Best rotation to prevent food allergies

[denice]

I am almost at the point of giving up on commercial food.  I got some dried pork liver and I already have the alnutrin.  I still have quite a few cans of commercial food left to use while I try to get them onto a home cooked diet.  I'm not going to try the raw diet, I know a lot of people have had great success with it especially with IBD kitties.  I'm just a little leery of coupling it with a steroid.

One of my kitties, not the IBD one let me know really quick that pheasant didn't agree with her.  I don't know if it's as rich as duck but I don't think any of it stayed down.

 

[goholistic]

Yeh, I hear you. The only reason I'm not offering home-cooked exclusively is because I don't fully trust that it is perfectly balanced. I don't always follow the Balance It recipes exact, which is fine when it makes up only a portion of Sebastian's meals, but I wouldn't be able to do this if fed home-cooked exclusively.

I went to another store and bought a few cans of the NV LID Duck with a different expiration date. No flaxseed in those. He seemed a little better last night. Still keeping an eye on his ear.

 

[goholistic]

At the time of my last post, the ear thing was a false alarm and he's been doing okay the last week and a half on duck. However, last night, he started to develop new rashes in the same ear after it being clear for awhile.

This was taken just today.

IMAG0734.jpg

• goholistic
• May 17, 2014

One of two things has happened.

1. When a dime-sized amount of Caesar's food fell out of his bowl, Sebastian ran over and ate it. I wasn't able to catch him in time. It was the Blue Buffalo Wilderness Turkey, which has guar gum in it and is what Sebastian reacted to in April (see post # 25 in this thread). This was Thursday night or Friday morning. Could such a small amount of an allergen cause a reaction like this? Is it the same way in humans with food allergies?

or

2. Sebastian is allergic to duck. If he was allergic to duck, however, I would have thought the reaction would have creeped up much sooner.

Now I basically have to hover over the cats when they are eating so that Sebastian doesn't get one crumb of someone else's food. Only time will tell if the rash goes away (meaning he reacted to such a tiny amount of guar gum) or if the rash gets worse (meaning its the duck).

 

[red top rescue]

I am so glad to find this thread because we recently took in two 6-year-old Manx cats who had ear rashes and all kinds of old ear things, they are children of divorce, couple separated, turned cats in to a vet, vet contacted us, we took them -- I put them in Petco and am feeding them mostly grain free Spot's Stew just because we feed that at Petco, and their ears cleared up!  I had no experience with food allergies showing up in ears so this is going to be very helpful.  Someone is interested in adopting them and I'm going over there right now.  One ha a cauliflower ear and the other has a 3rd eyelid that is partially up and now I suspect that all may be a result of food allergies.  Thanks so much!

 

[denice]

Food allergies show up in kitty's ears a lot.  That was how I knew Patches had developed a chicken allergy.  He didn't get a rash but he had gunk in his ears and was scratching his ears.  The vet looked at the stuff from his ears and it had yeast in it.  The first thing she said was secondary food allergy.  I quit feeding him chicken and no more issues with his ears.

 

[goholistic]

Most, if not all, arrows seem to point to guar gum as the cause of Sebastian's ear rashes, which show up on the upper part of the inner flap only...not further down towards the canal. I suppose the cause could be different among cats. It's finding out what it is that is tricky! My stumbling upon guar gum as the culprit was by accident.

Boo, on the other hand, recently had food-allergy type symptoms and he did have the tan/brown gunk in his ears that he was scratching at a lot, and this was further down in his ear towards the canal...not the flap.

I find it so intriguing how their bodies react.

 

[denice]

Guar gum is in a lot of the commercial foods.  I think a lot of companies, especially the ones with better foods, use it instead of the carrageenan.

 

[abbyntim]

 
Now I basically have to hover over the cats when they are eating so that Sebastian doesn't get one crumb of someone else's food. Only time will tell if the rash goes away (meaning he reacted to such a tiny amount of guar gum) or if the rash gets worse (meaning its the duck).

Ugh, so sorry about this rash. And ugh on the hovering. In our house, Tim is the sensitive one and the greedy one. It's for this reason that I feed them the same food. Hope the rash is clearing away.

 

[raintyger]

 
Now I basically have to hover over the cats when they are eating so that Sebastian doesn't get one crumb of someone else's food. Only time will tell if the rash goes away (meaning he reacted to such a tiny amount of guar gum) or if the rash gets worse (meaning its the duck).

