Pet Lovers

[Happiness Is Inside JOB]

Hello Ladies and Gents - I wanted to provide another update and get your adive and opinions.  For new readers, my cat was biting himself, paws, legs, bitting tummy - after much observation, visits to vet, we discovered that he is allergic to poultry. 

He was prescribed a limited diet - Hills Sensitive Skin Venison/Green Pea dry food and can food.  The can food bothered him even though it has no poultry, but it does have soybean oil.  I learned that some cats have a reaction to soybean oil.  So we have 2 items to avoid, poultry and soybean oil. 

So now, I am searching for a wet food to mix in with the dry food.  I purchased one can of Natural Balance L.I.D. Limited Ingredient Diets Tuna & Pumpkin Formula Flaked Grain-Free Wet Cat Food.  Well, by the end of the day, I noticed signs of a reaction.  Now you would think, this food would have been okay.  Here are the ingredients below -- Does any ingredient jump out at you as a possible cause?

Ingredients

1. Tuna, Fish Broth, Pumpkin, Canola Oil, Guar Gum, Tricalcium Phosphate, Calcium Sulfate, Natural Flavor, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Glycine Complex, Potassium Iodide, Sodium Selenite), Vitamins (Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Riboflavin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Source of Vitamin K Activity), Folic Acid, Vitamin B12 Supplement), Choline Chloride, Taurine, Carrageenan.

Well last night he was bitting so much i decided to give him a good cleaning, this was done in the hopes to "calm" his skin itching.

Also about 3 -4 weeks ago, I gave my cat a "wipe" down cleaning with Hypoallergenic Dog and Cat Shampoo - All Natural with Aloe Vera, Chamomile & Rosemary for Sensitive and Young Skin.  I did not put him in the tube or scare him.  I filled the bathroom sink with warm water and a few squirts of the shampoo.  I used a warm washcloth and wiped him down, then washed off the shampoo with warm water on a different washcloth.         

Well I now wonder, will my cat ever be able to eat soft food again?   All comments, ideas, will be appreciated.                                        

[Happiness Is Inside JOB]

I am researching online and I am on CatCentric and look what I found.  There is an article about ingredients to avoid in cat food.  I am going down the ingredieent list item by item.  Guar Gum jumped out at me. So this is hte firat item I researched.

Guar Gum is on the list.

Read this...so this is connected to soybean oil.

 Livestrong.com indicates that guar gum may not only contain traces of soy, some forms of guar gum contain soy protein: up to 10% of the ingredient. (5) Soy is problematic for many reasons (and will be fifth in this series, Pet Food Ingredients to Avoid). But for the purposes of this post, apart from being primarily a GMO crop with the problems that entails, soy is often also an allergan. If your cat is allergic to soy and eats a product containing guar gum with soy proteins, kitty may be nauseous, vomit, have diarrhea, or develop a skin rash. If your cat is reacting to a food and you’re going crazy trying to identify a protein culprit, consider eliminating guar gum from your cat’s diet.

I am going to add guar gum to the items to be eliminated.  More information to follow as I keep researching.

[Happiness Is Inside JOB]

Well, more information to share as I read different cat webpages.  I am on the catsite and some other cat owners are having a problemwith both carrageenan and guar gum (and also foods with a lot of fish).

A few canned foods that do not have carrageenan or guar gum were listed. I'm going to try and find a place where I can buy maybe 1-3 of each brand and not a case.

Nature's Logic - All canned formulas

Nature's Variety - All "Instinct" formulas

[Happiness Is Inside JOB]

I decided to go back and revist the items in the "Calm" cat food to see, is the problem the chicken or the guar gum/carg. item.  Well Guar gum and car. are not in calm.  Only the chicken so we can stick with the belief the poultry is a problem.

The calm ingredients are below:

Chicken By-Product Meal, Corn, Brewers Rice, Wheat Gluten, Corn Gluten Meal, Wheat, Natural Flavors, Powdered Cellulose, Dried Plain Beet Pulp, Chicken Fat, Fish Oil, Calcium Sulfate, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Dl-Methionine, Vegetable Oil, Fructooligosaccharides, Taurine, L-Lysine, Psyllium Seed Husk, Choline Chloride, Vitamins [Dl-Alpha Tocopherol Acetate (Source of Vitamin E), Inositol, Niacin Supplement, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (Source of Vitamin C), D-Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Riboflavin Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate (Vitamin B1), Vitamin A Acetate, Folic Acid, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement], Dried Hydrolyzed Casein, L-Tryptophan, Marigold Extract (Tagetes Erecta L.), Trace Minerals [Zinc Proteinate, Zinc Oxide, Ferrous Sulfate, Manganese Proteinate, Manganous Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite, Copper Proteinate], L-Carnitine, Rosemary Extract, Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols and Citric Acid.

[ValuSkr]

Thank you for the update.  I don't have a cat but my brother's family does.  Hoping their new cat doesn't develop allergies.

[Happiness Is Inside JOB]

Thanks for your comments, I am going through a lot of different foods that are grain free and reading the ingredient lists to see what options I have.

Suprisingly some grain free food that may be "beef" when you read the ingredient list it has chicken lver or chicken something.

I have found a few that do not have guar gum or carc.

So far they are:

Weruva Mideast Feast with Grilled Tilapia in Gravy Canned Cat Food, 3-oz, case of 24

ZiwiPeak Daily-Cat Cuisine Venison & Fish Canned Cat Food, 6-oz, case of 12

Nature's Logic Feline Beef Feast Canned Cat Food, 5.5-oz, case of 24

Fromm Four-Star Nutritionals Salmon & Tuna Pate Canned Cat Food, 5.5-oz, case of 12

I have not ordered any of the foods from Chewy, but I plan to see if I can purchase single cans at petsmart or somewhere online.

[ECBG]

We SO hurt when our precious babies aren't doing well.

 Glad you've figured it out!

[sandraskates]

There is a brand of canned cat food we periodically give our cats: Lotus.

It's practically human grade. One of the offerings is turkey and vegetable - no guar gum but one of the ingredients is 'natural chicken liver flavor.' I'd still suggest you try it.

Too bad Natural Balance isn't working for your cat. We started buying this brand fairly regularly and I've noticed that our cat's (we have 3 of them) fur is now super soft.

Good luck in your continued quest; I know it's not easy.

[Andreatoo]

I'm sorry but I have no allergies and haven't had any pets with alleries either

I did have one prone to UTIs, which I'm sure certain ingredients exacerbated but any urinary health formula did the trick for us.

Just keep in mind that fish is NOT a natural part of a domestic cat's diet....Cat food manufacturers have sold us a bill of goods...