Food allergy— how long to show up?

[Biomehanika]

I think my new 9 month old kitten/juvenile Moose has a chicken allergy! I adopted him just over a month ago and he was on a fish based food packed with legumes which I hate hate hate, so I started transitioning him as well as my other cat to a new brand called First Mate as I really like their ingredients. Ironically enough it is a limited ingredient food. I bought their grain free chicken as well as their duck version to try and began with the chicken. This was ten days ago, I started with mixing and they are now up to about 80% of the new chicken food. Last night I noticed a red patch of skin on one of Moose’s inner ears, he also has some small light coloured hard bumps there. He has been itching his ears a lot as well as his neck, and overgrooming/gnawing on himself all over today which is out of character for him. He’s also acting pretty irritated in general. I highly doubt this is fleas as my other cat is showing no symptoms, and am pretty convinced it’s the new food, it’s been ten days, his old food he was eating at the rescue did not contain any chicken but it’s possible he has had chicken in the past, I don’t know.

I haven’t dealt with food allergies before, does this timing seem standard for allergy symptoms to appear (10 days)? And how long does it typically take for the itchy symptoms to ease up? I’ve read online that it can take up to 8 weeks or even more in some cases, but was wondering if it really took that long from your experiences. My plan is to stop the chicken immediately and see what happens, including any wet food that has chicken. He still has some of his old food (that I hate) as well as the duck version so I can start him on that mix instead, and we already have a wellness appointment scheduled at the vet on the 12th so I can discuss this all and bring up any further concerns then if it hasn’t resolved in a week.

 

[silent meowlook]

Hi. Food allergies in cats are complicated and it is often a very individual thing. That being said, the most common causes of a protein based food allergy is chicken, fish and beef. Other fillers used in usually dry cat food can cause allergic reactions in cats. Cats cannot properly utilize carbohydrates and dry food has much more carbohydrates than canned. Some cats have more issues than others in this.

When using a novel protein source for a diet trial in order to see if a cat has a specific routine allergy, you need to feed a (usually prescription) cat food with a protein source the cat has never had before. What can make this difficult is that there are many cat foods sold in pet stores that will call themselves **** or rabbit. But, if you check the ingredients there is often other meat sources in there. Then not only will it not help your cat, it is also reducing what protein you can use if you chose to do an actual novel protein diet trial in the future. With your cat, you can no longer use duck. There are still prescription venison and rabbit foods out there.

A food trial needs to be done for 2 to 3 months with the novel protein food being the only food fed.

Canned food is always better than dry. Grain free means nothing. It is another marketing ploy used by pet food companies to make you think it is good for your cat. Grains are not the problem, carbohydrates are.

If you look at the ingredients on either dry or canned grain free cat foods, you will see they have replaced the grains with things like potatoes and peas, which are extremely high in carbohydrates.

Before going down the food allergy diet rabbit hole, you need to rule out other causes of itching and possibly skin lessons. The first most common problem is fleas. Just because one cat seems fine and one is itching, doesn’t mean fleas are not the culprit. Some cats have an allergy to the flea saliva and will react to a bite where as the other cat won’t.

The best way to check for fleas is to place white towels where the cats sleep and look for flea dirt. Then also purchase a flea comb and comb areas of the cat where fleas like to hide. The back near the tail, the face, the abdomen, if the cat allows it. This can be more difficult on s long haired cat.

If no fleas are present, at your upcoming veterinary appointment the veterinarian will go down a list of rule out for other causes of itching, by doing skin scrapings, microscopic examination of the skin, check the skin with a woods light and a fungal culture if the veterinarian determines it is necessary. If all of the above is within normal limits, then food allergies can be suspected and treated.

 

[lisahe]

I'm sorry to hear about Moose's itchiness, Biomehanika . I can't add much to S silent meowlook 's comprehensive post but do want to point out that the First Mate food (if I'm looking at the right one, the LID), does have potato and the Tufts University vet school says that some cats can be allergic to potato.
What every pet owner should know about food allergies
One of our cats came to us with potato problems: she was horribly gassy, had bad breath, and vomited. By dumb luck, I realized the problem was potato. All those problems went way after we took potato out of her diet. (She wasn't even getting much of it: it was a thickener in some Weruva foods.) She has gone on to have other food sensitivities and digestive issues.

If you want to trial chicken at some point, my best suggestion would be something like Tiki Cat (or the Chewy knockoff) or some other chicken-based food that doesn't have any carby vegetables or other thickeners. Since it's hard to find commercial foods without those ingredients (even allowing for guar gum, which seems to be the least bad), we feed a lot of homemade food, too.

