Floor Cleaner that's safe for cats?

[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?

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.

[Karen]

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?

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

: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), :

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

[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.

[Karen]

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.

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!

[MissKit]

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.

[MissKit]

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.

[Moesha]

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

[Karen]

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

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!