It is well documented that allergies appear to be on the increase in humans, so should we be surprised if our animals experience similar problems?   They do, after all, share our environment, some of our stress and, given a chance, our food!   My own experience of owning a cat with what I now know to be a food allergy gave me nearly two years of frustration and heart-ache, struggling to find the right advice and guidance on managing his symptoms and finding the cause.    For him it must have been hell on earth.    I hope that the following account and suggestions, based entirely on my own experience, will enable others to identify the problem more quickly and speed their cat's recovery.

Case History

         The problems started in October 1997 when this young, friendly bouncy cat was just 9 months old.  He had experienced some success at shows and, apart from a little chronic chin acne, appeared in perfect health.    Then he suddenly started scratching his skin off around his head (in front of his ears) and neck, making it bleed.  I was horrified by the extent of his wounds and rushed him to my vet, where he was given a steroid injection and put in a veterinary collar to avoid further damage.  The steroids gave him some initial relief but then things gradually got worse.   He did more damage each time he 'escaped' from his collar, sometimes undoing weeks of healing within seconds.   I was soon having to bandage around his neck and shoulders to give further protection and 'pad' the collar.  In his desperate attempts to relieve the itching, which must have been intolerable, he scratched all the skin off patches the size of a 50p piece on both sides of his neck and mutilated his face.  His acne was also becoming very sore and he seemed to live on antibiotics and steroids.   My previously friendly, playful boy was becoming increasingly withdrawn, nervous and depressed and it broke my heart to watch as I struggled, in vain,  to help him.  

                  During these awful months my vet tested him for flea sensitivity , ring-worm, harvest mites (all negative), tried various 'selected
          protein' diets recommended for skin conditions and I bought just about every topical ointment, powder and homeopathic remedy on
          the market.  He just got worse.

In Search of the Solution

          By August 1998 I was getting really desperate and my vet just didn't know what to try next.   Neither of us wishing him to live on steroids, he was referred to the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket.   Here an extremely detailed history was taken and all previous tests were repeated, still proving negative.   He was started on a very strict exclusion diet consisting of (human quality) rabbit meat and rice, which he had to stick to rigidly for 8 weeks, excluding all other food, drinks (except water), treats or supplements.   Within 3 weeks he had stopped scratching and was able to keep his veterinary collar off.    Gradually his skin healed and fur started to regrow and then he started to get his 'bounce' back!    The relief was enormous and I was overjoyed when, at the next AHT visit, it was confirmed that he clearly had a food allergy. At least I now knew what we were dealing with and there was hope for his continued recovery.   As rabbit alone is not a balanced diet the next stage was to start re-introducing other foods one at a time, at two weekly intervals, watching closely for any reaction.  Starting with plain cooked chicken, we progressed to a chicken based dried food and then other fresh meats and fish.   As tinned food was the only food not yet re-introduced, I assumed this to be the culprit and avoided it completely.    He soon settled in to a diet of fresh cooked meat and the dried (biscuits) food.   That summer he resumed he show career and collected Intermediate certificates to become a 'qualifier' and help his breed achieve 'championship' status.   He still tended to get a little acne but I thought this would improve in time and believed that, at last, his problems were at an end.  

         

          Management  Over the next year his acne gradually got worse, requiring antibiotics on several occasions.  
          When it returned in September 1999, within 2 days of finishing a course of antibiotics, my vet suggested cleaning his chin with
          surgical spirit twice a week  which, though unpleasant, seemed to control the acne.   I felt this could only be a short term solution as it
          was making him even more withdrawn.  As acne is not unusual in young Abys I hadn't connected this with his other problems but I
          started to wonder if this could all be related to the food allergy, or maybe he had developed a new allergy?   I put him back on the
          rabbit exclusion diet for a couple of weeks just to see.   Within a week he started to become more playful again and I gradually
          got my lovely boy back.  I successfully re-introduced other fresh foods but not the biscuits.    He never had even a trace of acne again
          and became a big, healthy 'over-grown' kitten with boundless energy.  In August 2000 he returned to the show bench where a
          judge, knowing nothing of his history, commended him on his "superb condition" and helped him become one of the first Premiers
          of his breed.

