Food allergies can attack any animals, including your pets. Cats and dogs are also prone to have food allergy. Allergies appear when your body cannot deal with something entering it. Food allergy is a condition when your body reacts to the food you eat.
Food allergies are caused by a particular ingredient in food, which is commonly protein. You can see the complete explanation of food allergy in pets, such as in signs your dog has food allergies. The signs might be similar to cats.
Cats, just like humans, are prone to have such food allergies. Sometimes owners have to make a trial and error feeding to their cats in order to know which food is more suitable for the cat. Cats can have allergy to certain types of food, such as seafood, dairy products, food with artificial coloring and preservatives.
You might be wondering now how you can distinguish the signs of your cats having food allergies. Let’s check the 6 signs you cat having food allergies that you need to know.
- Excessive Gut Sounds
The first sign of your cat having food allergy is the presence of gut sounds. While your cat is having food allergy, it is more likely to have some gut sounds. Besides, your cat will also experience passing of gas.
- Constant Scratching
If you see your cat scratches more often than usual, then this might become one of the symptoms of a food allergy. A cat which experiences food allergy tends to scratch or rub its bodies so it starts to form bald patches.
Be aware once your cat starts to scratch more often as it might lead to fur loss. Regarding to cat’s fur, you might be curious of fur changing color in cats.
However, the cause of itchy skin might vary. Be sure to check the presence of fleas too. If your cat is having problem with fleas and you are worried they would bite you, you need to see whether cat fleas can bite humans.
- Gastrointestinal Problems
Gastrointestinal problems commonly happen to your cat once it experiences food allergy. Vomiting and diarrhea are the usual symptoms of gastrointestinal problems.
Your cat will be likely to have frequent bowel movements or strain when it has excretion or defecating.
- Ear Infection
Some cats even experience infection in their ears because of food allergy.
- Skin Problems
Skin problems, such as darkening side of the skin, inflammation, redness, swollen parts and others are commonly experienced by the cat which endures food allergy. Most of them are caused by excessive scratching.
- Avoiding Certain Type of Food
As the food your cat eats is creating allergy or some uncomfortable body condition, your cat will tend to avoid certain type of food. It is a kind of trauma for your cat. If this condition keeps on going, your cat will experience sudden weight loss as well as it does not want to eat.
After knowing the signs of food allergy in cats, you might be wondering what you should do once your cat is experiencing food allergy. Let’s see the treatments or remedies you can do:
- Antibiotics – this is useful for getting rid of the bacteria present in the skin. If your cat experiences sneezing while it has allergies, you can use antibiotics as one of the cures to what makes sneezing cannot be stopped on cats.
- Probiotics – this is helpful in restoring the gastrointestinal tract function, as it restores the good bacteria to function properly.
- Specialized diets – this is your vet’s concern as your vet knows the best what kind of diet suitable for your cat. Remember, vegan diet is not suitable for you cat, you may read the the reasons why you should not let your pets have vegan diet.
- Prevent some types of food that can trigger allergies in cats, such as seafood, beef and dairy products.
If your cat doesn’t consume anything except novel diet and water, it could take around 10 weeks for the food allergy to stop. Novel diet is a type of diet which introduces new types of protein that your cat hasn’t eaten before.
It can be whitefish, turkey, chicken. However, if your cat shows some reactions to these types of protein, you can substitute them with less-meat products, such as sardines, salmon or trout.
Understanding the type of food your cat is allergic at is very crucial as it might save your cat’s life. Yes, allergies can even lead to death.
Updating your knowledge about the type of food cats are allergic at is really needed. You can refer to these human foods that are safe for cat. Who knows you can share your food with your cat?