Food allergy?

Lennys

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Hello guys!
First time poster here, please be kind :wave2:
So my 9 month old rescue kitten Ellie was always a slow eater, preferred dry food over anything, but never had any visible problems. A month ago she started to vomit white foam - always once in the morning on empty stomach.
Our vet put her on antibiotics, IV drippings and something to sooth the stomach. X-ray was ok too. Three days later she started vomiting a lot more, so our vet sent us to another one with ultrasound, just to make sure what's wrong.. Well the other vet said that she has enlarged intestine and she thinks it's an food allergy. Prescribed a diet consisting of Royal Canin hypoalergenic dry food and fresh turkey breasts.. Everything is ok since, our little baby is energetic and enjoying her dry food more than she should haha..
What I'm wondering ever since is that we don't even know what food she's allergic to and that it's horrifying I'm gonna feed her the same food for the rest of her life.
Do any of you have any experience with similiar stuff? Should I try to introduce another food over time or just let it be?
Thank you!
 

sivyaleah

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There's no reason to worry about feeding the same food all the time though you may want to consider adding back more novel proteins (ones she's never had before) and see if symptoms return. You do have to feed what she's on now for at least 6 weeks before doing that to make sure no reactions occur to any foods she's eating now.

Once you see a good time period has passed you can add back one protein. Some have been found to be low allergen such as duck, rabbit and more exotic types like kangaroo (we used that some years ago and my cat loved it but it's hard to find). If the cat tolerates that new protein, great. If not back off again. Hopefully you'll be able to come up with a few more options she likes if concerned about her diet being too limited but honestly, all commercial canned food has all the nutrients she would need so you don't have to worry about that.

Your vet can explain novel diets in detail and lots of good info you can search for online. We had good luck doing this with our cat and he wound up being able to eat quite a few things - his big problem was chicken but could manage other poultry such as duck, quail and turkey.
 

LTS3

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A month ago she started to vomit white foam - always once in the morning on empty stomach.
That's not uncommon. An empty stomach just doesn't feel good to some sensitive cats and they will vomit up foamy liquid which is just bile. Do you leave food out at night for the cat to snack on if hungry? That might stop the morning vomiting due to an empty stomach.

How much of the fresh turkey breast are you feeding daily with the prescription dry? Is it raw turkey or cooked? Plain meat is fine but it can only make up 10% of the diet to avoid throwing off the nutritional balance of the overall diet. If you add supplements to the turkey to make it a complete diet, then you can feed more than 10% and even feed only the supplemented turkey as the sole diet. Using a pre-mix such as EZComplete makes it really easy to feed meat. There is a forum here on TCS with more info on pre-mixes and raw and home cooked diets.

Anything in commercial cat food can cause a food sensitivity or allergy in cats. Chicken is a very common culprit. So are fillers like gums and starches and grains. Even certain fish oils and seafood can cause reactions. One TCS member has a cat who is highly allergic to multiple (re: dozens) of ingredients in cat food. Feeding a raw or home cooked diet is not an option for that cat.
 

Chrissy66

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Our Toby has an allergy to anything related to Chicken. We thought at first it was just Chicken then learned it was Eggs also. Then after feeding Turkey the same thing. We then tried Pheasant because he had never had it. He liked it but then again, we ran into the same issues. His always was his ears. Now we feed him, Rabbit, Duck, and also get him some Lamb Chops from Publix. I would suggest Rabbit if you are interested in Raw Feeding and do this for 3 months. That is what my Vet did then we added Duck. This way we could find out what he was allergic too. Also watch grains in the Commercial Canned food.
 
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