is anyone else's cat allergic to wet food?

[symba427]

The vet is going to do blood tests and an ultra sound - will wait for the results & see what they indicate. Keeping all my fingers crossed .....

 

[natalie_ca]

Old thread I know, but I came across it when I was looking in Google.

Early last year I decided to try switching my cats from dry to wet food, so I stocked upon Friskies various pate flavours (they just lick the gravy off of the chunky kind). They weren't eating enough for me to completely remove the dry food, so  I was also continuing to free feed their regular dry through the day.

At some point I noticed that my boy's face was swollen on one side, and later that day or the day after, I found a dead wasp on the floor.  I thought he had been stung.  The swelling went down over the next week, so I cancelled the visit to the Vet.

Then I was noticing occasional scratches on his cheeks with chunks of fur missing from those spots. I thought that he and his sister were playing a bit too roughly and that she might have bunny kicked him, so I made sure that their nails were trimmed more often.

A few months later I noticed some more swelling on Spencer's face.  The same side as before, and some fur missing near his whiskers again.  This time I did take him to the vet.  I was horrified when the vet showed me the inside of his mouth. It looked blood red on the side that was swollen. She immediately thought "food allergy." And that the scratches and missing fur was the result of him scratching.

She gave him a shot of antibiotic and a steroid shot to help reduce the inflammation.  And we started him on a single source protein diet: d/d venison. With 3 cats I couldn't just switch one, so I put all 3 on the same diet.

It took a good 3 months with me having to take Spencer back every 2 weeks for assessment and further antibiotic injections, before the redness in his mouth was completely gone. By this point I had been feeding them all nothing but the dry food, no wet.

Late last year I decided I wanted to try again to switch them all to a wet food diet and purchased the d/d venison in the wet form.  I gave them 1/3 of a can each at dinner time. 

Within a couple days I noticed that Spencer's face was swollen again. And I noticed him stopping to scratch more often.  

This time since I knew there were no wasps, and he was getting only a single source protein already and had been tolerating the dry food without a problem, I figured out that it was the wet cat food. I immediately stopped giving him and the others the d/d venison canned, and went back to feeding them all the dry food exclusively.  Within a week his face swelling went away, and his new sores on his chin and cheek scabbed over and started to heal.  Four months later and there haven't been any further swelling or scratches or missing spots of fur on his face.

Even though it's a single source food vs Friskies which isn't, both must contain something in them that is causing Spencer to react.   I'm even questioning whether he has any meat/poultry allergies at all, and if it wasn't just the Friskies wet that he was reacting to, and not their old dry store bought food.

I've been too chicken to try though because I don't want my boy to be in pain.

 

[ghr73]

My cat had facial rash and tearing on the left eye after I was feeding him organic gluten and grain free canned food for over a year. After over six months of vet visits and steroids without a diagnostic, I decided to feed him homemade cooked food made with hormone free/grass-fed beef/bison and he recovered in a couple of weeks. I recently had to work extra hours and could not prepare him the food ands started to feed him canned food and the rash came back. I do not think that is always the ingredients that cause allergies on cats, but maybe the metal in the cans. I attached the recipe that a pet nutritionist put together for my cat. The recipe can be use with beef, bison or rabbit. The only thing that I altered is that I add water after I get the meat in the food processor to get my cats to eat them (they are a lil' pickey). The overall cost is really quite good at an average of $40 for 2 cats per week, comparing to the $280 I was paying per month (not to count the vet visit's cost for feeding the canned food). For 1 cat/1 week: $11 per pund of ground bison,$2 per pund liver, $5-6 fresh organic blueberries, $3 organic frozen peas and the rest of the ingredients can cost around $50 that could last for months. I hope this information is helpful. Best of luck!

 

[pennyenvy]

My 8mo old kitty is sensitive to canned food. I only give him about a decent sized spoonful of Royal Canin a day (less than a 4th of one of the little cans) because otherwise, his stool gets very runny. But that plus with the water he drinks seems to be enough to keep him from having the rock hard stool issues that can come with an all dry food diet.

Anyways, when discussing this with my vet.. She said it's pretty common for kitties to be sensitive to fish oil and other fish ingredients. Even some of the chicken/beef flavored food has fish hidden in it somewhere... It ended up not making a difference in my cat, he would get diarrhea from too much canned food either way. Maybe there's a particular ingrediant that your kitty is allergic to that you could work around?

 

[bonepicker]

Have you tried Mertick LID foods canned foods. No peas,potato or blueberries which are ok for dogs not really cats though.

 

[Cherlyn.j.ng]

My cat is also allergic to “canned food”. More accurately, and after years of trial and errors, we found that she is actually allergic to the nickel in the cans. Not sure if it helps anyone here, but my cat shows GI problems along with rashes, ear and eye secretions when she has canned food. Other culprits are shellfish like mussels and shrimp, salmon, tuna, oatmeal, flax. She cannot tolerate food cooked in stainless steel pots either. Together with a couple of veterinarians, we came up a home cooked regime to avoid kibble. Hopefully this post may help some of us baffled by “canned food allergies”. I’m happy to share my formulation, but again, I can’t guarantee if my solution would work in different cases.

