cat specialist? is there such a thing?

Hi Everyone,

Just throwing something out here to see if anyone's cat has experienced this.

About 9 months ago my cat would wiggle his back leg when I would pet him on his face. I thought after all these years I'd found his "tickle spot". That was cute for a while, till he started shaking his head and scratching at his face so violently that he'd actually be in a ball. During these "episodes" he would fall down stairs and still not stop the scratching. Took him to the vet, he said "probably ear mites" sounded logical to me, so he gave him a shot and all was well for about 2 weeks. Then it started again... Took him to a different vet for another opinion. He said "no ear mites" but it's probably an allergy, gave him a cortizone shot and all was well for about a week. I called and told them it was happening again, he prescribed prednisone once every other day. Small improvement, but he still scratches (not as violently), and I can still "make" him do it (I don't do it on purpose) by merely touching his right cheek or anywhere in that area... So, I call the vet again, he says, instead of every other day give him the prednisone every day. So I do that and nothing really has changed, he's still miserable....

Now, I wonder if I should find a specialist or something?? It's obvious that we really don't have a diagnosis at this point... Do these symptoms sound familiar to anyone? If not, do you think I should look for a specialist? do they in fact have a specialist for cats?

Do you think since he's 17 yrs. old, I should just leave him alone??? He's so healthy otherwise, that I just wanted his quality of life to be a little better...

Sorry, this is so long but I wanted to give the whole story.

p.s. the 2nd Dr. thought allergies, because this whole thing started after I moved into a new place... still may be something to that, but how do we find out what it is???

well, I'll stop (finally)... and hope that someone has run into something like this.

Thanks again everyone!

Barb

I think you may need to look for a Feline Neurologist ... Often you can find one at the local vet school if one is near you... otherwise do a web search for your area or state

This site for New Jersey might help you:

http://www.njvma.org/new/find/default.asp

If you're in southern New Jersey, you could call the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, which has an excellent veterinary school/clinic.

I'll search right now.

Glad to hear it's not a stupid idea

That site is just listing the vets in my county

is there a way to tell if they're a neurologist???

There's a link to find a specialist; try this page, and specify "neurology":
http://www.acvim.org/Specialist/Search.aspx

That link brought up three for NJ:
Dr. Noemie M. Bernier\tGarden State Veterinary Specialists\tTinton Falls\tNJ
Dr. Eric N. Glass\tRed Bank Veterinary Hospital\tTinton Falls\tNJ
Dr. Christiane Massicotte\tAnimal Emergency & Referral Assoc.\tFairfield\tNJ

There are probably others, and your vet should be able to refer to you.