Wednesday, July 21, 2010

QOTD: Does your cat have allergies?

So! The Runt and I went to see a specialist last night about his continued discomfort. While he had been doing better after his initial treatment for flea allergy dermatitis, he had still been occasionally scratching and digdigdigging at himself, and last weekend he took a turn for the worse.

I got the name of a cat specialist, and last night we went to see her. She seems to think that in addition to the flea allergy thing, he also has an inhaled allergy, i.e., he's allergic to something in the air, like pollen or ragweed.

The thing that was throwing me off was that he keeps acting like something's biting him. He'll be just walking across a room and he'll flinch, like something just chomped on him, and then he'll throw himself to the floor and digdigdig at himself.

The specialist vet explained that in cats, inhaled allergies can "settle" in the skin. In humans, if we're allergic to pollen or whatever, it affects our mucous membranes, so we get all congested and wheezy and teary-eyed. But in cats, it tends to make their skin itchy. And it kind of acts like hives, so that while they're itchy in general, a certain patch of skin can suddenly act up, causing them to dig madly at one spot.

I don't know. Does this sound reasonable to you? Because we started him on the steroids last night, and this morning he's still digdigdigging.

*sigh*

Poor guy. Send kind thoughts his way, please.

13 comments:

Badass Nature Girl said...

Awww, poor kitty! I think it sounds right, but I have a friend who fosters cats and dogs and I'll ask her what her take on it is. I'll get back to you as soon as I hear from her.

Otherwise, maybe those ghosts are throwing invisible itching powder on him :o(

Anonymous said...

Poor baby! I think it sounds reasonable as well. I mean, even if it sounds fishy that something inhaled would cause skin itchiness, it makes sense to me that if something is in the air, it will likely be on the skin as well. As my husband is sniffling away during allergy season, I often find that my hands and other parts of my body get unusually itchy. I used to itch like crazy after rolling around on the grass as a kid. So, I'm no vet, but it sounds logical to me.

However, one of my good friends is a vet! I'll pass along your story to her and see if she has anything to add.

rockygrace said...

You guys are aces!

The thing that's baffling is that so far we've tried flea meds (he is currently on both Frontline Plus AND Advantage), injected steroids, injected miticides, and steroid pills, along with benadryl, "hot spot" sprays, and everything short of a witch doctor, and NOTHING is stopping the itching. It seems to wax and wane no matter what we try.

Oh, and his sister lives with me too, and she's just fine. No problems at all.

Unknown said...

Maybe your boy is allergic to the flea meds. Did he have probs before treatment?

rockygrace said...

Yeah, Bridge, he started with the digging before he started the meds.

Anonymous said...

Here's what my vet friend in response to my question of whether or not a cat can get skin irritation from inhaled allergens:

"Absolutely. Animal allergy symptoms are usually different than people. Food, environmental, and inhaled allergies commonly rear their ugly heads as skin issues -- either as itchiness, redness, scabbing, or chewing on body parts in general (my own dog actually has really bad dermatitis if I don't keep her on hypoallergenic food). Usually they'll have you try topical flea and tick control for a few months first. If that doesn't work, they'll move on to things like benedryl or other kinds of antihistamines, or even steroids in some cases. You actually can do allergy testing and then a series of allergy shots like in people, but I doubt she wants to go that route :-) Hope that helps."

I know it's not anything new, but at least I don't think that the vet or the specialist is trying to scam you or that they are incompetent. It just doesn't seem to be working for the little guy.

Heather said...

Soo sad, poor baby! I have heard of animals having allergies, but that is the first time I have ever heard of air born allergies for animals.

I sure hope she knows what she is talking about. For the kitty's sake!

rockygrace said...

Kate, thank you so much for that info! I really, really appreciate it.

And Heather, thanks for your concern.

After two days on the steroids, he does seem to be showing a little bit of improvement - still licking and scratching, but without the frenzied urgency of before.

Baby steps.

Badass Nature Girl said...

My friend got back to me and said pretty much all of the same things to try. She was also wondering, pardon me if you've mentioned it before and I missed it, is the cat an indoor or outdoor cat and do you have him on hypoallergenic food? Some thing to think about.

That was about all else she could think of, besides being allergic to the meds too.

My 8 year old son was on steroids for awhile due to his allergies and it wasn't fun, more so for him of course.

rockygrace said...

Badass, he's indoor/outdoor. And the first vet suggested I try changing the brand of food he eats, but the specialist vet said it was a waste of time, since all processed cat food has basically the same ingredients, and the odds of it being a food allergy were slim, especially since he's been eating the same food since weaning and never had a problem before. That's what she said, anyway.

Thanks for your help!

rockygrace said...

..... you know, noodling around teh internetz just now, it looks like a food allergy could be a possibility. I wonder why specialist vet was so adamant against it?

Badass Nature Girl said...

It's hard to say. Maybe she was going off of the majority of cases or the 'norm'. Just like a doctor, are they getting some sort of kickback for pushing some thing else? Retorical (sp?) question.

I know from experience with my boy that the doctors were telling me he was not allergic to some thing and we was not testing allergic to it, but he'd react when he ate it. Some of them said I was nuts for taking it out of his diet, others were more understanding and believed in the power of 'nobody knows a child likes its mother does.' The allergist he sees now leaves it up to me and knows that when he's already not feeling well, there's certain foods I won't give him because I know he'll react. They were saying that when the body is already compromised, it can start to react to things, temporarily, that it wouldn't normally and that he could even be reacting to a virus itself.

There's all kinds of natural and/or organic kitty foods out there now, although I don't know the costs. Even our Wally-world (Wal-Mart) carries some.

rockygrace said...

Badass, thanks again for all your input!