Food Allergies and Asthma?

[cessena]

My cat Apollo has food allergies - after some experimentation we've found a dry food that seems to work for him. (He's OBSESSED with dry food.) But starting around October he's also developed regular wheezing/coughing and sneezing that our vet says is asthma - which looks like it is also caused by allergies.

The vet is reluctant to start him on steroids since he's only 4, and i agree. But he's starting to be a little less active and I'm concerned it's really taking a toll on him. I've reached out to my vet for a referral to an allergy specialist for him. But I'd also thought I'd check here and see if people have any other suggestions.

I'm going to try switching him back to predominantly wet food which he seems to tolerate better, but he doesn't love the Nature's instinct turkey (he does ok with ther dry food but now I'm seeing that the timng of his asthma coincided with when I started feeding him that) . Any suggestions for LID or other brands to try?

I'm also running my air purifier more frequently and I'm going to try switching back to the "pretty litter' I was using in most of the litterboxes. (My other cat doesn't love it which is a problem - but i'll try anything, he's such a wonderful sweet boy and I hate seeing him cough and wheeze and i know it's dangerous.)

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi!

Would a non-steroidal inhaler be an option, or useful, for him, like albuterol?

My other cat doesn't love it which is a problem

Can you mix products, or have a couple boxes of the one type and a couple others of the other type of litter to try and keep your no-pretty-litter cat from rebelling? For example, in the past I've mixed clumping clay litter with Littermaid's Walnut litter which oddly enough cut down on the dust, (although this one I'm using now, Tidy Cats lightweight Free and Clean is pretty much dust free).

Any suggestions for LID or other brands to try?

One or both of these may be helpful for you;
Check This Out.... Chart For Cat Food Ingredients

CatFoodDB - Cat Food Reviews to help you find the best cat food for your cat

 

[cessena]

I'm currently using Dr. Elsey's outdoors themed litter, which they both seem to love, but i think it might have more allergen type things in it. I was just looking it up and I see that they do a respiratory type, so i might try that and see if it helps if I mix it with the stuff they like!

And thank you so much I'll make use of those charts!

 

[Katdog]

They say chicken, fish, beef and milk are the top allergy culprits. If it’s a food allergies I’d start with avoiding those four. And go from there. You say food allergies but you don’t specify...are you 100% it’s not in his food? It could be an environmental allergy and those are harder to deal, also more rare I heard. My vet thought my cat had asthma but it was food allergies- thank goodness. it is possible to have more than one protein food allergy

 

[Katdog]

Oh also, my cat has a chicken allergy and we avoid turkey for her as well, bc just seem too similar. I could test it to be 109% but why ruffle feathers when what I’m doing already works. We feed her turkey and chicken previously when we were in the thick of trying to figure out wtf was wrong with her. Then We switched to feeding her basic instinct rabbit dry kibble when all this realize. since then we’ve switched to ziwi peaks lamb air dried and lamb and rabbit wet food. I found soulistic duck wet food which is much more economical as another alternative, but haven’t actually tried it yet.

 

[cessena]

Yeah - he definitely has food allergies. If he gets into treats or his sister's food he scratches his ears up till they bleed. Poor thing. He does fine with Turkey - not chicken. Though now that I"m looking at that spreadsheet I"m wondering if it might actually be Flax that he's allergic to. He doesn't do great on the rabbit or the duck LID foods I've had him on. I'm going to try some other things that don't have flax in them as well - it could be a combo I guess?

The Asthma is newer, it started last year around September - i was hoping it was seasonal allergies but it seems to be getting worse. i'm trying to identify changes that i made around that time and one of the big ones was feeding him a dry food I found that doesn't make him itchy. But it's possible it's making him asthmatic which is worse!

 

[She's a witch]

If that’s indeed asthma, and you’d need to medicate him, you can use preventative inhaled steroids rather than oral and injected, which have almost no side effects and are easier option for most cats than pilling (albuterol is a rescue inhaler only, to be administered in heavy attacks). They are insanely expensive in US so most of us asthmatic cats’ slaves order them from overseas in normal price.
Finding the least dusty litter can help for sure, I’m using grass seed ones and they work great. I used DrElsey respiratory relief and I was shocked how dusty it was so I definitely don’t recommend it. There are other environmental factors that can be triggers, like smoke, fragrances, chemicals, dust, getting rid of all of it may be enough to reduce triggers.