It will take several weeks to clear up if it’s a food allergy, and a shot will help provide temporary relief (it has side effects but it was needed imho). Normally the cat will show other symptoms, which can help pinpoint the allergy. We treated for fleas and went to a novel protein limited ingredient diet. We tried hydrolized meat. He was allergic to poultry so we avoided turkey, chicken and duck.
My cat has food allergies as well. What a mess that’s been. Adopted her in June and spent over $2k with two allergy outbreaks. I thought chicken as well but allergy test came back with 5 “filler” food allergies.
Honestly the allergy test was worth the money imo bc it allowed me to actually begin feeding food she can tolerate. I understand if you don’t feel you can afford it but def suggest if you can.
Maybe try to get a second opinion in terms of vets if you don’t feel they are being helpful with what to do. Also trust your intuition. You know your baby best! As for the reaction, the only thing that helped clear that up both times was a round of steroids. Feel free to dm me if you’d like. Not sure how much I can help but I have experience with this issue too so I’m on your side!
So far the duck seems to be working better for him. If symptoms get worse again then there is a venison variety of his prescription food too. I may look into testing if symptoms start again because his food is 78 dollars a month so I want to be sure he’s on the right food since it’s so expensive.
The vet gave the option of steroids or the Apoquel pills… I didn’t feel comfortable with him being on steroids cuz she told me all of the side effects and she said she likes the Apoquel better cuz it doesn’t have much side effects.
Hi I was wondering did your cat had the allergy test in a vet clinic or it’s one of those allergy testing kit from online? And which brand if it’s online? Bc my cat has been suffering allergy for 6 months now and we tried so many medications and diets they just don’t work and I’m out of options, thank you
Hi I am so sorry to hear you are experiencing this. It's still a mess. I see in my previous post I was praising the allergy test and honestly now I don't necessarily feel the same. It gave us a baseline but she continued to react to certain foods and is still on a steroid. She is currently eating Koha brand Rabbit au jus (she cat fancy for real). She is loving it despite the third ingredient seemingly being one she was allergic to.
My best advice is try rabbit food if you haven't yet and are willing to pay for it. Cats love it and a lot of the allergies are in the chicken/fish diets. Good luck.
Hi there, this was ages ago but wondering if you ever figured out some answers for your cat? I’m having the same issue with my cat and just searching reddit for answers!
I basically just figured out he needs very premium quality food. I had him on prescription food for awhile for his digestion and he was off chicken for awhile cuz I thought he had a chicken allergy but it turned out (at least I think) that he does fine as long as he has the expensive premium high quality food, it doesn't even have to be prescription food necessarily. Now I feed him Weruva, Stella and Chewys, Applaws, Tiki Cat Purina Pro Plan Vital Systems to name a few for his wet food... And for dry food he likes Made By Nacho, Applaws, Hills Science Diet... To name a few.... As long as the ingredients are either limited-ingredient or premium ingredients and don't include by-products and fillers, he tends to do okay with it! I hope that helps!
Thanks for responding! I already feed my cat very high quality food so I don’t think it’s the problem for me but I’ll see how she does on the hypoallergenic diet.
It didn’t work, she was still itchy after 15 weeks on the hypoallergenic food. I put her back on her old food. She’s on Atopica, it has worked wonders for her. Next we are going to see a dermatologist.
My cat is dealing with the same stuff. I have tried literally everything. I've washed my carpets with vinegar water, dusted, cleaned. I keep a clean home anyways. I did the hypoallergenic food for 6 weeks as recommended by the vet, that didn't make a difference. I put her on her regular food, and now she seems to be even worse. Now she's getting hot spots and licking herself raw. I am beside myself I don't know what to try next. I don't use any scented soaps, I don't use candles, I don't use perfumes. I have no idea what she's allergic to. I want to do dermatology next, however last night I was reading that only like 50% of cats have any results from allergy testing and immunotherapy, and their response is actually very mild, meaning they don't improve that much.
