My kitty seems to have a food allergy, but only eats one kind of food

He is scratching the skin off his face, licking paws, and creating scabs and open sores which my vet doesn't think need ointment.

I bought some duck & pea cans/dry food, as well as venison & pea, but he won't touch any of that. All I can get him to eat is the Fancy Feast chicken canned food my mother introduced to him last year. I don't know what to do to get him to eat something else. It's better that he eats than not, right?

Also he's an outdoor kitty who has been coming to our house for the last 14 months, but the past two weeks have been the first time I have seen these allergic signs on him. I've been giving him flea treatment once a month and we checked him for mites (no evidence of mites after a skin test), which is why I am looking at food alternatives at this point.

There has to be something I can do to help him feel more comfortable. Is there another food I can try? HELP!

[opus88]

hi and welcome. I will send you some sites to do tons of reading. it is very hard to transition OFF of fancy feast, its like taking candy away from a baby.... what your kitty has is flea bite dermatitis or ECG.
I would recommend stopping the once a month treatments since there is no evidence that he now has fleas and perhaps these harsh chemicals are also contributing to his problem...-(
first of all, this is a link to our 'archives' on dermatology and you can see how common this problem is, read on what has and hasn't worked for some and see what you can try. I do stress NOT to resort to steroids b/c of all the health problems they can cause and its only treating the problem and not the cause..

http://www.medhelp.org/topics/show/56

You are right in thinking that he HAS to eat, so fancy feast is better than not eating, it is also BETTER than dry food....but the best you can try to do is get him on a grain free food. b/c grains and/or chicken are often the culprit....the only way to transition over to anew food is to do it slowly...by adding 1/4 new to 3/4 old than slowly widening the gap...takes a bit of time....
I will send you a link to info on foods, it also has a link to transitioning, its on dry over to wet but you can use some of the same techniques.

http://www.catinfo.org/

good luck and please post anytime if theres anything else we can help answer...-)

[artemis527]

Oh, thank you so much from the bottom of my heart! This has been so heartbreaking- will try to transition and will look for some wet grain-free and chicken-free foods.

And will NOT do the steroids. We can lick this.

[FurballsMom]

I like Wellness grain free because they have large economy sized cans that helps me be able to afford to feed my cat the kind of food she needs.  There are other grain free foods available and some are probably better, but this is one of the reasons I get this brand of grain free cat food for Akira.  Most cats transition well to wet food, too, because it's a lot closer to their natural native diet.