My 2 yr old cat vomiting her food. Vet said allergic to chicken and beef by-products. Help please?

Unless you did an elimination diet and started adding things back in and found the allergies that way, there's no way your vet can be sure it's chicken and beef. Cats can be allergic to many things and exhibit the exact same symptoms. It could be anything in the environment, dust, dogs, scotchguard on your furniture.. anything in the food.. most common would be wheat and corn but it could certainly be chicken and beef. If you want to confirm the food suspicion, try a hypoallergenic diet such as the Natural Balance's pea & duck formula, or Hill's prescription hypoallergenic diet. Your cat would need to be on one of those for 8 weeks with no other treats or table scraps. The problem with almost any other food on the market is that it will contain some common ingredient in cat food. And if your cat has had it before, he could be allergic to it now.. So even novel protein diets such as those labeled venison will have things like fish oil or chicken fat in them. Heads up - read the ingredients completely.

Also please use steroids only as a last resort. They can have some bad side effects with short term or long term use. If they are holding the vomiting to a minimum, they may be necessary while you get to the bottom of the vomiting. But a better choice for the itchiness would be an antihistamine. Ask your vet about trying something like Benadryl or Claritin. Benadryl works well for the allergy cat I know but each cat is different.

There may be more to the story than the details listed here, and in that case I apologize. But so far I'm not impressed with your vet. If it were me, I'd be inclined to get a second opinion or ask for a referral to a pet dermatologist or perhaps find a holistic vet to help you sort through this. Good luck!

Cats are obligate carnivores and digest meat more easily than any other food item. Canned food is also more easily tolerated than dry, and is much healthier too. For commercial products that are chicken and beef free look for:

Canned:

Tiki Cat, Weruva, Evo, Instinct, BFF, Before Grain, Natural Balance, or Evangers.

Dry:

Natural Balance, Instinct, Evo, Acana, or Orijen.

Raw foods are almost always your best bet. These include:

Natures Variety, Primal, or Bravo.

The above are just brand names. Make sure you are reading labels and choosing the flavor (such as duck, venison, lamb, or fish) that does not have chicken or beef. All of these brands are by-product free and free of filler ingredients.

Some of these foods, like Instinct, Natural Balance, and Before Grain can be found at Petco. The others you will have to go to a small pet store to find.

Have you considered an ultrasound or exploratory surgery? At that age, with those symptoms and normal bloodwork, it's probably not going to end well. It never turns out to be something simple and fixable. If his quality of life were poor and I were unable to have additional diagnostics done, I would consider euthanasia. I had a 13 year old cat that would vomit and had been losing weight for a long time. I tried every test in the book and every "maybe" treatment out there. The last thing I could have tried would have been exploratory surgery and I didn't want to put him though it. Cost wasn't a factor, because it would have been done free at the clinic I work at. Anyway, I did have him opened up after he was euthanized and it turns out his liver was abnormal and he was yellow inside. The multiple bloodwork panels I ran on him never indicated a problem. I guess what I'm saying is going "all out" is not always the best thing for the pet. They suffer. I wish I had euthanized my cat a lot sooner than I did, but it was a difficult decision because his tests never told me what was wrong.

It's tough to find cat food without byproducts in the grocery store brands, but at least in the US, there are many foods available with no byproducts. I would also steer clear of corn, wheat and soy since those are common allergens for cats.

You can find some cat foods without byproducts, grains or soy at Petco or Petsmart, or order online from sites like petflow.com or petfooddirect.com You can search and check ingredients on here http://www.petflow.com/

I've got a cat who has IBD and get very bad reaction ( vomiting blood and diarrhea, & has had to be hospitalized ) from some foods like corn and beef.

The vet ( internal med specialist) recommended a grain free food with venison, rabbit or duck (a type of protein he was not used to. The vet said don't just switch constantly between all those kinds of meat in case he develops a reaction to one, so he could then try another ) . Nature's Variety Instinct makes foods in those kinds. I chose the venison , and feed mostly canned and some raw frozen. They also have dry food including a rabbit version. ( but cats do need to eat at least half wet food since they dont tend to drink enough to keep well hydrated if on mostly dry)

Unfortunately the NV Instinct is rather expensive. The cat and dog canned formulas are the same thing, just different labels. and it's more economical to get the 13 oz can, but still pretty expensive.

You may end up needing to feed one of those (or lamb.) or make your own cat food. There is a recipe on Dr Lisa Pierson's site http://catinfo.org/ , which is a good place to start learning more about cat nutrition.

But right now if what you're trying at first is just to avoid byproducts, there are lots more possibilities.

( though I really would suggest avoiding the corn, wheat and soy. and don't feed fish very often. )

Some other brands Merrick, Merrick Before Grain, Wellness, Blue Buffalo Wilderness , Weruva, Innova Evo,

.

Going to a pet store will find you *tons* of options for by-product free foods. You will find none at the grocery store or WalMart. By-products aren't meat - they are scrap bits and pieces that have been deemed unfit for human consumption. They are a low-quality source of protein, and hard to digest. Go to your local big-box pet store and check out the brands there in the premium food isle. Pick up each can (or bag) and read the ingredients. You will find many that are free of by-products and corn (another source of vomiting and loose stool). It doesn't have to be expensive - Petsmart's Authority brand is very reasonably priced, yet contains no by-products.

If he's having problems with digestion, I'd recommend cooking him his own meatless food until his condition is better. Cook up some plain rice and add in some tuna fish or other sea food. If you find comercial food without chicken and beef by-products, you can add this in too.

If he's vomiting, I'd keep him in a room where there's an easy to clean floor. A bathroom, especially an extra one that doesn't get used, is great. Make sure it's warm and that he has a bed, toys, fresh water and a litter box.