yucca Schidigera Extract, Dried Kelp, Glucosamine Hydrochloride, Chondroitin Sulfate, Lactobacillus Plantarum, Enterococcus Faecium, lactobacillus Casei, lactobacillus Acidophilus, Taurine, Rosemary Extract

It's so hard to know what to do because he's not itching while eating this food but his stools aren't healthy at all, would I have seen an improvement in his stools by now, he's been on Met since Monday. But also his stools were soft while eating Z/D and the vet said the natural balance green pea and duck he was on was too rich for him so I don't know if I should just go back to Nutro. Do you know anything about how fast allergies can pop up? When we got him July last year he was 2 and he wasn't itching much and his stools were healthy, that's when we were feeding him Nutro dry then in late fall we started adding Nutro wet food into her diet but also our furnace was turned on and that's when he started itching bad and breaking out. My vet said because his breakouts were on his neck and chest it's a food allergy but he could also have an inhaled one. Could he have not been allergic to Nutro dry food or do you think his allergy just popped up after he was eating that food for 3 months? I don't know what to do because since he's not itching right now I don't know if I should keep the dermotologist app or wait to see if he starts breaking out once the furnace is turned on again. Thanks for your help and suggestions.

[krazyaboutkatz]

Since this food does contain grains I'm suprised that his stools are soft. I was thinking that he was on a grain free diet and some cats will have have stools while their systems adjust. I've just started feeding my cats Wellness Core dry which is grain free and some of the Wellness grain free canned foods that they make. I did notice that my girl Pearl was having some soft stools but she always does at first so I'm not worried about it. They also eat some of the grain free canned food that they were eating before. I decided to switch because they just weren't doing as well on the Natural Balance and it has too many carbs in it for my liking.

My kittens are still eating a mixture of Natural Balance Green Pea & Chicken and Wellness Core and they'll be on this mixture for a while because I want to wean them off of the Natural Balance more slowly since their digestive systems aren't mature yet.

If I was you I'd just stick with the Wellness for now. Paulie hasn't been on the medicine for very long and it'll take time for his digestive system to adjust. If you keep switching foods then his system will never adjust and you'll never know what's working for him. Just try to be patient and try not to panic. I would still keep the dermatologist appointment just to be on the safe side. Good luck.

[MyCatPaulie]

I'm glad you're cats are switching off NB since they aren't doing good on it. I will let you know what they tell me at my app, I'm nervous about going but my mom is going with me so that should help. Thanks so much again for your help!!!

[krazyaboutkatz]

I'm glad you're cats are switching off NB since they aren't doing good on it. I will let you know what they tell me at my app, I'm nervous about going but my mom is going with me so that should help. Thanks so much again for your help!!!

You're welcome. I hope that everything will go well at Paulie's appointment.

[MyCatPaulie]

Just had a quick update, my vet said I should have seen some improvment in her stools by now and she wants me to switch her food to royal canin green pea and rabbit but i think i'm going to wait until i see the dermotologist to see what she thinks. i'm just worried that her soft stools are from a different problem. I will let you know how it goes. Here is what I'm going to tell the dermotologist does that sound ok?
By doing different food trials and observing when she itches most, to us it seems like her allergy is either an inhaled allergy to something that only flares up when on furnace is turned on, to chicken if it's one of the first few ingredients in canned food or to something in canned food all together.

She's been eating wellness dry since August 21 and not itching bad or breaking out because she is doing so good right now our plan was to keep her on this food until our furnace is turned on to see if see has a flare up but the problem is our vet wants us to change her food to Royal Canin's green pea and rabbit because she's been having soft stool but we're worried about this because she tired Natural Balances green pea and duck and that was too rich for her also we're wondering if there could be a different problem causing her soft stools because she had them when she was on Z/D too and they looked healthy for a while until she had a stool with a piece of hair in it and now she's also urinating more and her urine has a redish brown color to it, we tested her for an infection and it came back negative but is there any blood test or anything we should do before switching her food incase there's an underling problem. I also did read that sometimes natural foods are just too rich for some cats so I didn't know if we should go back to a dry food that isn't too rich.

Here is some background information...

