which food is my cat allergic to?

[Catmom1234567890]

My cat was recently IBD diagnosed. Prior to hairball obstruction, she did not exhibit physical symptoms of IBD like vomiting or diarrhea. Only problem she had was hairball vomit. She only has internal symptoms of IBD like thickened GI and slow gut motility which resulted hairball obstruction. How do I know which food is causing inflammation of her GI?

 

[crystal dawn]

That can be hard to tell. I would start with foods that commonly cause issues or contain ingredients that do and work from there. Others with cats that have IBD may be able to help you.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

The most common culprit is chicken, but there can be many others. What most members seem to do is to find a novel protein (rabbit, bison, etc) and put their cat on ONLY that food. It will take about 13 weeks before you can be sure if it totally agrees with them, so it is a long process.

 

[Catmom1234567890]

But, if my cat doesn't show physical symtoms then how do I know what she is truly allergic to. She does have thickened GI per biopsy, but she does not vomit and poop is normal.

 

[di and bob]

I would give her something to help speed the hairballs through her system. Like a teaspoon of butter every other day, or a hairball treat that you can get online to help. Butter has almost nonexistent lactose so is safe to give. then it will give you time to figure out what to feed her. Start with a portion of hypoallergenic cat food in something she will it. Or something made for allergies.

 

[Catmom1234567890]

She already had 2 surgeries for hairball obstructions. The big question is how to find out what she is allergic to. She ate chicken, pork, rabbit, lamb, turkey and had no vomiting or diarrhea. Vet said her thickened GI is caused by food. But if she is not showing physical signs then is it impossible to pinpoint specific food allergy?

 

[Sevilay28]

Any news? C Catmom1234567890

 

[Catmom1234567890]

She’s not allergic to specific protein. Inflammation is caused by dysbiosis which attacks the protein molecules. For dysbiosis, our vet recommended probiotic to normalize gut bacteria.

we’ve learned most vets and pet owners think certain protein causes allergy but it’s not. The cause is dysbiosis. To build healthy gut bacterial, we make our home made food with a completer. This way we can avoid all the fillers and thickeners that disrupts gut biome.

 

[Time 2 Recognize]

She’s not allergic to specific protein. Inflammation is caused by dysbiosis which attacks the protein molecules. For dysbiosis, our vet recommended probiotic to normalize gut bacteria.

we’ve learned most vets and pet owners think certain protein causes allergy but it’s not. The cause is dysbiosis. To build healthy gut bacterial, we make our home made food with a completer. This way we can avoid all the fillers and thickeners that disrupts gut biome.

How has it been going catmom? I have had a recent situation with my kitty, which I think will turn into an IBD or "allergy" notice. I think my feline familiar has dysbiosis. I do have her on a probiotic (we're about a week or two into that routine), but I was wondering, since your thinking is the same as mine, a few things.
Have you found effective treatments and approaches to rebalance your companions biome?
And how did you find a vet who understood these things? Do they do consults with test results? Lol. I'm partially kidding. Hope your kitty is doing well.

 

[daftcat75]

My Betty is the same way. She had weekly hairballs that would tear her up for half a day and end in pink spits. But she never threw up food or had diarrhea. So how to tell one food is better for her gut than another? Especially when her hairball interval was sometimes as long as three weeks. I would think I finally found the magic formula and then

What’s really helped for Betty was prednisilone. First at 5 mg a day. We have tapered twice to 2.5 mg a day. I just spoke with the IM doc last night and he said he has no objections with her staying at this level while we revisit food. I would also like to try home-cooked with a completer.

For the dysbiosis, which I also believe is the cause and not a side effect, I am using Gut Health testing from AnimalBiome along with their Gut Restore Supplement (FMT pills) and their Gut Maintenance Protocol (s boulardii) for elevated populations of clostridium and E. coli revealed by the testing. Fortunately, she does not appear to be symptomatic for either. Except maybe the persistent need for ondansetron. I got her off mirtazapine and famotidine when we started pred. But she still requires ondansetron. That’s no biggie. She actually likes taking her pills. I repack her pills (pred and ondansetron) into gelatin capsules, twist them in some Hills A/D, and drop them on the carpet for her. She scoops and swallows and sits ready for the next one. Or the meal when she’s finished her pills. I highly recommend AnimalBiome’s testing and products if you want to address the dysbiosis of gut disease.

 

[lisahe]

She already had 2 surgeries for hairball obstructions. The big question is how to find out what she is allergic to. She ate chicken, pork, rabbit, lamb, turkey and had no vomiting or diarrhea. Vet said her thickened GI is caused by food. But if she is not showing physical signs then is it impossible to pinpoint specific food allergy?

What is your cat eating? We've also found that our cats have problems with non-protein ingredients: potato, agar-agar, green-lipped mussels are the worst. (I think I'm forgetting one!) There are other ingredients that we don't feed out of principle: carrageenan and pea protein are at the top of that list. The simpler the recipes for food, the easier it is to sort food sensitivities.

I'm not sure if they'd resolve your cats' hairballs but we've found that Vet's Best Hairball Relief Digestive Aid has been great for our cats. They've made our moderately constipated cat regular and seem to kind of, hm, even out our other cat's digestive system. That second cat has had a tendency to build up hair.

One other thing, in case your vet hasn't mentioned this: cats' motility tends to decrease with age, resulting in more constipation. This is something that our vet started pounding into our heads when our cats were still just a few years old. Feeding a little extra egg yolk can help.