We asked our vet about a particular cat food, and they didn’t have any experience with it so couldn’t tell us anything. What would be an appropriate next step before trying this food? It’s for human allergies to cats, to reduce the protein secreted in dander i believe, so there aren’t many options on the market and I think it’s fairly new. I don’t want to have to go to a different vet just to ask about food, and I’m sure if I call vets to find one who has experience with that food they wouldn’t easily be able to talk about it over the phone without having see the cat
gettingvetted here.
The only product that offers this capability is from Purina, which is a WSAVA-compliant diet. There should be no harm in trying it out. I watched a continuing education seminar on the invention and production of this food and apparently it works quite well. It contains an antibody to the allergy-inducing protein that is produced in cat saliva and is capable of reducing it by 60%. It does not prevent the cat from producing it, just neutralizes the protein locally in the salivary glands once it is produced. The theory is that not every cat has a high load of the allergy-inducing protein in their saliva, and even humans that are allergic to cats will probably not experience significant symptoms 100% of the time just because a certain threshold of allergens is needed to be reached in order to experience symptoms (so if you are mildly-moderately allergic to both pollen and cats, then you can take an anti-histamine like Zyrtec or Benadryl and a cat on its own probably wouldn’t bother you and neither would a lovely spring day, but a cat on a lovely spring day would reach your threshold despite anti-histamines and you would be miserable). So - if you have a cat that has a TON of allergy-inducing protein in the saliva, and a person who is VERY allergic to cats, this probably won’t help them very much. But if, like most cats, there is only a mild/moderate amount of allergy-inducing protein in their saliva, and if, like most humans, there is only a mild/moderate allergy to cats, then this food will likely help them (although there is an assumption that the human is willing to take those anti-histamines on a regular basis, to do their own part in making the relationship manageable and not put all the responsibility on the cat’s food).
I have heard good reviews on the product from those who have tried it. If you decide to go with it, let us know how you like it!