Is it safe to omit fish oil?

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Morty has a very severe fish allergy that causes him to vomit frequently. We're currently feeding him an elimination diet of homecooked pork + Alnutrin and we've subsided the vomiting for the past two weeks after removing fish oil. This is the only thing we've done that has actually stopped his vomiting, so I'm pretty sure it's what was causing it. I know that many people say cats will not react to fish oil, but some with severe allergies can. Morty would always throw up any canned food I would give him that contained fish oil. I was previously using pharmacutical grade fish oil because that's the purest possible, so very, very little protein is left behind, but it appears he's still reacting to it. What do you do with a cat that can't have fish oil? I've read tons of other threads where other people have had this issue like valentine319 valentine319 and I haven't found many answers. Some say to try krill oil, but I have a feeling he will probably react to that as well. I know cats cannot absorb omegas from plant sources very well but that may be all were left with, or potentially looking into whole prey which I would like to avoid.

Anyway, cat food isn't required to actually have an omega source. You can find many that don't have fish oil, and even some that have flax, which makes me think that maybe the amount they get from the meat could potentially be enough. He is beginning to get dandruff again as well, which is worrying. Does anyone have any advice or opinions? Is it unsafe for cats to not have an additional omega source?
 

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Sorry to hear that your kitty is having such problems with fish oil! There are a couple things that come to mind, but definitely be careful in adding it to his diet.

It's definitely a good idea to have variety in omega sources in a cats diet. The issue with plant based omegas is that, even in humans, the conversion from plant omegas to DHA (one of the types of omega 3 in fish, alongside EPA) is very inefficient. As such, your best bet is to look into non-fish sources of DHA, such as spirulina. There are also egg and yogurt brands that fortify their product with DHA and other omega 3 fatty acids.
 
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Sorry to hear that your kitty is having such problems with fish oil! There are a couple things that come to mind, but definitely be careful in adding it to his diet.

It's definitely a good idea to have variety in omega sources in a cats diet. The issue with plant based omegas is that, even in humans, the conversion from plant omegas to DHA (one of the types of omega 3 in fish, alongside EPA) is very inefficient. As such, your best bet is to look into non-fish sources of DHA, such as spirulina. There are also egg and yogurt brands that fortify their product with DHA and other omega 3 fatty acids.
Thank you for the suggestions! I had never heard of spirulina before. Does that not also come from a plant though? How are cats able to get omegas from it? I see a few brands that sell it to cats like Mercola, but I wonder how well it would compare to a traditional fish oil.

I forgot to mention we are also adding egg yolk powder to their food for constipation, so hopefully that adds at least a little bit.
 

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You might find this article helpful: StackPath

Bottom line, fish oil is the best source of omega 3, and plant-based sources of omega 3 won’t cut it for kitties. Fish oil isn’t absolutely necessary, though. You could consider omega 3 eggs, as both Maurey Maurey and this article mention.
 
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You might find this article helpful: StackPath

Bottom line, fish oil is the best source of omega 3, and plant-based sources of omega 3 won’t cut it for kitties. Fish oil isn’t absolutely necessary, though. You could consider omega 3 eggs, as both Maurey Maurey and this article mention.
Thank you, I've come across that article before in my endless search for something other than fish oil. Do you know if eggs have a significant amount of omega compared to fish oil? I'm having a difficult time finding resources that can make cross comparisons here, or anything that can tell me how much egg is needed to have an adequate amount in the cat's diet. Right now we're just using the egg yolk powder from EZ.

Also, I'm glad to hear it isn't completely necessary. I was one step away from googling where to buy brains/eyeballs 😐
 

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Do you know if eggs have a significant amount of omega compared to fish oil?
I don’t, sorry! But after further reading, I’m not sure how much the specially fortified eggs would help because it appears the hens’ food is supplemented with things like flaxseed oil, which again is not helpful to kitties. :( I do add egg yolk to my recipe but not for the omegas, and I don’t buy the fortified eggs. I guess I wasn’t much help, darn it.
 
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I don’t, sorry! But after further reading, I’m not sure how much the specially fortified eggs would help because it appears the hens’ food is supplemented with things like flaxseed oil, which again is not helpful to kitties. :( I do add egg yolk to my recipe but not for the omegas, and I don’t buy the fortified eggs. I guess I wasn’t much help, darn it.
Oh it's okay, no worries. I mean....I would think that the eggs would still be an option. Many fish that have a lot of omega eat heavy omega diets of algae, so I don't see how it would be any different. And either way some sources for Morty will inevitably be better than no additional sources.