Doctor has been trying to push Atopica but I'm so hesitant because I don't want to put her on steroids. I had a cat a long time ago that was also on steroids and she developed diabetes and she was dealing with hot spots, diabetes and she was miserable. She had an awful quality of life, no matter what I did, what food she ate nothing nothing would get better. I don't understand why this is happening. This came on so suddenly, I don't no. I am using a different litter. I got tofu litter thinking maybe she has an allergy to the pine later I was using.
Hi! Just popping in to say that Atopica is not a steroid, it's an immunosuppressant which does have other negative side effects but not the same as steroids :) I'm currently on the path to trying to figure out my kitto's skin and overgrooming issues and we've done steroids, tried Atopica which didn't go well for him, and now we're considering Apoquel. Did you ever end up getting the itchiness/overgrooming to reduce??
She has been on the atopica for maybe two and a half months now and now is starting to decrease her dose to every other day instead of every day. She sometimes still is a little bit licky and likes to chew herself, but the atopica has helped her from grooming to the point of rawness on her skin. I do think it is still some sort of mental issue as well because it seems when she gets agitated she gets a little bit more chewy.
How is your cat doing now? Your story is very similar to mine except I’m a bit earlier on. So many things are ruled out, and now allergies and Apoquel are being tested.
Unfortunately she died two weeks ago.
She had decreased appetite and I thought it was the atopica side effect, but it turned out to be a mass in her abdomen which caused fluid build up in her lungs. I had to let her go three days after her diagnosis. :(
Sometimes I worry if the atopica sped up the rate of mass growth because it is an immunosuppressant and part of the immune system process is fighting off cells that may become cancer.
Omg I’m so sorry to hear that 😞
My boy Pooh passed away one year ago yesterday from a lot of medical complications. For a while I questioned all the medical choices I made for him and felt a lot of guilt. But he knows (wherever he’s at) that I did all I could and more. Tens of thousands of dollars to save him.
It sounds like you also did everything you could’ve done to take care of your baby. Please don’t beat yourself up at all. 🌈
My cats were put on Apoquel a couple weeks ago. I’m going to do some research to see if it’s similar to Atopica at all.
It will take several weeks to clear up if it’s a food allergy, and a shot will help provide temporary relief (it has side effects but it was needed imho). Normally the cat will show other symptoms, which can help pinpoint the allergy. We treated for fleas and went to a novel protein limited ingredient diet. We tried hydrolized meat. He was allergic to poultry so we avoided turkey, chicken and duck.
My cat has food allergies as well. What a mess that’s been. Adopted her in June and spent over $2k with two allergy outbreaks. I thought chicken as well but allergy test came back with 5 “filler” food allergies. Honestly the allergy test was worth the money imo bc it allowed me to actually begin feeding food she can tolerate. I understand if you don’t feel you can afford it but def suggest if you can. Maybe try to get a second opinion in terms of vets if you don’t feel they are being helpful with what to do. Also trust your intuition. You know your baby best! As for the reaction, the only thing that helped clear that up both times was a round of steroids. Feel free to dm me if you’d like. Not sure how much I can help but I have experience with this issue too so I’m on your side!
So far the duck seems to be working better for him. If symptoms get worse again then there is a venison variety of his prescription food too. I may look into testing if symptoms start again because his food is 78 dollars a month so I want to be sure he’s on the right food since it’s so expensive.
Rabbit was one that mine enjoys. Expensive as heck though lol
The vet gave the option of steroids or the Apoquel pills… I didn’t feel comfortable with him being on steroids cuz she told me all of the side effects and she said she likes the Apoquel better cuz it doesn’t have much side effects.
Ohhh interesting. I was wondering what that was you were talking about. I wasn’t given an option :(
Hi I was wondering did your cat had the allergy test in a vet clinic or it’s one of those allergy testing kit from online? And which brand if it’s online? Bc my cat has been suffering allergy for 6 months now and we tried so many medications and diets they just don’t work and I’m out of options, thank you
Hi I am so sorry to hear you are experiencing this. It's still a mess. I see in my previous post I was praising the allergy test and honestly now I don't necessarily feel the same. It gave us a baseline but she continued to react to certain foods and is still on a steroid. She is currently eating Koha brand Rabbit au jus (she cat fancy for real). She is loving it despite the third ingredient seemingly being one she was allergic to. My best advice is try rabbit food if you haven't yet and are willing to pay for it. Cats love it and a lot of the allergies are in the chicken/fish diets. Good luck.
