Skin Vs Food Allergy

haze n blaze

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My cat Haze and I have been slowly going through the food and skin allergy issue for the last few years. Long story short, we initially thought he had a food allergy but after going to Z/D food, the itching and hair loss continued. It seems seasonal - worse at times and not so bad at other times. It was very difficult to pin point because he was also having a URI/herpes flare up so it became one of those “what came first? The chicken or the egg?”. My vet said the allergy could cause a stress induced URI flare and the flare up could result in heightened allergic reactions. Recently, we started him on Atopica. Not a huge fan of the immunosuppressant especially since he is prone to the URIs and immune compromised due to the feline herpes virus. Plus it just seemed like a band aid to what the actual problem was. Was is food allergy, was it an environmental allergy, was it a combination of both? I finally saved up the money to take him to a vet dermatologist and have an allergy test. Turns out he is allergic to quite a few environmental allergens. I’ve attached his allergy results with the yellow highlight showing the allergens. My vet dermatologist tailor made desensitizing meds for injections. I will slowly phase out the Atopica. Now, my real question since we know what the environmental allergens are. My vet said once we are able to stabilize Haze’s allergies (could take 6-12 months), we can start trying to determine if he really has a food allergy. We will start by introducing one protein at a time.

#1 question: what is the best protein to start with?

#2 question: how do we know that the possible food allergy is even a protein? Couldn’t it be one of the other non protein ingredients found in foods? Even limited ingredient foods are only limiting the protein and not the other ingredients.

I will, of course, discuss with my vet but I don’t need to go back for a while and I’m not looking at the environmental allergies being cleared up for a while. We aren’t even at the point where the food introduction is needed but I’m super interested in learning about this. Ive tried googling around but I’m going down a rabbit hole.

Any guidance is appreciated!
 

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Jem

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#1) Personally, I would start with chicken. It is in almost every cat food in production. So if it were me, I would really want to know if chicken was safe right off the hop.

#2) Yes, you are quite correct. An allergy can be due to the protein, eggs, grains, any plant/herb, additives, dyes, things like guar gum (thickeners), etc...

I wonder if doing a raw or cooked home made diet would be a good way to proceed. Start with one meat/protein and use a "raw diet supplement" to ensure that Haze gets all the required nutrients that would not be present with just feeding a plain meat source. That way, you can control what Haze is eating and ensure that you are not compromising the elimination process with other fillers/additives and what not, found in (most) commercial foods.

The only thing that I'm not sure of, is what they make the raw diet supplements from. For example, if Haze turns out to be allergic to fish and the supplement used fish oil for omega fatty acids then I don't know if that would skew the results, especially if you are testing chicken. If Haze reacts to your food, you may think it's due to the chicken when in fact it's due to the fish oil and chicken is perfectly fine. If this is something you would consider, we do have a Raw Diet Forum, I'm sure someone there would be able to point you in the right direction in terms of allergy friendly home made raw/cooked diet supplements.
 

LTS3

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@cheeser has a cat who has multiple allergies / sensitivities to various ingredients commonly found in pet food. It took awhile to figure out exactly what the cat was allergic to and a chart to keep track of all the various ingredients was really helpful. A edited public version of the chart is here: Check This Out.... Chart For Cat Food Ingredients

I think the easiest thing to do right now is to feed your cat a bland-ish diet that has novel proteins and no fillers. Rawz is a good brand but pricey and only found at independent pet stores and a few places online.
 
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