Environmental Allergies

Question

Hi.  I have a 9 year old neutered domestic cat with allergies.  He has normal weight and severe teeth issues.  Last year we had to have his teeth cleaned and the vet said in his case we will have to do that annually.  He eats ¼ can (small can) of Fancy Feast every night and Nutro Max Cat dry cat food.   

About 7 weeks ago, one cat - Eli - started sneezing and was congested in his sinuses and had watery eyes.  Over a period of 7 weeks, we visited a vet 5 times.  The vet tried two antibiotics in pill form to make sure Eli didn't have an upper respiratory infection.  After the second antibiotic didn't do anything, we tried giving him Benadryl liquid, but he had a severe reaction to that, foaming at the mouth and not being able to breathe.  We switched over to pills and he did slightly better, but he quit eating.  He was also becoming very agitated with us and medicating him was getting more difficult and traumatic.  At that point the vet gave him a cortisone shot.  The cortisone helped tremendously.  Eli is back to eating normally and the congestion is gone for the most part.  He's still sneezing some and he's licking (not licking anything in particular - just licking air) quite a lot, which seems to be a symptom that he's got sinus drainage still going on.  He lost about 1 1/2 pounds during the 7 week period. 

I'm fairly certain that Eli is having environmental allergies, but he would really not be happy if I restricted him to the indoors.  Most of the websites I looked at addressed skin allergies instead of the type Eli is experiencing.  What suggestions do you have to rebuilding Eli's immunities and treating his allergy symptoms?  Gena A.

Response:

Hello Gena,
Thank you for your inquiry to Holistic Pet Info. Even with environmental allergies I would consider a diet change. Often there is more than just one allergy and a poor nutritional foundation can make any type of allergy worse. For a 9 year old cat, I recommend canned only food (e.g.: Halo, Wellness, Innova or Solid Gold) to support the kidneys with a good quality high protein, moderate fat and low carbohydrate diet. 

Supporting the immune health with Immugen by Thorne should help his body maintain a strong immune system. Echinacea is also very good for upper respiratory bacterial or viral infections. If given for 2 weeks it should decrease the symptoms and length of infection. Best of luck.
Sincerely,
Colleen Smith DVM, CVA