Good luck. Sorting this stuff out can take some time.

 

[Alldara]

The timing and symptoms depend on the cat. I wouldn't give the legumes food, personally legumes and peas are on my never list until the studies conclude if they cause heart disease in cats.

Best to stick to something basic. Feed the duck one until the appointment or maybe pick up some Dr. Elsys? That is a very plain LID (the wet food anyway) that I first used for Magnus before the vet visit and then the vet had him on Purina EN. We also used Dr. Elsys's to substitute the suspected allergy back in (as you have to add the allergy back in to confirm said allergy). Once we discovered that beef and beef byproducts were his allergy, we could give a variety again.

What's in My Cat's Food?: Designer Diets, Grain Free Diets | VCA | VCA Canada Animal Hospitals

Food Allergies in Cats | VCA Animal Hospital | VCA Animal Hospitals

 

[lisahe]

Especially agreeing with A Alldara here on timing, symptoms, and legumes!

I can add that Dr. Elsey's dry food -- chicken, not salmon -- is very, very basic, with no fillers and extremely low carbs and low phosphorus, too. Some people aren't happy with the recent addition of pork plasma but it hasn't been a problem for our cats, who eat limited amounts of Dr. E's dry chicken food.

Just to show how relative and seriously individual these feeding questions are... Dr. Elsey's wet chicken food is a double no for our cats! Neither can eat agar-agar (both barf) and one can't eat green-lipped mussels (also barf). Allergy or sensitivity? I have no idea. It doesn't seem like problems with those ingredients are especially common but they definitely exist. I'm glad A Alldara was able to use the Dr. E's food for their cat.

 

[Alldara]

Just the wet food

Actually though I last fed this in 2020. I didn't realize the recipe had changed so much. So I take back what I said. I used it because the limited ingredients meant I could really tell what was causing the issues.thanks for pointing that out lisahe

I'll have to recommend Wellness Core 95 instead then.

 

[Biomehanika]

Thanks for the replies. He does get wet food everyday as well, I just didn’t really mention it because the only big change has been the dry, which I believe he is reacting to. I will keep an eye on a certain wet food possibly being an issue too though, as I tend to give him a variety. I am aware grain free is a marketing ploy that often leads to worse ingredients. This new dry (both the chicken and the duck) just happens to be grain free, which I was OK with because it contains none of the common evil grain free culprits (legumes).

Yes, the new dry food has potato, which is my runner up suspect if it’s not the chicken, but the old food he was on that caused no issues skin wise, from my understanding for a long time, also had (sweet) potato, so I’m not sure it could be a carb/potato reaction so suddenly. Ideally the new food wouldn’t have any potato either but I’m going with the lesser of evils here. I really want him off the legumes and almost every food I can realistically access has those or other big red flag ingredients. I am in western Canada btw, so Chewy isn’t an option.

For the duck that I am switching him to immediately, duck is the only protein. It does contain “chicken fat” but claims to be free of chicken protein. This was also in the old food, so I think/hope it’s OK.

Will of course get him checked for fleas and have him get preventative flea meds at the vet if he is due for them, but again, highly highly doubt that’s it, can’t find any evidence of them anywhere. Zero flea dirt, and his skin, minus the one little red patch on his ear, looks good. Whatever it is I’ve caught it early enough that he currently has no lesions/cuts/missing fur/scabs/evidence of scratching, nothing besides the one little red irritation and clear bumps on the one ear, so I reeeeally hope it is indeed the chicken and this can all resolve before it even gets bad, but of course will monitor him closely and explore all other options when/if needed.

BTW, how do you tag people by name is posts without quoting them? I think that would be very helpful to know lol.

 

[lisahe]

Biomehanika , to answer your question about tagging... I did it to be sure I was right: type @ and then start spelling the tagee's handle. A few letters in, The System will start making suggestions about who the tagee is. Then just click/tap the person you want to tag.

All these vegetables in food -- the potato, the legumes in particular -- are so hard to avoid these days.

And, as A Alldara 's and my case study on Dr. Elsey's wet foods shows, the recipes seem to change all the time!

 

[silent meowlook]

Can you discontinue the dry?

 

[Biomehanika]

Can you discontinue the dry?

I’ve already stopped giving him the chicken food in question for 30-ish hours now and instead have him on the duck when he has dry. I’m trying to give it more time before I jump to any conclusions but he is already acting way less irritated and scratching/grooming a lot less today.

