Please be advised that I have discovered that at least one of my cats is allergic to scented clumping clay litter.
I don't want to name the brands publicly, but if you have a similar problem as I will describe below, feel free to PM me and I will let you know which brands have caused trouble for my cat.
My show cat Rodeo started over grooming himself about 2 months ago, removing his pelt on his stomach, legs and sides. Then he started biting himself and scratching all the time. Everything on him seemed to itch. He ended up scratching a wound into his neck with his back claws, because he itched so bad. We watched as this beautiful boy who is just one final away from Granding, systematically turned himself into a half bald cat with bite marks. Not a good thing.
We suspected food allergy at first, but were stumped, because he's on a raw diet. Slowly we eliminated things from his environment that could be causing the problem, with no success. Finally we thought maybe he has an inhalant allergic reaction to the clay litter dust and whatever perfumes they use in it.
We switched him to Swheat Scoop litter ( made from wheat, not clay). Bingo.. within a day, he wasn't scratching himself anymore and now that 4 days have gone by, he's stopped over grooming himself and he's clearly much less itchy.
I'm posting this thread, in case anyone else has a similar situation and is at a loss for the cause....the litter is something to look into. I have read that "inhalant allergic reactions" are becoming more and more common in cats and are the leading cause of obsessive scratching and itchy skin.
I don't want to name the brands publicly, but if you have a similar problem as I will describe below, feel free to PM me and I will let you know which brands have caused trouble for my cat.
My show cat Rodeo started over grooming himself about 2 months ago, removing his pelt on his stomach, legs and sides. Then he started biting himself and scratching all the time. Everything on him seemed to itch. He ended up scratching a wound into his neck with his back claws, because he itched so bad. We watched as this beautiful boy who is just one final away from Granding, systematically turned himself into a half bald cat with bite marks. Not a good thing.
We suspected food allergy at first, but were stumped, because he's on a raw diet. Slowly we eliminated things from his environment that could be causing the problem, with no success. Finally we thought maybe he has an inhalant allergic reaction to the clay litter dust and whatever perfumes they use in it.
We switched him to Swheat Scoop litter ( made from wheat, not clay). Bingo.. within a day, he wasn't scratching himself anymore and now that 4 days have gone by, he's stopped over grooming himself and he's clearly much less itchy.
I'm posting this thread, in case anyone else has a similar situation and is at a loss for the cause....the litter is something to look into. I have read that "inhalant allergic reactions" are becoming more and more common in cats and are the leading cause of obsessive scratching and itchy skin.
