No Christmas Turkey for Maisy

[Sam (Fussy_Furball)]

Chicken??? strange .... all the sites I have looked at have said that it is usually beef and diary that causes skin allergies.  But I'm sure your vet knows best.

This is another food Eukanuba Cat Dermatosis LB veterinary diet meets the needs of cats suffering from both food allergies and other inflammatory skin diseases.

Eukanuba Cat Dermatosis

[Marie]

Thanks for that Sam I will definitely have a look.

She was on James Wellbeloved kitten food before.  This is what the vet has taken her off.  To be honest I'm not sure what the new Hill's perscription food has taken out to make it better for her but I'm sure the vet said to rule out anything with chicken.

[Sam (Fussy_Furball)]

Hi Marie,

Found this website that might help to answer some of your questions regarding Maisy's food allergy:

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_food_allergy.html

Also if your want to vary her diet the following are all hypoallergenic diets:

James Wellbeloved Cat Food.  Hypoallergenic Cat Food; Ocean White Fish & Rice, Turkey & Rice, Duck & Rice, Lamb & Rice

Arden Grange Cat Food.  Hypoallergenic Cat Food; Arden Grange Chicken & Rice

Wafcol cat food.  Salmon & Potato

I also think Burns food is also OK

With regards to wet food Kattovit do a hypoallergenic food http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches/kattovit

[Marie]

We have 2 kittens, Tommy is nearly 8 months.  I have been trying to feed them separate food but they are used to free eating dried so it was hard.  Spoke to the vet last night and as Tommy is currently prefering the prescription food to his own she says it is fine for him to have that so at least we can leave dried out for them.

I can only imagine how awful that must be for you and poor Stitch.  With Maisy it is only a small area and that is hard enough, I must admit I was starting to feel quite frustrated at going round in circles, there were a few tears on my part in the vets last week which I think persuaded them to do the blood test and biopsy.

[Linda (Bengalbabe)]

Sounds familiar Marie, unfortunately with Stitch she scratches, bleeds and infects her whole face and insider her ears depending on how far we let it go (she has to wait at least 3-4 weeks in between steroids and in the summer they seemed to only help for a couple of weeks).
Stitch does eat the food, having a multi-cat household probably complicates things for me but I try to ensure there is only her food lying around when she is in the house in the evening (not easy!).

[Marie]

That is probably the same food as Maisy.  I was worried its dried and she is used to a mixture of both wet and dry, at the moment she is scoffing it but I fear this will not last.  We were previously given long lasting 3-5 week steroid injections but Maisy was scratching and licking again in 2 weeks and the vets said they could not give her another until they were sure it was out of her system.  It is just one small area on her neck but as soon as it heals and we take the collar off she licks all the fur off and digs until it gets infected which is why she has been wearing the elizabethan collar for about 4 months.

[Linda (Bengalbabe)]

Hi Marie,

I've got a similar issue with my girl Stitch.  She has numerous allergies (I am told by the vet) including food.  She is on Hills prescription diet available through the vet and she does get very bored with it, its a dried food diet and she loves wet meat!
Unfortunately for Stitch, whilst this helps a bit, its not fully reduced her allergic reactions so she is also on 4-8 week doze of steroids  (much more frequent in the summer months, in colder months we can go a couple of months)

[Marie]

Sam, I'm sure Maisy would swap her venision for the juicy type you normally have for Christmas anyday!  The problem is it looks like Maisy will be having venision and green pea for every meal everyday! 

[Sam (Fussy_Furball)]

Wow so pleased you have finally found an answer .... hopefully this is the reason.

Poor Maisy and no Xmas turkey either.  Mind you Venison and Green Pea sounds pretty yummy to me.  I normally have venison at Xmas but unfortunately the chap that I work with who shoots the venison for us hasn't been able to make it up to Scotland so no venison for us this year.

[Marie]

Yes 3 months at the first vets, then because we were unhappy that we still did not have a reason for the scratching we changed vets, it has taken them only 1 month.  The most annoying thing is the original vet was supposed to do a biopsy when doing the cyst removal but decided that as the surface skin looked healthy (he could not understand this was only because Maisy was permanently wearing the Elizabethan collar not because she was not scratching) he made the decision without asking me not too.  His reason to save me £75, now 2 months, £200 and a further operation with 5 more stitches later the biopsy has been done and we have an answer!

[Desley (booktigger)]

Am glad you have finally found an answer - what a shame it took the vets so long though. No X Mas turkey, but nice sounding food for her.

[Marie]

Well, hopefully I finally have an answer to Maisy's scratching.  One small area on her neck.  After 4 months of wearing a collar, anti-biotics, steroid injections, cyst removal, blood tests and now a biopsy (and she is only 9 months old) the vet phoned last night to say they are almost 100% sure it is a food allergy.  Whilst the biopsy showed nothing nasty it did show inflammation to the healthy tissue around the removed liaison and tested positive for hyper sensitivity.  Maisy now has to have special food, venison and green pea (lucky Maisy!!!) and hopefully this will be the end of her scratching.  It has been a vicious circle or healing / self scratching/ licking now for over 4 months.  Of course this means no Christmas turkey for Maisy!!!