We have figured out that our new kitty Buddy probably has food allergies. He started scratching his ears and neck last week. He started not having as much energy and not wanting to help me work (I work from home), not wanting to be in his cat tree by my desk, etc. He had stinky loose stool yesterday morning and until he pooped seemed uncomfortable. I picked up some rabbit only canned yesterday late morning (emergency cat food run) and fed that to him yesterday and he immediately started feeling better. (I know normally you should gradually transition, but I didn't want him to continue to have tummy issues. We just got the issues that he came to us with resolved.) We had been feeding him chicken and pumpkin. Today he is doing much better - back to his normal energetic and helpful self. How long should we give it for his ears and neck to stop itching if it was indeed the chicken? If the rabbit continues to work for well for his digestion/energy, that is. I will be watching him very closely. I don't want to put him on prescription food at his age (he is 2ish). We do have an allergy/dermatology vet here in town I can take him to if the rabbit doesn't fix things. That is my plan so we can hopefully find out what the allergen is/are. If he has multiple food allergies, then yes I would do prescription if no alternative. (We are in a smaller city, we lucked out that a vet that is a specialist in allergies/dermatology retired here and decided to open a 3 day a week practice, otherwise we'd have to drive over an hour to get to one.)