If you mean discontinue all dry food completely, I’m not sure, it really depends how things go and if the issue continues. They are already on a wet/dry ratio of about 50:50, and I could try bumping up the wet even more, but I don’t think either would be pleased about me completely cutting out dry. My older girl would probably lose her mind honestly, she’s very picky and I’ve only ever found two wet foods she will consistently eat, plus she is already going through a ton of changes right now with the newer cat being here and very recently losing her bonded boyfriend cat of 12 years. They both drink a good amount of water and get extra added to their wet food, and poop like clockwork every day.

 

[Biomehanika]

It’s been about 80 hours since Moose last had chicken. The redness on his ear has completely cleared up and the bumps have shrunk/are almost gone as well. He is no longer excessively grooming and hasn’t really been scratching or gnawing at himself at all anymore, so the itchiness is either gone or well on it’s way out. I’m just going to assume it was indeed the chicken and keep him off of it indefinitely

The past two days I have been experimenting with feeding them both more wet food, in hopes I can get up to something more like a 70 wet:30 dry ratio. My senior girl hasn’t been thrilled about it but she’s eating most of it, so we’ll see how that goes. Went to two stores yesterday and besides the brand I already buy nothing looked good (peas, beans, lentils, gums galore, yuck). A friend recommended a Canadian pet food site (homesalive) that I am going to try, I guess it’s kind of like a Canadian Chewy, and it carries my staple brand as well as a bunch of other brands I see recommended here that aren’t available in any of the stores nearby, so I plan to try a few of those too. I am in a pretty rural area and have to do relatively big trips for pet supplies as it is so if that works out it’ll be great.

 

[Alldara]

I've personally used homesalive and enjoyed it. Their customer service is great if you call and ask for suggestions

 

[Biomehanika]

I've personally used homesalive and enjoyed it. Their customer service is great if you call and ask for suggestions

Oooh, perfect! One recommendation is great but two is even better, I had never heard of them before and will definitely try them out. I see they carry Rawz which I always see people here talking about, so I will try a few cans of that and look into their other options as well.

 

[lisahe]

I'm glad to hear that taking chicken out of Moose's diet made such a quick difference, Biomehanika ! Here's hoping he'll do well with some new foods.

Rawz is great stuff but it seems like our cats aren't the only ones that go on and off with it. Maybe Moose will like it better!

 

[Alldara]

Oooh, perfect! One recommendation is great but two is even better, I had never heard of them before and will definitely try them out. I see they carry Rawz which I always see people here talking about, so I will try a few cans of that and look into their other options as well.

Let me know if you end up trying any of the Canadian brands. There's one that has a large chicken can and I'd love to try it...but I'm worried the texture etc will be a no go for our cats.

I tried Zoe as if came highly recommended by some US folks. It has all ingredients my cats are used to...they decided nope.

 

[Biomehanika]

Let me know if you end up trying any of the Canadian brands. There's one that has a large chicken can and I'd love to try it...but I'm worried the texture etc will be a no go for our cats.

I tried Zoe as if came highly recommended by some US folks. It has all ingredients my cats are used to...they decided nope.

Hmmm. Is it FirstMate? They are Canadian and have big cans that are much more economic than their smaller cans. That’s my current “staple brand” for both dry and wet, I’m just trying to add some variety.

Moose will eat literally anything but Bitsy is extremely picky, especially with wet, and refuses almost everything. Wet food wise she refused to eat anything except Purina Senior Essential Care for years until I tried FirstMate. She likes all the flavours and will eat both the grain free and grain friendly versions, the pate makes a nice “thick soup” consistency when water is added, which she likes. The grain friendly one is a little chunkier because of the rice but they are both smooth/soft pates.

Will update if I find anything else that’s good.

 

[Alldara]

Hmmm. Is it FirstMate? They are Canadian and have big cans that are much more economic than their smaller cans. That’s my current “staple brand” for both dry and wet, I’m just trying to add some variety.

Moose will eat literally anything but Bitsy is extremely picky, especially with wet, and refuses almost everything. Wet food wise she refused to eat anything except Purina Senior Essential Care for years until I tried FirstMate. She likes all the flavours and will eat both the grain free and grain friendly versions, the pate makes a nice “thick soup” consistency when water is added, which she likes. The grain friendly one is a little chunkier because of the rice but they are both smooth/soft pates.

Will update if I find anything else that’s good.

Oh nice. Thanks so much for sharing your experience with it.