Kitten Help

[MeowHiss]

Hi everyone! I need some kitten help please. My cat was born June 7th of this year.

She's on instinct kitten formula, both dry and wet food. She gets half of the 5.5 oz can per day along with free choice dry food. I divide the can into 4 quarters and feed one quarter in the morning and one at night.

Ever since I've had her, she will randomly stop and itch under her chin. She had ear mites and the vet said they're all gone now.

She also sneezes. Maybe once every other day. And she also has a bit of flatulence. It stinks!

She has been to the vet several times for her vaccinations and has a clean bill of health.

She's acting and playing normally. Vet says she's not bloated.

But I wonder if it's too much food? I was also thinking of transitioning her over to the instinct limited ingredient food, but I can only find it in the adult cat formula. But she's still a kitten. She was about 5 lbs at her 4 month checkup.
She had two rounds of revolution already. And some albon. She first tested positive for roundworms and coccidia, but has since been cleared of that.

So I'm wondering if she may need to be cut back on food or not. Vet says not.

Any advise is appreciated!

 

[LTS3]

A 4 month old kitten still needs to be free fed as much as she / he will eat.

NV Instinct for kitten is chicken based. Your kitten may have a sensitive tummy to chicken. Try feeding non-chicken foods for at least 3 months or so. Nulo has some non-chicken kitten and cat / kitten foods: Cat Food | Nulo Pet Food The Nulo LID foods are for "all life stages" and are ok to give to a kitten. Any "all life stages" food is ok for kittens.

 

[MeowHiss]

I don't have much for pet stores here. The best I can find right now locally is taste of the wild Angus beef formula.

I haven't fed it yet. I know the nulo brand. But I won't be able to get any for at least a week due to work.

 

[MeowHiss]

Update:

When I took her to the vet last time for her spay, she also had dandruff on her lower back. Vet said he didn't think I had to switch food, but I went with a rabbit based diet from instinct.

I started it about 2 weeks before her spay, so she's been on it for 3 weeks now. She still itches, would some benadryl or a bath help? After she's healed from the spay, of course.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. Not yet time to cut back on her food. Let her eat all she wants. If the scratching frequency picks up, then it might be time to worry. If she is only doing it randomly, it may mean nothing. However, what kind of bowl are you using? If it is only her chin that she is scratching, could it be because she is getting her chin in the wet food?

I wouldn't switch around foods too much. If the chin scratching is an allergy, you will have a much harder time trying to figure out which foods are affecting her.

The flatulence could be one of the foods, or just her. More likely one of the foods, but if you are not seeing other issues with the food causing digestive issues, you may just have to learn to live with it right now. If more digestive issues occur (diarrhea, burping, nausea, as examples), or the scratching begins to involve more areas than just her chin, then you might be looking at a true food allergy.

You might want to call the vet and tell him/her what's going on, and see if Benadryl would be alright to try.

Oh, yeah, the sneezing probably doesn't mean anything either, unless that too picks up in frequency.

 

[MeowHiss]

This morning, she was scratching her ears and under her chin a lot.

I have a seperate bowl for each food. It's one of those little wire stands that are sole at petco. The inserts are stainless steel and get cleaned with just water every day.

She has two water bowls. The one by her food dish is a ceramic bowl and the one upstairs is one that is for pets, but has anti algae stuff on it. I could post a picture when I get home.

The vet has been told multiple times about her sneezing. He also saw the dandruff and doesn't think it's from a food allergy. She was not tested for any allergies, though. He also doesn't think I need to have her on rabbit wet and dry food. He suggested I add fish oil to get food, but fish was in the last food she got.

 

[MeowHiss]

This is her bowl
Ultra-Heavyweight 8-Cup Pet Dish With Microban

 

[Kflowers]

My first thought with the sneezing is her litter because that was what caused my cat's sneezing. This was our first cat to have sneezing fits and we thought it might be from moving to the country. We also realized that our 'low dust' litter wasn't low dust. It made more sense to change litters before moving back to the city so we did. We switched to Dr. Esley's Ultra, which has less dust than other clay l clumping litters and the sneezing stopped. It's something to consider.

There are other dust free litters - wheat based, grass based, newspaper based, and Dr. Esley's also has a hypoallergenic litter.

 

[FeebysOwner]

I've provided a few links below about cat allergies, just in case it might help you gather some information that you may or not already know.

Cat Allergies: Symptoms, Causes, Treatments, Diagnosis

Cat Food Allergy Symptoms
https://www.cat-world.com.au/food-allergies-in-cats.html

 

[MeowHiss]

Thanks everyone. I use arm and hammer scent free clumping litter. I use bags and take the whole bag out usually every other day.

I'll check out those links after work.