I Learned Something Today

in foodallergies •  6 years ago 

(Picture me saying that in Stan from South Park's voice)

So I went shopping with my mom today, and we went on a quest to find Yuan's allergy-safe food. The little Petco near my apartment doesn't have it (they have the brand, but not the kind he is supposed to eat with only rabbit in it), so I thought the larger Petco would. Nope. When I looked on their website, it wasn't available there, either!

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I always feel better about the world when this shelf in the cupboard is full of cat food

So we tried the mom and pop pet food store. They luckily did have some! Eight of the little cans. I took all they had. At Petco I had bought two of the rabbit+pork and two beef, in case I couldn't find any (and some turkey food for Maggie, she likes that), to hopefully tide us over without making him too sick; his known allergies are poultry and fish, but the vet wants him on one protein only, not rabbit+pork. I had already tried venison food and he didn't seem to be getting better on that, but rabbit was good, so I stuck with that. He doesn't like lamb, and maybe will eat beef once or twice before he starts turning his nose up at it, too.

It was there that I alerted the cashier that I had cleaned out all they had of it so she knew to order more, and she told me that they often have a hard time getting it in consistently. Even the pet store couldn't always find it! Oh, shit. I told her about having trouble finding it through Petco too. I wonder if they are having production issues. A shortage of rabbit meat? 😱

So I tried something else that was at the mom and pop store, that Yuan has never tried before, just getting one can to see how it goes.

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Kangaroo meat! That's definitely a protein he hasn't had before (nor me)! If he likes it and does well on it, maybe it can be his backup protein if I can't find rabbit again.

What I need is to find a farmer that raises rabbits for meat, it seems.

Adventures in food allergies! I got you, fam. We're in the same boat, Yuan and I. 💚

That Red Fish your momma always warned you about

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I understand about specialized food, and how hard to can be to find sometimes. I am on a "low stress" diet most of the time because I tend to get bladder/urinary tract issues when there's too much excitement in the house. Hope you're successful keeping Yuan's special food "in stock!"

=^..^=

What is your low stress diet? Maggie has had three bouts of cystitis in the nine years she's lived here for the same reason. The vet just said to offer mostly wet (which is mostly what she eats anyway, if she eats a cup of kibble in a month I'd be surprised even though it's always available to her). She also recommended, and we tried, Cosequin vitamins, but they give Mags the poops. She's mostly okay, three bouts in nine years isn't terribly frequent, but if you know of something helpful, I'd love to know! :)

Mostly, it's preventive... keep the house calm and not too many changes and comings and goings. Curator Cat is very sensitive, even though he likes people and is very friendly.

If the cystitis tries to flare up, the dry kibble is put away, wet food only, and we go to the "high test" single-ingredient kind, usually chicken or turkey. Sometimes supplemented with chicken baby food, which is very "clean." A small bowl of organic bone broth becomes an occasional treat.

=^..^=

Yup, that's about what we do. :) Didn't know about the baby food, though!

@phoenixwren & @curatorcat -- My vet suggested a few things for my cat's stress-related UTIs:

  • Composure calming supplements daily
  • A calming collar
  • Feliway spray or diffuser uses aromatherapy to calm cats down. I knew someone who used it for their 2 indoor cats that didn't get along well.
    🐱

I do use the collar when she has a bout. The plug ins didn't seem to do much; the spray smells like pee to me. 😂

I haven't used the collar yet, may give it a try. Basically when my cat has a bout, giving her tuna-flavored water or cat food-flavored water almost non-stop for a couple of hours, while doing reiki on her. It's been successful so far. 🐈

Allergies are the bane of my existence. It is bad enough when it is human allergies, but it gets really difficult when it is pet allergies. I would think there should be a rabbit farmer somewhere near you. It is a larger centre so should be able to cater to people's needs. If you have a local farmer's market, I would talk to some of the vendors and see if anyone knows someone raising rabbits.

Ooh that's a good idea to ask at the farmers market, thanks!

You are welcome!

Two possible things to try that I do for my cat: Ordering the canned food online, maybe from Chewy.com

And frozen raw food is usually single-source.

Chewy does have it, and that's where I had been ordering from. I just didn't have enough money to place my usual order this month. We tried the raw foods before I even knew Yuan had allergies, and Yuan wouldn't touch them. In fact, I got Maggie a tub of her favorite today too, both for her enjoyment and because Mr. Man won't steal it! 😂

Cats are so, so picky! I think they do it just to keep us guessing.

"OH, did you just buy a month's supply of that food? Well now I can't like it anymore."

hahahaha ain't THAT the truth! =^..^=