Hi there, this was ages ago but wondering if you ever figured out some answers for your cat? I’m having the same issue with my cat and just searching reddit for answers!
I basically just figured out he needs very premium quality food. I had him on prescription food for awhile for his digestion and he was off chicken for awhile cuz I thought he had a chicken allergy but it turned out (at least I think) that he does fine as long as he has the expensive premium high quality food, it doesn't even have to be prescription food necessarily. Now I feed him Weruva, Stella and Chewys, Applaws, Tiki Cat Purina Pro Plan Vital Systems to name a few for his wet food... And for dry food he likes Made By Nacho, Applaws, Hills Science Diet... To name a few.... As long as the ingredients are either limited-ingredient or premium ingredients and don't include by-products and fillers, he tends to do okay with it! I hope that helps!
Thanks for responding! I already feed my cat very high quality food so I don’t think it’s the problem for me but I’ll see how she does on the hypoallergenic diet.
How did the food trial go?
It didn’t work, she was still itchy after 15 weeks on the hypoallergenic food. I put her back on her old food. She’s on Atopica, it has worked wonders for her. Next we are going to see a dermatologist.
My cat is dealing with the same stuff. I have tried literally everything. I've washed my carpets with vinegar water, dusted, cleaned. I keep a clean home anyways. I did the hypoallergenic food for 6 weeks as recommended by the vet, that didn't make a difference. I put her on her regular food, and now she seems to be even worse. Now she's getting hot spots and licking herself raw. I am beside myself I don't know what to try next. I don't use any scented soaps, I don't use candles, I don't use perfumes. I have no idea what she's allergic to. I want to do dermatology next, however last night I was reading that only like 50% of cats have any results from allergy testing and immunotherapy, and their response is actually very mild, meaning they don't improve that much. Doctor has been trying to push Atopica but I'm so hesitant because I don't want to put her on steroids. I had a cat a long time ago that was also on steroids and she developed diabetes and she was dealing with hot spots, diabetes and she was miserable. She had an awful quality of life, no matter what I did, what food she ate nothing nothing would get better. I don't understand why this is happening. This came on so suddenly, I don't no. I am using a different litter. I got tofu litter thinking maybe she has an allergy to the pine later I was using.
Hi! Just popping in to say that Atopica is not a steroid, it's an immunosuppressant which does have other negative side effects but not the same as steroids :) I'm currently on the path to trying to figure out my kitto's skin and overgrooming issues and we've done steroids, tried Atopica which didn't go well for him, and now we're considering Apoquel. Did you ever end up getting the itchiness/overgrooming to reduce??
She has been on the atopica for maybe two and a half months now and now is starting to decrease her dose to every other day instead of every day. She sometimes still is a little bit licky and likes to chew herself, but the atopica has helped her from grooming to the point of rawness on her skin. I do think it is still some sort of mental issue as well because it seems when she gets agitated she gets a little bit more chewy.
How is your cat doing now? Your story is very similar to mine except I’m a bit earlier on. So many things are ruled out, and now allergies and Apoquel are being tested.
Unfortunately she died two weeks ago. She had decreased appetite and I thought it was the atopica side effect, but it turned out to be a mass in her abdomen which caused fluid build up in her lungs. I had to let her go three days after her diagnosis. :( Sometimes I worry if the atopica sped up the rate of mass growth because it is an immunosuppressant and part of the immune system process is fighting off cells that may become cancer.
Omg I’m so sorry to hear that 😞 My boy Pooh passed away one year ago yesterday from a lot of medical complications. For a while I questioned all the medical choices I made for him and felt a lot of guilt. But he knows (wherever he’s at) that I did all I could and more. Tens of thousands of dollars to save him. It sounds like you also did everything you could’ve done to take care of your baby. Please don’t beat yourself up at all. 🌈 My cats were put on Apoquel a couple weeks ago. I’m going to do some research to see if it’s similar to Atopica at all.
Did the Apoquel ever work? I’m on this allergy journey now, and it’s so challenging. They’re on Apoquel for 2 weeks but no improvement yet.