I think I spoke too soon

Gozer is still doing very well after last week's surgery, so don't let my title scare you about that.

I guess I shouldn't have said anything about how well the transition to the new food was going, however. Yesterday she was licking her skin more obsessively than usual. She tends to lick a little bit but normally when I put my hand over the spot where's she's licking, she'll just lick my hand and then leave it. Yesterday when I put my hand on top of the spot she really tried to get at the spot by wedging her tongue between my fingers. When I took my hand away I noticed that the spot was red and raw-looking. Here's a picture:

The spot where Gozer was licking. See how red that spot is? It looks so sore.

This kind of licking behaviour is different than the the kind of licking she does when she's having yeast problems. Usually those don't get this red and she's not that obsessive. Also, she didn't have the yeasty smell that she gets when she's got itchy yeast spots.

After taking a picture of that spot I rolled her over onto her back to take a look at her belly. I was horrified and sad to see that she had a couple of red spots there. Here's a picture:

Sideways view of Gozer's belly (the top left is her right hind leg and the bottom left is her left hind leg). See the red spots? That's not good.

We're fairly certain that these spots are an allergic reaction. We'd just increased her new food to slightly more than half of her total food intake and it seems that once we reached that threshold it triggered her immune system. Obviously she can't have this new food anymore even though she loved the taste of it. At least she'll eat the food she doesn't like if it's mixed with butternut squash.

Sigh. I feel so defeated. I really wanted for her to have a food that she liked, that didn't trigger an allergic reaction, and that gives her well-formed stools (and that doesn't include any fish or shellfish). It appears that there are zero easily available foods out there and I'm so sad about that. There might be prescription foods available but I'm hesitant to head down that road because I don't want to be disappointed again and I'd like to have food options in the future. Once we run out of commercially-available foods the only option will be cooking her food.

We see the vet on Friday for our post-surgery checkup and I think we'll ask if she can be referred to a dermatologist. Maybe if we can figure out exactly what's wrong there might be other options for her.