I need advice. I have 2 persians, Zoe and Phoebe. Both of them have the itchy skin. The Vet says they have inhalent allergies, but they have itchy skin year round. I have read alot about food allergies, and alot of cats have problems with corn and wheat Gluten. I had been feeding them Royal Canine, Persian since they became adults. I read the indgredients and corn and wheat Gluten were both at the top of the list. So I bought 4 different foods, Wellness, Blue Buffalo, NB Pea and Duck, and Halo-Turkey for sensitive tummies and skin. I set up all the foods at once and let them pick. They liked HAlo the best. For the past week I slowly mixed the old with the new. Sunday I switched to just the Halo. Now my sensitive girl Zoe is having soft poos, and she threw-up(undigested kibble). I kinda of think that the kibble is too small and she is not chewing it. Now my dilema..do I switch them back...give it more time...try another food...I hate to upset their tummies even more. Phoebe is doing really well so far. It is SO hard being a mommy!!

Without some type of allergan testing, it's hard to say if your girls have an inhalent allergy or not. If they do, then changing the food might not help at all. Just a suggestion, but you might want to try salmon oil on their food for a couple of weeks. I've seen it clear up itchy skin in some cats quite quickly. (About half to one capsule per day.)

But you're right about the corn and wheat allergies in cats -- many cats have problems with grains in general.

About the vomiting, I don't think it has much to do with chewing the kibble. Only 2 of my cats chew their food -- the rest swallow everything whole including chunks of meat about the size of walnuts. The problem is more one of digestion -- she's not digesting it for one reason or another. There might be something in it that she is allergic to, her stomach acid may not be strong enough, or she might have a hairball. Did she tolerate the mix of food? Has she only thrown up once? Or is it after every meal with the new kibble?

If this is more than a one-off vomiting and soft poo, I'd do is go back to what she had no problems with and then try to switch her to unmixed Halo even slower. Each type of food requires a cat's digestive system to adapt and produce the correct digestive enzymes. With Zoe, she may just take a bit longer.

Hope this helps! I know how hard trying to figure out digestive problems can be, but it just takes patience, careful observation, and sometimes a lot of paper towels!

Linda

Thanks Linda,
I went to the Halo website, and they said what you said. Go back to the mix of new and old food for a little longer. So that is what I did. I went back to a 75%new/25%old mix. She has not thrown up again since Sunday. Good advice on the salmon oil also, I had been reading about that, and was going to try that also. I will not give up - I will solve the itchiness!!

I'm so glad you did stuck with it that was going to be my suggestion to you. if you ate hot dogs your entire life what do you think would happen if you ate a steak with salad?

I don't know about you but I'd have a smile on my face you couldn't wipe off

There are so many possible causes to itchiness that it boggles the mind.

Fleas (even one flea bite could cause a pet to itch all over) - many people never see the offending flea.
Carpets / area rugs - a common cause that's hard to remedy.
Bedding that was washed in a detergent that irritates
Dust mites
Blood that isn't oxygenated enough because of brachycephalia (flat face)
Inability to deal with environment due to a high a degree of homozygosity ("inbred")
Too many baths
Not enough baths

Personally, I wouldn't start changing foods until I found someone who could explain in layman's terms how they've diagnosed the cause.

Good Luck
P.S. your cats are beautiful

Determining the root cause of your cat’s allergies requires a process of elimination using a blood test or an intradermal skin test, which involves injecting potential allergens such as mold or pollen under a cat’s skin.
Omega-3 fatty acid supplements keep the normal immune barrier of the skin healthy and reduce secondary infections.

I completely agree with Danneva on this one. I've owned 2 cats in the past (or I should say, my parents did when I was a kid) and those two cats had a lot of skin allergy issues. It took us approximately 2 year to point out the actual cause of the problem which ended up being the food. When they started eating "Science Diet Sensitive Skin", their problems went away. However, we had to do the whole "process of elimination."

First we stopped bathing them twice a month and gave them monthly baths instead. Didn't work. Then we tried mopping and cleaning the counters with hypoallergenic soaps and/or vinegar. Didn't work. Eventually, it boiled down to us doing as we would normally do and just giving them different food. Ended up working, but what may work for one cat may not work for another. How this manged to work for the two we DID have is beyond me, but they were sisters. . . so the genetics may have had something to do with it.