Struvite Crystals, Allergies And Over Grooming

[Mamanyt1953]

I'm not sure if I want to try the venison canned food for another week, see if she continues to improve, or if I should just go for the vet's recommended food. It's gonna be about $6 a DAY for the vet's food so that, unfortunately, is why I'm hesitating.

OUCH! I can see why your are wanting to give this current food a chance! And frankly, if she seems to be doing well on it, I might consider sticking with it for a week myself.

And you won't get any judgments from me on which diet you prefer for your cat. LOL...I have one who flat refuses anything in the world but Friskies dry. Drives me crazy, and has almost bankrupted me trying to find SOMETHING better that she will eat. After three days of not eating at all, I give in out of fear of fatty liver disease. For all we discuss this diet or that, and sometimes rather heatedly, I tend to agree with what one of our Team Members said, "The best cat food is the one that your cat will actually eat."

 

[lemes]

Well it's been just over a week on the limited ingredient food and Moxie is looking much better. She's got a little bit of fuzz coming back on her belly so the over grooming had tapered off. Her skin still looks a little pink to me but I'm going to give it a little more time, see how she looks in another week. No doubt in my mind now that it's a food allergy. I'm relieved but I still have a long way to go to figure out what was triggering the allergy in the first place.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

~heaves a sigh of relief~ Yeah, you have a way to go, but you've made a good and effective start! I'll be following this thread for a good while yet. I want to know what is giving her such fits!

 

[lemes]

Need to update this for myself...

Moxie's been on the Natural Balance Venison and green pea food until this past Friday. She was doing much better - I had a few moments where I thought her belly was a little pinker than usual but her fur was growing in and she wasn't over grooming so possibly it was just me being paranoid.

Since she was doing so well I started giving her some Wild Calling Rabbit canned food on Friday, since she was getting really bored with the Venison and green pea food. Well today she has some pink dots of irritation (almost like hives?) on her belly and she's licking it a lot so we're going back to the Venison and green pea food (which she's refused to eat all morning - hoping she'll eat it eventually once she's hungry enough).

My trip to the specialty pet food store for raw food was a total bust. They have maybe a quarter of the selection they had the last time I was there. I got talked into some frozen rabbit raw food but it has lamb bone meal in it, and I would really rather stick to one protein source while I'm figuring things out.

Questions:

If there's anyone on here who's kitties have food allergies, what food are you giving them? Moxie is sick of the Natural Balance and I'd love to be able to alternate with some other foods to keep her interested. I thought the Wild Calling rabbit would be a safe bet but not so much.

Is anyone on here making their own ground raw food? And if so what supplements are you using? I'm considering going the route of adding supplements or a pre-mix to some ground venison. Only thing is I don't think I can get venison liver/organ meat so I'd need to supplement.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Hmmmmm...I don't, but we have several articles about allergies and about raw diets. Here are the links:


11 Key Facts About Food Allergies In Cats

Raw Food For Cats - Interview With Pet Nutritionist Dr. Martha Cline
Cat Food & Feline Nutrition With Pet Nutritionist Dr. Martha Cline
Preparing Raw Cat Food At Home - Tools Of The Trade
Transitioning Your Cat From Kibble To A New Type Of Food (canned, Raw, Or Homemade)
Raw Feeding Cats: Types Of Raw Diets & Feeding Options
Feeding Raw To Cats - Safety Concerns
Homemade Food For Cats: Consider Your Recipe!
Raw Feeding For Cats

As you can see, there is a LOT of interest in raw feeding! Off the top of my head, the one thing that I do know is that you must make sure that what you are feeding has adequate amounts of taurine, or that you add it as a supplement.

 

[lemes]

Hmmmmm...I don't, but we have several articles about allergies and about raw diets. Here are the links:


11 Key Facts About Food Allergies In Cats

Raw Food For Cats - Interview With Pet Nutritionist Dr. Martha Cline
Cat Food & Feline Nutrition With Pet Nutritionist Dr. Martha Cline
Preparing Raw Cat Food At Home - Tools Of The Trade
Transitioning Your Cat From Kibble To A New Type Of Food (canned, Raw, Or Homemade)
Raw Feeding Cats: Types Of Raw Diets & Feeding Options
Feeding Raw To Cats - Safety Concerns
Homemade Food For Cats: Consider Your Recipe!
Raw Feeding For Cats

As you can see, there is a LOT of interest in raw feeding! Off the top of my head, the one thing that I do know is that you must make sure that what you are feeding has adequate amounts of taurine, or that you add it as a supplement.

Oh wow, thank you so much! It's going to take me a while to go through all that but that's super helpful.

 

[lemes]

Yesterday Moxie's belly was looking much better after the allergy flare up from the Rabbit food, but today it's looking very irritated again. I'm about ready to tear my hair out - she can't possibly be allergic to the venison now too. Maybe she's just not quite over the reaction from the weekend and it flared up again?

Anyway it's a moot point about the venison food because Moxie has decided she would rather starve to death than eat another bite. *sigh* So I've picked up a few cans of the Natural Balance Duck and Green pea food to try instead. She happily ate it just now for supper so we'll see I guess. If she has a reaction to that they have a Salmon food I can try, and my local pet store is willing to order a limited ingredient food made with kangaroo so I have a few more options I can go through.

If the irritation doesn't clear up in a few days I'm going to toss all the cat litter in the house and switch to a different brand. Putting this here so I don't forget.

Called the vet's office to ask about the food they suggested and it turns out I got the size of the cans wrong, so instead of $6 per day feeding the allergy food from the vet is going to be more like $9-10 per day. Before tax. I feel rotten about it but I can't afford to try that until I run out of other options. Raw food usually runs me around $1-1.50 per day, canned food is in the range of $2-4 per day depending on which brand I go with.

Wanted to mention that I'm doing the chamomile tea thing as well and I think it really helps, I tried it over the weekend and it seemed to make Moxie a lot less focused on licking her belly so that was awesome. Thanks so much for suggesting it.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

You are SO welcome! I've said it before, but chamomile growers really ought to be giving me a kickback (and I'll take it in product, thankyousoverymuch!) considering how often I recommend it for cats and their humans. It's one of those wonderful herbs that is good for a host of things, and that has very few side-effects at all, and THOSE are only VERY rarely seen!