Has anyone else experienced this strange allergy my cat has?

Question

My 7-year old cat broke out recently with about 15 bloody bumps all over her forehead, in front of her ears. My sister, a veterinarian, told me over the phone it is likely an allergy and we traced it to some bonito flakes I had fed her as a special treat two days before--she told me to use small amounts of neosporin and hydrocortisone and it should clear up in a couple of days. I'm shocked and had never heard of this, but there were no other changes in her diet or surroundings. Her brother ate the same flakes, but she also cannot eat most brands of dry food without throwing up and he is not like that, so I guess she is sensitive. My question is, has anyone else ever experienced this with bonito?

I should add that she has told me repeatedly to switch to wet food, she even gave me a bunch of canned Trader Joe's premium, which I have not been using. You may be right.

Answer 1

To that particular item, no. But sensitive systems, digestive issues and food allergies seem to be quite common.

Obviously you already know not to feed her that again, and that you should probably avoid any fishy foods as well. Fishy cat food (not to mention human-grade tuna which is very bad) isn't good as a steady diet in any case, so your kitty won't be missing out on anything.

Answer 2

Yes, we had one of ours react strongly when a manufacturer 'tweeked' the dry catfood and moved the Rosemary Extract up three lines in the ingredient list. She was highly allergic to the rosemary extract (which is used as a preservative) and broke out in lumps the size of BB's all over her neck, shoulders, sides and hip area that scabbed up and would go away in 2 weeks, then come back even denser. I counted 127 on her neck alone.

We only narrowed it down when another person on a cat list mentioned the same thing with their cat, and we found it was the Royal Canin Siamese 38 that was the cause. Taking her off the food cleared things up in a week and a half. Putting her back on it got the same reaction in 3 days, so she can't have the stuff. None of the other cats we have were affected at all.

Answer 3

Hi
How am I goling to get you to listen to a layman over your sister the vet?
Most allergies come from food and there are alot more allergents in dry foods then canned. I doubt that the problem came from bonito flakes. Most likely you need a food that has little in the way of grains and NO corn

Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health
Contrary to what you may have heard, dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.
Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i’s and a host of other problems. The problems with it are that they are loaded with carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process. Most of the moisture a cat needs is gotten
out of the food and 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Also, most use horrible ingredients and don't use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.
You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn't have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all. Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods.Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Please read about cat nutrition.

http://www.newdestiny.us/nutritionbasics.html

Answer 4

Be on the safe side and take her to the vet ASAP. You don't want her wounds getting infected & her health getting seriously compromised from something that could rather easily be taken care of from the start. Sounds like what she has is spreading, so the sooner you get medical help the better she'll start feeling.

Answer 5

i'm sorry i don't. evern though i have 12 cats i have not ever seen it take the cat to a vet not your sister.
ok