There's not an extra room to feed Sebastian in alone? Not only would it be more convenient for you, but the boys might feel a bit self conscious if they know they're being watched.

 

[goholistic]

The rash is disappearing! Almost gone, in fact. Which means it's not the duck (whew!), but it was the small dime-sized amount of Caesar's food that he snagged off the floor, which had guar gum in it. Sheesh...such a small amount and his ear broke out like that. Crazy!

 
There's not an extra room to feed Sebastian in alone? Not only would it be more convenient for you, but the boys might feel a bit self conscious if they know they're being watched.

Thanks for the suggestion! Actually, my cats are weird. They don't mind that I hover. They get stressed if I leave the area where they eat. They'll stop eating and follow me. I think this originates from me spending a lot of time in the kitchen/dining area last year when Sebastian was really sick. I would sit with him and encourage him to eat. I think everyone got used to that and now they feel safe when I'm nearby while they eat. I just have to keep peeking over more frequently lately to make sure Sebastian doesn't wander to a bowl that's not his.

 

[abbyntim]

 
The rash is disappearing! Almost gone, in fact. Which means it's not the duck (whew!), but it was the small dime-sized amount of Caesar's food that he snagged off the floor, which had guar gum in it. Sheesh...such a small amount and his ear broke out like that. Crazy!

Great to hear the rash is almost gone! He sure is sensitive! Do you think eliminating all guar gum has heightened his sensitivity to even tiny amounts?

 

[amyrose]

I don't feed mine pork or beef or any wild game. I've read and heard many times that pork and beef is not good for pets.  Mine have a daily rotation of duck, chicken and oceanfish, occasionally I cook them chicken with egg and rice broth or chicken liver.  I like lamb but I've read a few of my favourite brands use rabbit from China so I avoid that too.

A good way to prevent allergies is to avoid cat foods with grains and wheat, as well as a few nasties like Menadione or Dicalcium Phosphate, to name a few! I used to give my cats sardines and tuna occasionally as well but the high salt content was a problem and my eldest boy kept having these odd "drunken" episodes. Since stopping the heavy canned fish meals, he no longer has them. 

I know it's a lot of reading but when choosing a pet food, I will sieve through the ingredients list and use both Google and this website as a source: 

http://www.naturalnews.com/Report_pet_food_ingredients_2.html

http://www.thedogpress.com/dogfood/ingredients_liquorman.asp

This page is for dogs but if the ingredient is poor quality, you might not want to feed it to your kitties either.

http://www.thedogplace.org/NUTRITION/INDEX.asp

 

[goholistic]

Great to hear the rash is almost gone! He sure is sensitive! Do you think eliminating all guar gum has heightened his sensitivity to even tiny amounts?

I'm really not sure. 

 

[goholistic]

We've cycled through the entire protein rotation schedule. All-in-all, it went very well. We're back at rabbit, which Sebastian has been getting for the past week and a half with no issues. 

Here's a recap of his no guar gum, single protein canned and home-cooked "menu":

RABBIT (3 WEEKS)

Canned: Royal Canin Selected Protein PR (pea and rabbit)

Home-Cooked: boneless ground rabbit from Hare Today

Treat: TBD

PORK (3 WEEKS)

Canned: Nature's Variety Instinct Pork Formula and Lotus Just Juicy Pork Stew

Home-Cooked: boneless white meat pork chops

Treat: Orijen Freeze Dried Alberta Wild Boar Treats

TURKEY (3 WEEKS)

Canned: Nature's Variety Instinct Limited Ingredient Turkey Formula and Lotus Just Juicy Turkey Stew

Home-Cooked: boneless turkey thighs

Treat: PureBites Freeze Dried Turkey Breast Treats

BEEF (3 WEEKS)

Canned: Weruva Steak Frites

Home-Cooked: chunk tender steak or similar lean cut

Treat: Orijen Freeze Dried Black Angus Beef Treats and/or PureBites Freeze Dried Beef Liver Treats

DUCK (3 WEEKS)

Canned: Nature's Variety Instinct Limited Ingredient Duck Formula

Home-Cooked: boneless ground duck from Hare Today (will try to source fresh duck the next go-around)

Treat: Orijen Freeze Dried Free-Run Duck Treats and/or PureBites Freeze Dried Duck Liver Treats

Home-cooked is supplemented with Balance It. Sebastian's favorite proteins are pork and beef, followed closely by duck. The rabbit and turkey are his least favorite.