Maybe I should look more into whole prey. I think mypetcarnivore sells it and at least that would be an effective way for him to get the brains/eyes...the only problem is the bones. He likely has IBD so bones may potentially be a problem, we don't know yet.
 

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Thank you for the suggestions! I had never heard of spirulina before. Does that not also come from a plant though? How are cats able to get omegas from it?

Spirulina is a form of cyanobacteria aka blue green algae. They are classified in the plant kingdom but are not true plants because they do not have roots or true leaves and stems. Spirulina has omega-3 fatty acids.
 
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Spirulina is a form of cyanobacteria aka blue green algae. They are classified in the plant kingdom but are not true plants because they do not have roots or true leaves and stems. Spirulina has omega-3 fatty acids.
Oh interesting! Thank you for the clarification. That seems like a pretty good option then for Morty!
 

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I had never heard of spirulina before. Does that not also come from a plant though? How are cats able to get omegas from it?
As LTS3 has already mentioned, spirulina is a type of algae that already contains the necessary form of omega 3 fatty acids (I.e. doesn’t have to go through the inefficient conversion process from plant omega to DHA). In fact, that’s where fish get it from! As such, I can’t imagine kitties would have much issue extracting beneficial nutrients from it. That said, as it falls under a certain definition of seafood (purely as something that comes from the sea), I’d recommend being careful and gradually adding it into your boy‘s diet, just in case it does trigger him. Imo it’s your best option unless it triggers his allergies, but another avenue that might be worth looking into omega supplements derived from seaweed. If pure spirulina triggers him, maybe the omega purified out of it won’t. Imo plain spirulina is your best bet unless he has an allergic response, though. Should be more cost effective, too.
 
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As LTS3 has already mentioned, spirulina is a type of algae that already contains the necessary form of omega 3 fatty acids (I.e. doesn’t have to go through the inefficient conversion process from plant omega to DHA). In fact, that’s where fish get it from! As such, I can’t imagine kitties would have much issue extracting beneficial nutrients from it. That said, as it falls under a certain definition of seafood (purely as something that comes from the sea), I’d recommend being careful and gradually adding it into your boy‘s diet, just in case it does trigger him. Imo it’s your best option unless it triggers his allergies, but another avenue that might be worth looking into omega supplements derived from seaweed. If pure spirulina triggers him, maybe the omega purified out of it won’t. Imo plain spirulina is your best bet unless he has an allergic response, though. Should be more cost effective, too.
Thank you, that is really helpful. We will give it a try in a couple weeks once he's a bit more stabilized and hopefully it will work out for him. I've been looking at different supplements and I'm not really finding anything that only has spirulina for cats. Do you think this would be a good option even though it has microalgae as well?

DR. MERCOLA SpiruGreen Superfood Tablets Dog & Cat Supplement, 180 count - Chewy.com
 

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I can’t imagine it would be harmful, honestly. Especially since it’s primarily spirulina in there. You could always try spirulina[owder (without additives) intended for human use, but it’d be a pain to figure out dosage.
 

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Heya, how's Morty been doing? Have you tried the spirulina w/ your boy? Has it been helping his coat at all?
 
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Heya, how's Morty been doing? Have you tried the spirulina w/ your boy? Has it been helping his coat at all?
I ordered it and we're waiting to give it a try. Unfortunately, Morty started getting a number of hairballs again, so I didn't feel like it would be good to introduce the spirulina until his vomiting is a bit more under control again, just in case he did react to it. The powdered egg yolk doesn't appear to be working anymore (even at like 1.5 teaspoons a day) so we're going to try olive oil and hopefully that will help.

I'll definitely give an update once we introduce it though.
 

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I’m sorry to hear that he’s started vomiting again :< here’s hoping the olive oil helps!
 

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Morty has a very severe fish allergy that causes him to vomit frequently. We're currently feeding him an elimination diet of homecooked pork + Alnutrin and we've subsided the vomiting for the past two weeks after removing fish oil. This is the only thing we've done that has actually stopped his vomiting, so I'm pretty sure it's what was causing it. I know that many people say cats will not react to fish oil, but some with severe allergies can. Morty would always throw up any canned food I would give him that contained fish oil. I was previously using pharmacutical grade fish oil because that's the purest possible, so very, very little protein is left behind, but it appears he's still reacting to it. What do you do with a cat that can't have fish oil? I've read tons of other threads where other people have had this issue like valentine319 valentine319 and I haven't found many answers. Some say to try krill oil, but I have a feeling he will probably react to that as well. I know cats cannot absorb omegas from plant sources very well but that may be all were left with, or potentially looking into whole prey which I would like to avoid.

