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Cat with food allergy…?
Hello,
I have a 2 years old cat, neutered male, that came to me about a year ago. On his routine vaccination appointment the vet said that he may have food allergy because there are multiple symptoms that can show of allergy: anal glands leaking white discharge (the smell is a normal stick of anal fluid), ears have yeast and little bacteria, and a clear water like discharge from the right eye (only from the right eye and come here and there without any obvious reason.
His diet was only wet food, Sheba chicken, and when the food was only wet he was not drinking water at all.
At the vaccination appoinment the anal glands were emptied, ears cleaned and treated, and the eye is left as ‘to follow’ because there is no infection or anything else there need treatment. The anal glands were a bit red and infected, and it was treated with antibiotic.
Non of those symptoms seem to bother the cat, he is very active and happy, play and jump as a normal cat. He has many toys to play alone or with us, but I noticed he likes to bite and chew everything. We hid almost all the cables and covered the rest with non bite funflex, this stopped the cables biting but he also bite and chew pladtic made objects at the kitchen, and corners of books. He doen’t swallow or eating non food objects on purpose, just bite and chew. His teeth look good and healthy, no reason to suspect dental pain.
We changed the diet to only Royal canin anallergenic dry food for a week, at the same time after all the symptoms were treated and everything was ok for a while, and when I sterted to give very small amounts of wet food the cat got diarrhea. The main food is still the anallergenic dry and I give Fortiflora daily with it, but now the diarrhea started again and also the anal glands symptoms are acting a bit (smelly white leaking from both sides). The suspected allergen is chicken so the new wet food has no chicken and its grain free, the diarrhea is being treated with kaolin pectin (just started it yesterday, no noticable effect yet).
Can it be something else but food allergy?
I also have another cat, the first one’s brother. They came together from a shelter, the other cat has no symptoms like that at all. Both cats were tested negative for felv, fiv and giardia, both vaccinated. Also both eat the same food, use the same litter (they have 2 boxes) and do the same everything.
I’m thinking what to do next, just keep feeding my cat only dry anallergenic? He likes very much wet food (but the hypoallergenics didn’t go, didn’t like them), and I do want to give it, but every time we try he gets diarrhea and anal glands symptoms…
Everything I told was done by instructions of the vet, also the trying of new wet food.
Thanks😺
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2 Replies
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Hi Eve,
Breaking down your kitty’s illness signs, the yeast growth in the ears, if it is found to be a recurrent problem, certainly could be a food protein allergy. However, even indoor cats can develop environmental allergies. Even in the most closed-off-to-the-outdoors home environment dust and storage mites that live in everyone’s home are a significant source of environmental allergy for pets.
The recurrent anal sac issues are unusual for cats, we do see this a lot in dogs though. In general, we can see anal gland disease associated with chronic environmental or food allergies. If they were actually infected for a long time before adoption, the tissue in the glands may not be normal from chronic inflammation, tissue thickening, etc., and that may contribute to recurrence all on its own. They may require regular expression.
The eye discharge can have many other causes and I would not consider food allergy to be part of that. Viral infections (cats can be chronic carriers and can show signs during times of stress, like a new adoption) are more common causes in cats vs. allergies. If allergies are responsible, I consider this more like what people experience with seasonal environmental allergies (but viral causes I think are still more common in cats).
Any diet trial is just that, a trial. My own cat has IBD and she did not like the first two foods I attempted to transition her to. And then one that she liked and did well with caused diarrhea in a colleague’s cat who also had IBD. Any new diet can unfortunately cause diarrhea because it’s a change in nutrient digestion. Some cats handle that more readily than others. If you have not, You can consider trying to retransition to the prescription diet over a longer period of 2-3 weeks. Or, transition to a different hypoallergenic diet. Addition of fiber may be helpful and you could talk to your vet about that. Diet trials can take 8 weeks to be able to gauge efficacy. Unfortunately for the anal sacs, the diarrhea is not helping them to express normally. Addition of fiber, again, may be helpful.
It is very important, if you have not, to make sure to provide your vet with feedback about the diet concerns you’re seeing.
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This reply was modified 5 months, 2 weeks ago by Chris.
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Hi Chris,
Thank you for answering.
We just found out today that there was a lot of mold in our kitchen sink, drains and all over the plumbing. The cat with the allergy symptoms likes to hang out on the kitchen counter and stare at the drain, there was one specific spot that he was sniffing very often and right under that spot we found a centimeter thick layer of black mold. This can explain the ears and eyes, but can it be responsible for diarrhea or especially the anal glands symptoms? I can’t rule out totally that he was not licking the drain but it seem unlikely, can only breathing the ‘fumes’ of mold cause digestive system issues or anal glands? The vet said she is almost sure that the anal glands symptoms are an allergic reaction, can it be because of mold or something else environnementale? We got rid of the mold and treated the symptoms.
The anal glands are not stuck, at least not completely, but they also don’t empty completely. The leak spontaneously, and instead of a normal anal glands discharge something white come out but smells like a normal anal gland secretion. I noticed that about a month after they were expressed just because they started to leak again, the cat doesn’t show any sign that it bothers him or even noticd it. I emptied them again yesterday (by myself, I am a vet nurse), they empty easily and normal anal discharge came out with that white stuff that leak on it’s own. The ears are also cleaned snd treated, and antibiotic was prescribed to treat the infection symptoms. Kaolin Pectin had no kaolin pectin had no effect, the cat still has diarrhea…
Thanks again,
Eve
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This reply was modified 5 months, 2 weeks ago by
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