            I continued to feed my cat on a diet of mainly fresh meat and fish (from a well known national supplier of frozen meat for pets) supplementing with additional taurine and calcium, a diet which seems to have benefited my other 'normal' cats as well.    As time went gone by he 'stabilized' and seemed to be able to tolerate the occasional stolen 'forbidden' food and a little dried food, which I saved for 'emergencies' when I needed to leave food down while out for a long time.  Although I have never discovered the actual allergen, I suspect that the problem may have been gluten/cereal related, common ingredients in many cat foods.  

Summary: How to manage an exclusion diet:

1.    Feed exclusively on a high quality protein source that they will not have been routinely exposed to before e.g.. rabbit or venison.  Rice may be added for bulk but is not essential.  Do not allow access to any other food/treat, drink (except water) for up to 8 weeks.

2.     If any improvement is noticed, add one other fresh cooked meat for 2 weeks.  This could be the same protein source as your chosen complete food.   Stop immediately if there is any adverse reaction.   (If no initial improvement occurred on the exclusion diet you may need to omit the rice or try a different protein source in case it is that they are allergic to).

3.   If no reaction is seen after 2 weeks, introduce the complete food (biscuits?).  Continue this for several weeks before introducing any other foods at 2 weekly intervals (as I discovered, some chronic problems can take a while to develop and it's easy to miss something if you rush this).

Other Facts I have discovered about food allergies:

• Food allergies are an inappropriate immune response to a substance which the animal has regularly eaten, hence the need for the exclusion diet to consist of food not previously present in their diet. 
• Allergies to different substances can develop at any age and may start as a chronic problem, gradually, or sometimes very rapidly, increasing in severity.    Initial reactions may be seasonal ('summer itch'?) aggravated by heat or stress.  
• Food allergies in cats most frequently manifest themselves as skin disorders where dogs more frequently experience digestive problems.   I believe this can also be the case however in some cats and have recently heard of the successful use of the exclusion diet process in treating cats with chronic digestive/diarrhea problems.   They are now symptom free on a fresh meat/fish diet.
• If feeding on natural or fresh food, great care needs to be taken to ensure a balanced diet.
• Oil of Evening Primrose can be helpful in supporting skin disorders (a few drops in the food each day - but not the capsule itself as this could contain other ingredients to which the cat may be allergic).

  Conclusion

  Until recently food allergies in cats has been considered very rare by the veterinary profession and little is understood about them, although it would appear that the problem may be on the increase.   I wish I had been able to access the information and help that I needed in order to help my cat more quickly.   I hope that this account of my experiences may help others to identify and solve similar problems more easily and avoid prolonged and unnecessary suffering.   I hope it will also give them the encouragement and hope to preserver through what can be a long, painstaking process.    If you have an animal who is experiencing any of the symptoms mentioned here, a strict exclusion diet is the quickest and easiest way of finding out if it is food related.   I certainly know that it is worth the effort: after being effectively poisoned by his food, at 2 years of age my lovely boy was 'reborn' and became the most playful of all my cats, enjoying life to the full and even gaining 'grand' awards at shows.    He was a joy to watch.
  
  
  Jill Davison
  (Please note that this article is based on personal experience only and any advice given within does not represent or allude to veterinary or scientific findings.   It is recommended that the adoption of any of the above methods/treatments are carried out with the full knowledge and consent of your veterinary surgeon).  
  

  Post note

        

Sadly, having successfully controlled his food allergy for 6 years, Fawn William suffered a series of urinary blockages.    Unable to eat recommended veterinary diets for this condition, he deteriorated and went into renal failure in December 2004, just before his 8th birthday.   After all he had been through, it seemed a particularly cruel twist of fate; my 'gentle giant' deserved far better.   He was dearly loved and greatly missed but I am so grateful for the extra years of good health and happiness he was able to enjoy once his allergy had been identified.  At least, with the aid of the help described above, I was able to give him those years, during which time he enjoyed life to the full and gave so much love.