Anyway, cat food isn't required to actually have an omega source. You can find many that don't have fish oil, and even some that have flax, which makes me think that maybe the amount they get from the meat could potentially be enough. He is beginning to get dandruff again as well, which is worrying. Does anyone have any advice or opinions? Is it unsafe for cats to not have an additional omega source?
I use micro distilled fish oil. She doesn’t seem to have a problem with it. Iceland pure unscented.

krill is like shrimp. Krill still has vitamin d in it. For the amount to mix in raw it shouldn’t be an issue. I mention the D because if you used as a daily supplement I wouldn’t recommend it. If kitty is not allergic to all seafood krill can be an option. You want something that is from a clean area due to fukushima.

canned food is using flax seed for the allergy but I don’t think that’s a good option. The other options listed above make more sense.

many of my cats allergies have gotten better after a few years of raw. The only reason I know is I feed a community cat canned. I had to get a garbage can with a lid since she was knocking the trash over and eating some. I was just relieved she didn’t rip half her fur out, not that she gets canned.
 
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I use micro distilled fish oil. She doesn’t seem to have a problem with it. Iceland pure unscented.

krill is like shrimp. Krill still has vitamin d in it. For the amount to mix in raw it shouldn’t be an issue. I mention the D because if you used as a daily supplement I wouldn’t recommend it. If kitty is not allergic to all seafood krill can be an option. You want something that is from a clean area due to fukushima.

canned food is using flax seed for the allergy but I don’t think that’s a good option. The other options listed above make more sense.

many of my cats allergies have gotten better after a few years of raw. The only reason I know is I feed a community cat canned. I had to get a garbage can with a lid since she was knocking the trash over and eating some. I was just relieved she didn’t rip half her fur out, not that she gets canned.
Through my hunt for Morty I've come across a lot of your old posts that mentioned Iceland Pure, which was what I was referring to when I said pharma grade. Unfortunately, it looks like he may be reacting to that as well. I won't know for certain unless I reintroduce it, but his vomiting stopped when I eliminated it.

We were feeding raw until recently when Morty went to the vet and was all but diagnosed with IBD. Once we're done with the homecooked elimination diet we'll definitely be going back to raw. I'm hoping the spirulina will work though. Introducing krill oil scares me a bit.
 

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Obviously the fish oil won’t work. I mean the whole idea he vomits ends it. Krill is a crustean like shrimp. Sometimes that fish allergy is all seafood. Even with the fish oil I don’t feel you should retry. If you take something away and it stops there you go. Hopefully spirolina will work out. I didn’t do krill because I’m pretty sure it’s seafood and not just fish.

I want to add I know there’s flax seed oil but I’ve heard there are issues with it going rancid.Off the top of my head the other thing is matching up what omegas it has. If you find it might be an option should spirolina not work out find a local family health food store that ships it in cold. They keep it in a fridge. You find out how long it’s good and put a label on the bottle with dates. Cold pressed not chemical extraction. A good health food store usually understand and don’t stock garbage.
 
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I agree, my only uncertainty is that he was having a number of reactions at the time. He had recently gotten back from a two night stay at the ER vet and seemed to be vomiting from everything once his Cerenia was completed. So it's most likely from fish oil, but I can't be certain. I have a hunch he may have also developed turkey, chicken and pea allergies, but I'd rather not find out. I do think it's likely that Morty's also allergic to all seafood so krill will be a last resort. Hopefully the spirulina works out well and we won't have to worry anymore. If it doesn't things could get difficult and I may just have to give up and switch to feeding whole prey for those omegas. Too bad he hates rabbit. 🤦‍♀️

I've heard that cats can't absorb very much (if anything) from flax seed oil. Does cold pressing change this?
 

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Flax would be a last choice. I fed Juliette canned that used ground flax for the omega. I personally don’t think it does much for them but just so you know it’s being used. I believe there was a raw formulator you could pay to figure out other options but don’t know that we’ve came up with them. I mentioned there’s a huge issue with flax oil going rancid. The cat food I used has ground flax to avoid the rancid issue but don’t know if they get much from it.
 
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