When we got her from the SPCA last June, her papers said she had thinning hair on her trail probably due to an old flea allergy but she wasn't itching or breaking out yet.

We were feeding her Nutro dry food exclusively she was on that for about four months and doing great but then two things changed our forced air furnace was turned on and we started adding Nutro canned food into her diet. In November is when her itching got really bad and she started breaking out in little scabs on her neck and chest, because she only had breakouts on the front part of her body is why our vet thinks it's a food allergy.

We tried switching her food to Natural balance dry and wet food with no grains but that didn't help.

Then in March we started feeing her the Natural Balance green pea and duck soon after she started that she had to go to the emergency vet because she had a block, a vet there said that food was probably too rich for her and her stomach always did look puffy while she was eating it.

Then we did a food trial with Z/D from May until August, she threw up a lot while eating this and her stools were soft then too. When she was eating this her itching was about the same as it was the summer before when she was eating dry food only and our furnace wasn't on.

Now she's been eating Wellness since 8/21. This does have chicken fat and chicken flavor in it but it's down on the list.

Since she was having soft stools we just finished a five day trial of metronidazole last Friday but that didn't help. We couldn't get her to keep the pill down so we had to give it to her in a pill picket and roll it in canned food.

We want to use the least amount of medicine as possible.
If we find out it's just an inhaled allergy and it gets as bad as it did last year is there a safe medicine that she could go on from November to April every year because the other six months of the year when we can have the windows open she's not bad at all.
We don't want to use Depo-Medrol because I read it can send a cat into congestive heart failure very quickly!



Things we have tried to stop her itching...

Prednisolone 5 mg January-May (this only helped when we gave her 1/2 a pill every other day but we didn't want her on it for any longer than what she was on because it can cause problems down the road)

Steroid shot (helped the best but only for one month)

Started using hypoallergenic kitty litter

Feilway diffuser

[krazyaboutkatz]

Paulie sure has been through a lot. When she was on the pred did it help her at all? My cat Starr had severe diarrhea and it turned out that he had IBD/Colitis so he had to be on pred for the rest of his short life. Unfortunately it made him very overweight and in the end he wasn't able to do much except sleep. It did finally control his diarrhea though but it also made him kind of constipated too.

My current cat Storm who will be 15 in Januray, is also on pred daily because he has another form of IBD. He has small intestional disease and this caused him to vomit daily. He's doing great but he's a large cat and is on 2.5mg of pred every day. Starr was a very small cat and the pred caused him to drink a lot of water and to puff up.

Many vets like to prescibe pred for allergies and IBD. I also prefer to go the more natural route but sometimes nothing else will work. Hopefully Paulie doesn't have IBD or anything more serious. I also hope that the dermatologist will be able to help Paulie.

[MyCatPaulie]

I'm so sorry about Starr . I'm worried that Paulie has somthing more than just the food causing his problems, do you know the symptoms of IBD or how they dignose it? He was on Pred for his itching and it only really helped on the highest dose of 5mg. I think his stools looked better than but I'm not positive. thank you so much for your help!

[krazyaboutkatz]

Thanks. Starr had Eosinophilic IBD and my vet did a biopsy on Starr. At first I was afraid he had cancer. Here's a link that tells all about IBD in cats:http://www.peteducation.com/article....1+2122&aid=304. I wouldn't worry that Paulie has this just yet. It still could be the food that he's on.

[MyCatPaulie]

poor starr since you were her mommy I'm sure she lives a loved life even though it was short. I really hope it's the food that is cauing Paulie's problems. I am trying to find a food that isn't too rich where fish is the main ingredeint because the wellness he is on now is fish based but most of the food is buy in the pet stores have chicken listed as the first ingrdient . Thanks again for your help!

[MyCatPaulie]

I just got a call from the vet his blood test were good except for one little thing with his liver that wasn't a big deal. I am taking him now to do somthing where they take a fecal sample and then a swab, I don't really know what it is but they said it is the next step in figure out what's wrong. Then if that comes back negative we would do an ultrasound, does anyone know if the unltrasound would be able to tell her he has IBS? I heard raw diets can be good for cats with IBS but I'm not really sure what a raw diet means, it would have to be somthing chicken free and corn free because those are possible allergies for Paulie.