Anyone with cat litter allergy experience?

[Ahoragi]

We have a typical tuxedo black and white cat and another fully black cat. The Tux cat is 8 years old. He has always had some type of allergy that resulted in scratching, sneezing, overgrooming, etc. He tends to pick at the bottom of his feet and has since licked all the hair off his lower belly. This has been going on as long as I remember.

Recently I started to wonder if his allergy is this litter. He has always been the weirdest litter cat I have ever owned and I've had many. He does not bury his poo and does not scoop or spread the litter. He barely touches it. I noticed last night as he was doing number two that his back end was shaking/trembling and when he was done he would get all three paws out of the box immediately and scratch the side and top of the box as if he is burying his poo. I knew he did this since we've had him but never analyzed him as he went. It seemed as if he was trying to avoid the litter as much as possible as he kept three of his feet out of it.

In the past we have always thought it was food allergy as the vet suggested that was the case so both cats were put on a duck diet (both wet and dry) but nothing really changed. So I was wondering maybe it was the litter all along?

Anyone with experience in cat litter allergies?

Thanks

 

[AinaWGSD]

What kind of litter are you using? Standard clay litter is pretty inert. Natural plant based litters (wheat, corn cob, pine) are the only ones I would think could be allergens.

if you've only tried the duck diet (it's the only 'hypoallergenic' diet mentioned in your post) it could still be a food allergy. The main meat protein is the most common source of allergens but pets can have an intolerance for any of the ingredients. Sometimes it takes several diets to find the actual culprit. Also, pets can't have any treats, absolutely nothing but the food, for a diet trial to be effective. A (prescription) hydrolysed protein diet is usually the best option to rule out food allergies as all potential allergens are broken down small enough that they can't trigger the allergy.

Environmental allergies are always a possibility, and it's not uncommon for allergic pets to have multiple allergies so he could very easily have both food and environmental allergies. I doubt it would be the litter, but it wouldn't hurt to try a different litter (I would suggest one of the crystal litters) and see if it helps. Just remember to change over gradually, cats often won't use a new litter if you switch all at once.

One final note, you didn't mention anything about flea preventative. Make sure all of your pets are on a good flea preventative. I cannot tell you how many times owners swear up and down that their pets couldn't possibly have fleas only for vets to find fleas or flea dirt or for the allergy to magically disappear after a few months of flea meds. Flea bite allergies are extremely common.

 

[Cebarmlds]

I had a cat with the pulling his fur out and over grooming issues but he wasn't goofy about using the litter box, but I got to the point of disliking the fragrances in the litter and knowing cats have a better sense of smell than humans, decided to go unscented litter years ago.
Sometimes it's not easy to find unscented but found the Chewy brand unscented clay litter and bought that the last several years. He - our last cat died a few months ago and haven't gotten another, although I'm feeding a stray outside and hoping it will tame down.
I would suggest you try unscented litter, that stuff makes my eyes burn and nose to get runny. I cat sit for a neighbor and they have the heavily fragranced litter so I know that's the issue for me.
Do a complete change of the litter and clean the box to get rid of most the smell as soon as possible. If the box is scooped out daily you won't have smells in the house, and seriously I'd rather smell the turd than perfumes!

 

[Squawkers]

I had a cat with the pulling his fur out and over grooming issues but he wasn't goofy about using the litter box, but I got to the point of disliking the fragrances in the litter and knowing cats have a better sense of smell than humans, decided to go unscented litter years ago.
Sometimes it's not easy to find unscented but found the Chewy brand unscented clay litter and bought that the last several years. He - our last cat died a few months ago and haven't gotten another, although I'm feeding a stray outside and hoping it will tame down.
I would suggest you try unscented litter, that stuff makes my eyes burn and nose to get runny. I cat sit for a neighbor and they have the heavily fragranced litter so I know that's the issue for me.
Do a complete change of the litter and clean the box to get rid of most the smell as soon as possible. If the box is scooped out daily you won't have smells in the house, and seriously I'd rather smell the turd than perfumes!

Unscented 100% I can’t stand scented litter

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

Several good comments above

Some cats are just really weird about litter boxes. So it may or may not be a litter allergy.
But it shouldn't cause harm to switch litters.
Perhaps he's allergic to dust mites or something?
Or there could be a common ingredient in the current and previous cat foods that are the problem. (Example- if a dog is allergic to eggs, or peas, many dog foods I've seen seem to have those.)
I knew of a dog that was allergic to grass. Got little doggy allergy pills for it.

 

[cassie]

I use Pretty Litter. Unlike clay litter it is light and virtually odorless. You scoop out and flush the dry poop every day and stir the litter. You dump it and put in clean litter once a month. A bag is about the same weight as a bag of sugar, and it lasts all month for one cat. I would never use anything else.

 

[Ahoragi]

Thanks for the responses. We are using Tidy Cat clumping unscented litter but it has "deodorizer" or some sort that kind of gives off a fragrance even thought it states non-fragrance.

As for food allergy, when we had him to the vet they prescribed their canned stuff from that Science type brand and it was rabbit, duck, and something else. We did this for a couple weeks to no change. It was very pricey so we started a raw diet (gradual change) of duck and it didn't make much of a difference either except his hair was super smooth lol. He later started vomiting every time we fed him so we switched to Call of the Wild Duck dry food and 4Heath Duck wet food. He has been on this for years.

I did decide to switch litters and I got World's Best Litter which is unscented clumping litter made of corn. This is where I screwed up. We have three litter boxes so I took one and put the new litter in it. Then I took the half bag that was left, rolled it up, and left it on top of the old litter bucket. In the past this cat would chew open the dry cat food that we would buy and accidently leave out. He ended up doing that to this bag of litter which I assumed he thought was cat food. A day or two later he was vomiting and had severe diarrhea. This went on for a week so we scheduled a vet appointment. He was constipated the last two days and did not do any #2's until the day before the appt. I woke up that morning and the entire house smelled of shi$. He left the biggest brown cucumber log I have ever seen. Apparently the blockage has passed. He has been totally normal ever since and I did get rid of the corn litter for an unscented pure "clay" litter from TSC. He is using it but the other two boxes still have the deodorized litter so once that is swapped to the TSC litter than maybe there will be changes to his excess grooming. The TSC is sure dusty as heck. A cloud forms just scooping the poop.

If it does not change his habits then it is probably still a diet thing.

 

[cassie]

Just a comment. Pretty Litter is neither dusty nor smelly. No deodorizer or scent is added because it isn't needed. I like it because the litter box has virtually no odor and I no longer need to deal with heavy bags of clay litter.

 

[Not-so Slick Chicken]

I'm glad things didn't go badly there

And, sometimes allergies can take a while to clear up. It might not be instantaneous, especially if it's been extended exposure or a severe allergy.
Fingers crossed for ya'll