Ta-da! 

 

 

[abbyntim]

So glad to read Sebastian is doing well with this rotation! Interesting he likes the big animals best.

And here is a suggestion for rabbit treats: http://www.heartypet.com/p-2842-hare-of-the-dog-rabbit-treats-for-cats.aspx or http://www.hareofthedog.com/aboutus.html. My pet store gave me a sample, though I haven't tried it yet. I want to make sure things are functioning as they should with Tim before I give him jerky. I've also given Nature's Variety freeze-dried raw rabbit meal or mixer.

 

[goholistic]

 
So glad to read Sebastian is doing well with this rotation! Interesting he likes the big animals best.

And here is a suggestion for rabbit treats: http://www.heartypet.com/p-2842-hare-of-the-dog-rabbit-treats-for-cats.aspx or http://www.hareofthedog.com/aboutus.html. My pet store gave me a sample, though I haven't tried it yet. I want to make sure things are functioning as they should with Tim before I give him jerky. I've also given Nature's Variety freeze-dried raw rabbit meal or mixer.

Thanks!  You know, I remember seeing those rabbit jerky treats in a local pet store. I didn't get them at the time because we weren't on rabbit and now that we're on rabbit, they are out of stock on the rabbit jerky. Figures. 

 

[goholistic]

I've hit a little hiccup in the food rotation. We're back on pork. The last time Sebastian was eating the Nature's Variety Pork Formula, I thought I noticed that it made him itchy. It was hard to say at the time because the rotation was so new. Well now that we're giving the NV Pork another try, I have noticed he has become itchy again. This is the only food so far that gives him this reaction, and I wonder if it's because it has more "stuff" in it than the other limited ingredient foods he gets. I had previously suspected that it might be from the flaxseed or kelp. His left ear flap also broke out again. 

  For now, I'm stopping the NV Pork and will feed him the Lotus Just Juicy Pork Stew along with home-cooked pork chops. The Lotus Pork is fairly limited in ingredients, so I hope I see improvement. 

On a side note, he's also acting a little off and not as enthusiastic about the pork as he was the last time. I hope I didn't set something off by feeding him the NV Pork again, which seems to be aggravating him in some way.

 

[abbyntim]

Sorry to hear about the NVI pork. It's so hard, when cats are so sensitive. I hate that I am feeding Tim such a limited diet, but feel I have no choice right now.

BTW, both of my cats love the Lotus Just Juicy pork. I give a bit of this to both late at night before bed, as a treat. I'm trying to keep Tim's food very consistent now for the next month or so, but feel a small amount of this is fairly safe as it is limited ingredient and he's already eating pork in the NVI rabbit formula.

Hope Sebastian becomes more enthusiastic about pork once he feels better!

 

[goholistic]

Thanks. I do think the NVI Pork makes him itchy, but now that I look back, I think the rash in his ear was caused by something that happened on June 14. I had totally forgotten about this. I left Caesar's food on the kitchen counter. Knowing that Sebastian would try to jump up there and try to get to it, I covered it with a heavy stoneware plate because I was going to try to offer it to Caesar again in a few minutes. I went upstairs, did a few things, and came back downstairs. The plate was pushed off Caesar's bowl and the food was 90% gone. I didn't see who did it. I don't have any witnesses. I really didn't think Sebastian would be able push the plate off. 48-72 hours later his ear breaks out worse than ever. I know from past experience that it can take two weeks or more for the ear to get better, so it's a waiting game. For now, I'm continuing with the Lotus Just Juicy Pork. I bought a case online and it is to arrive tomorrow. He really likes it, too, but he still seems a little off. Of course, it doesn't help when there's construction going on right outside again and stresses him out! 

 

[abbyntim]

Of course, no one ever confesses to anything like that. I've had things like that happen and just this morning was lucky enough to catch the cat in action. Luckily, it was Abby and she was eating food meant for Abby. If Tim had gotten it, who knows ...

I really want to get camera traps and place them strategically around the house, like aimed at the food-prep counter and the litter boxes, so I can see who does what and when.

I can totally relate to construction next door. That's happening to us now, of course when we're nearly through Tim's cisapride weaning. And of course the construction is on the side of the house that our home office is on, which is where the litter boxes are located. As if Tim needs a reason to avoid going to the box ...