 

[KarenKat]

Wow, that’s pretty crazy but it makes sense. What about non-canned wet foods like Caru cartons or the pouches?

 

[CatLover49]

I've tried both commercial (i.e Fancy Feast) and natural foods (i.e. wellness, solid gold). He has the same reaction to both. His allergy symptoms started before I adopted him, when he was brought in by the shelter (they found him on a golf course hence the name bogie). He loses clumps of hair, get large lesions, and gets very itchy skin. The vet has run all possible tests and decided it was a food allergy. Her suggestion was to try food combinations and see which one would work. I've tried several dry/wet combos, just wet, and just dry. On the just dry diet, his spots have completely cleared within a few weeks and the spots are all gone. His hair is finally growing back too.

So hes been having this problem on FF

Maybe its something in the ingredients of all these foods...thats causing problems

 

[cataholic07]

There are pouches to feed and its also EXTREMELY important to feed kittens/cats a few different proteins. If you only feed chicken, they will develop allergies to chicken over time. Feed at least 4 different proteins

 

[CatLover49]

There are pouches to feed and its also EXTREMELY important to feed kittens/cats a few different proteins. If you only feed chicken, they will develop allergies to chicken over time. Feed at least 4 different proteins

Why do cats develop allergy to chicken over time???

Cherlyn.j.ng said:
My cat is also allergic to “canned food”. More accurately, and after years of trial and errors, we found that she is actually allergic to the nickel in the cans. Not sure if it helps anyone here, but my cat shows GI problems along with rashes, ear and eye secretions when she has canned food. Other culprits are shellfish like mussels and shrimp, salmon, tuna, oatmeal, flax. She cannot tolerate food cooked in stainless steel pots either. Together with a couple of veterinarians, we came up a home cooked regime to avoid kibble. Hopefully this post may help some of us baffled by “canned food allergies”. I’m happy to share my formulation, but again, I can’t guarantee if my solution would work in different cases.

I would like to hear your ideas...

 

[kittyluv387]

You could say my cat is allergic to dry and canned food. He's on raw and has always done great on it.

 

[Cherlyn.j.ng]

Wow, that’s pretty crazy but it makes sense. What about non-canned wet foods like Caru cartons or the pouches?

Yeah KarenKat, i’ve tried poultry, beef and even rabbit pouches and even raw like freshpet. She does better on them for about 2 weeks to a month, and then deteriorates. I’ve written asking for nickel analysis, but they couldn’t give exact figures. Then again, we don’t know what cookware they use, neither if the facility processes other foods high in nickel either. So, i’ve given up.

 

[KarenKat]

Wow, I never even considered the cookware being a factor. I’m glad you found a recipe that works and sounds like some great vets that really understood!

 

[Cherlyn.j.ng]

I would like to hear your ideas...

here's what we came up with:
1. 3lb animal protein*
2. 3oz liver*
3. 2/3C water
4. 400IU vitamin E
5. 50mg vitamin B complex
6. 2000mg taurine
7. 1tsp iodized salt
8. 3.5tsp bone meal
9. (I was told to also add 5000mg fish oil but Iris is sadly also allergic, so i leave it out)

Cook 1. and 2. in a ceramic or glass pot. Let cool, mix in all other ingredients. Portion out and freeze excess.

* Start with a single source of protein (e.g., chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, etc) to figure out what the cat's allergic to. However, include as many different cuts as possible - skin, breast, muscle, fat, organ meat - for a more complete diet. When you know what works, rotate the types of meats with each batch so there's less chance of becoming sensitized. Proportion the different cuts according to how much a cat would consume if he/she ate a wild caught prey. Cats with pancreatitis and IBD do better with less fat, so adjust accordingly (saying from experience).

Other ingredients: 1/2C low nickel veggies (i use peeled and chopped apples, cauliflower, cabbage). Avoid legumes, unpolished grains, and certain root veggies. (They tell me veggies are not necessary, but i find that fiber helps with constipation)

There was concern that this isn't a wholesome diet, but Iris is doing much better now than she was on commercial food. Her coat is shinier, no secretions or rashes, gaining weight, no longer throwing up. She used to be on long term prednisolone, but she hasn't needed a singe dose ever since switching to this. Leo, my younger boy, grew up on this. He's now 6yo and the only complaint that the doctors have is that he's getting too fat. Again, disclaimer: you'll have to see for yourself if this works.

 

[Cherlyn.j.ng]

Wow, I never even considered the cookware being a factor. I’m glad you found a recipe that works and sounds like some great vets that really understood!

Yeah, my doctors are really supportive. There is very little research on cat. Much of what we came up with were from findings in humans. At that time, they gave Iris 1-2y to live so it was a do-or-die situation. It's been 5y since changing diets, she'll be 10yo this year and still going strong!

 

[mani]

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