Question by Windi Lea: cat food allergy issue – fish?
Ok, so my part Siamese male cat, Harvey, has developed an allergy to fish. I had been feeding him Innova canned cat food, which has chicken and herring in it. For some time, he thrived on it, his coat getting unbelievably soft, and his energy level being excellent. Then in the last few weeks he has been unenthusiastic about that food, preferring other brands that I rotate with it. All winter he scratched at one ear, and I thought it was just winter dry skin, but with winter over, he continued to scratch. So, off to the vet we go. It’s been a few days since he had any of the Innova to eat, and his ear is less itchy, and not so irritated-looking. Vet draws blood, one of the factors, don’t ask me to remember which, indicated that there was definitely some allergy going on. Prescribed antibiotic/cortisone cream for the ear, and recommended permanently discontinuing fish in the diet.
After doing a bit of reading up on cat food allergies, I learned that it is generally the protein that the cat has the allergy to. Then I noticed that one of my favorite brands – Natural Balance – had a low-allergen food, that had no fish in it, but did have salmon oil. Well, ok, if it’s the protein that is the allergen, then the oil could possibly be ok. I went to call the vet to ask if that reasoning was, well, reasonable. The vet. we saw yesterday about the food allergy was not available for the phone, and the vet tech taking my message told me that no, you can’t give fish oil to a cat who is allergic to fish, even if all the cat is allergic to is the protein. But, she said, we should definitely try him on Hill’s Prescription Z/D. I asked her to read the label, and pointed out that it has precious little actual meat, and that my cat doesn’t do corn. In his younger days, Harvey had bouts of IBS, happily corrected by avoiding corn and wheat – and no way are we going back to that. She swore up hill and down that there was plenty of protein and no corn in it, well all except for the corn starch. I dunno, maybe in her country, corn starch is made from tree bark.
Then I checked out the Innova website, hoping to find that they had something less fishy I could try him on. Well, they have a large number of products, and it was too overwhelming to try to look at every single item. Everything I did look at, the ingredients included herring. So I emailed their customer service address, to ask if they had any canned cat foods without any fish in it, explained that I was asking because while I think their products are of excellent quality, my cat has that pesky fish allergy – and if they didn’t, would they please consider developing such a product. Their prompt reply is that, yes, there are var Innova EVO canned 95% Meat has no fish in it, but does have fish oil, but that should not be a problem because cats are allergic to the protein, not the oil.
Huh.
So, do I trust the info. from a company I already believe in, whose reasoning is similar to what I was already thinking? Or do I trust some vet tech who doesn’t comprehend that obligate carnivores need to eat meat, and has no clue what corn starch is?
Any one here have any experience, or insight into the matter?
Best answer:
Answer by LP609
Have you considered California Natural? It’s the same company as Innova. I just looked at the ingredients to their Chicken and Brown Rice dry food. No fish, and the Omega 3 and 6 come from flax seed rather than fish oil.
You might still look on the actual ingredient list on the bag, but this might be an option.
EDIT: I just saw that you were looking for canned food. It looks like California Natural isn’t great for that. Darn.
EDIT2: Check out Blue Buffalo. I just glanced at their Spa Selects and Wilderness wet foods – I think they might work for you: http://www.bluebuff.com/products/cats/can-turkey.shtml
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