- Joined
- Jan 24, 2014
- Messages
- 19
- Purraise
- 4
Hello! I found this website through a few google searches and it seems like a great resource! I have two cats, Scott and Shelby. Scott is fat, mischievous, and sensitive, and Shelby is shy but the sweetest cat ever. (I'm hoping to get her trained to be a therapy cat for people in hospitals or senior homes one day, she just loves loving on people!)
Besides Scott's chubbiness, he is a perfectly healthy cat. Here is a picture of him when I caught him working on his favorite hobby, ripping up toilet paper or paper towels. For some reason he thinks this is the funnest thing ever! He is too cute to be mad at LOL!
View media item 199366
Shelby on the other hand, has been a constant roller coaster of health issues. January through July of 2013 she was in and out of a cone, but from July until now, she has literally had the cone on every day (except when I take it off to clean it, her face, or when occasionally she finds a way to get out of her cone) Ever since January of last year, she has slowly gotten worse and worse. Our first two vets would just give her steroid after steroid and antibiotic injections and she would still continue to have problems. I got fed up with paying so much money every other month to just have the same thing keep happening over and over so I took her to a new vet. This new vet found that she had a pretty significant heart murmur, and couldn't believe that she had been subjected to so many rounds of steroids.
We know that she has an allergy of some sort (our first vet never thought of this, but our second vet did), we just don't know what exactly she is allergic to. We have tried 3 different types of foods with different proteins, but her symptoms haven't improved. Poor Shelby is so incredibly itchy that if she doesn't wear a cone, she self mutilates to the extreme.
The last picture is of her today, and the rest of the pictures are what we have been dealing with for the past year. We have tried different types of food, chlorpheniramine, strides pads and apple cider vinegar and stainless steel bowls for her chin acne, and steroid and antibiotic shots, and the problems keep coming back. We think the chin acne is even worse than normal because the cone isn't very breathable and keeps bacteria close to her chin. We clean it with alcohol every day but chin acne is better than a tore up face at this point.
Our current vet thinks that because her allergies are so severe, she has both environmental and food allergies. Today we just started the Science Prescription allergy dry food, Atopica, antibiotics for her infection, tresaderm drops for her ears, and an antibacterial/antifungal spray for her severe chin acne. Atopica is very expensive, but if we don't have to deal with this ever again, it will be worth it. Poor Shelby has just been miserable. She isn't even 2 years old yet and h as lived almost half her life in a cone.
At this point I am so frustrated, upset, and desperate. She can't keep living like this, and we can't afford a 200 vet bill every other month either. This has been extremely stressful for me. After today's visit, I feel really optimistic that Atopica and a hypoallergenic diet will be the magic cure.
Has anyone else ever dealt with anything like this? I would love any advice or stories about a cat that has overcome something like this!
Besides Scott's chubbiness, he is a perfectly healthy cat. Here is a picture of him when I caught him working on his favorite hobby, ripping up toilet paper or paper towels. For some reason he thinks this is the funnest thing ever! He is too cute to be mad at LOL!
View media item 199366
Shelby on the other hand, has been a constant roller coaster of health issues. January through July of 2013 she was in and out of a cone, but from July until now, she has literally had the cone on every day (except when I take it off to clean it, her face, or when occasionally she finds a way to get out of her cone) Ever since January of last year, she has slowly gotten worse and worse. Our first two vets would just give her steroid after steroid and antibiotic injections and she would still continue to have problems. I got fed up with paying so much money every other month to just have the same thing keep happening over and over so I took her to a new vet. This new vet found that she had a pretty significant heart murmur, and couldn't believe that she had been subjected to so many rounds of steroids.
We know that she has an allergy of some sort (our first vet never thought of this, but our second vet did), we just don't know what exactly she is allergic to. We have tried 3 different types of foods with different proteins, but her symptoms haven't improved. Poor Shelby is so incredibly itchy that if she doesn't wear a cone, she self mutilates to the extreme.
The last picture is of her today, and the rest of the pictures are what we have been dealing with for the past year. We have tried different types of food, chlorpheniramine, strides pads and apple cider vinegar and stainless steel bowls for her chin acne, and steroid and antibiotic shots, and the problems keep coming back. We think the chin acne is even worse than normal because the cone isn't very breathable and keeps bacteria close to her chin. We clean it with alcohol every day but chin acne is better than a tore up face at this point.
Our current vet thinks that because her allergies are so severe, she has both environmental and food allergies. Today we just started the Science Prescription allergy dry food, Atopica, antibiotics for her infection, tresaderm drops for her ears, and an antibacterial/antifungal spray for her severe chin acne. Atopica is very expensive, but if we don't have to deal with this ever again, it will be worth it. Poor Shelby has just been miserable. She isn't even 2 years old yet and h as lived almost half her life in a cone.
At this point I am so frustrated, upset, and desperate. She can't keep living like this, and we can't afford a 200 vet bill every other month either. This has been extremely stressful for me. After today's visit, I feel really optimistic that Atopica and a hypoallergenic diet will be the magic cure.
Has anyone else ever dealt with anything like this? I would love any advice or stories about a cat that has overcome something like this!