Another idolent ulcer

Luna keeps developing indolent ulcers on her mouth. She has her 3rd one right now since March. The previous two times I took her to the vet and they gave her a steroid and it cleared up. I have tried changing her food but she is not too happy with that and keeps turning her nose up at everything. Now I have tried so many foods I don't know what she's allergic too. Or, the vet said it may not be an allergy at all, she may have a mild outbreak of the herpes virus.

My 1st question is, will the ulcer go away by itself or is another vet trip and another steroid shot necessary?

Also I am interested in others' experience and advice to rule out the source of her food allergy without her going on food-strike or how to determine if she does have the herpes virus.

Thanks in advance!

They're rodent ulcers. Not caused by rodents, I've never actually looked up why they're called that.

But they're an immune response problem, typically from allergies. You can put your baby on a prescription hypoallergenic diet, like Hill's z/d, and see how she reacts. You can also use better quality foods that are limited ingredient foods, and just do an elimination diet. Of course.. you have to give it about 6 weeks on any given diet to see.

If you want to try the z/d, I would recommend using only the wet. The dry has Brewer's Rice as a primary ingredient. Why, I don't know, as it is a commen allergan.

Our Chumley had problems with allergies and rodent uclers. We fixed his problem by finding a holistic vet (an actual vet, trained in alternatives). She diagnosed him as being "Extremely spleen Qi deficient, with an extreme Yin deficiency." We put him on a (mostly) grain free only wet food diet with specific chinese herbs she prescribed, and it fixed his problems.

The vet can test for herpes, or you can just treat her as if she already has it since there's not a cure for it. You can also join the yahoo Herpes group http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/f...guid=353539644. I have never met a more experienced group of folks on a specific topic. They are so helpful and knowledgeable.

I tried Royal Canin hypoallergenic canned food but she didn't like it AND I cannot afford $2.50/ a can. And I find it ridiculous that, for that price, the #1 ingredient was meat by products. I wish I could get her to eat one food for 6 weeks but if she doesn't like it I have to find something else. Right now I am feeding a LID diet from Nature's Variety and grain free Solid Gold dry food. She is hooked on dry food.

Is there a home remedy for an acute ulcer?

A couple years back Wessie had an ulcer on his lip. I actually had no idea what it was for a couple of days, and couldn't figure out why he didn't want to eat, or have his mouth touched. Watering down his food did help him to eat, but I still couldn't figure out what it was. Finally I saw it, but I all I did was clean it off, and it went away in a couple of days. It took me a while after that to figure out what it actually was. :/

She eats and drinks fine and doesn't seem in pain. I saw her grooming herself too with no pain. Would it become painful if left untreated or would it clear up on its own? I am going to take away her dry food completely and keep her on the LID diet if I can get her to eat canned exclusively.

Originally Posted by lunatuna

I tried Royal Canin hypoallergenic canned food but she didn't like it AND I cannot afford $2.50/ a can. And I find it ridiculous that, for that price, the #1 ingredient was meat by products. I wish I could get her to eat one food for 6 weeks but if she doesn't like it I have to find something else. Right now I am feeding a LID diet from Nature's Variety and grain free Solid Gold dry food. She is hooked on dry food.

Is there a home remedy for an acute ulcer?

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Are you in the US? What Royal Canin Hypoallergenic Canned food? They do not have a prescription food, and certainly not one with meat by-products? Not in the US anyways. I Feed Royal Canin Hypoallergenic HP, and would LOVE if they had a wet - they don't. They do have canned single protein/LID - like duck and green pea, rabbit and green pea - NO animal by-product there. Z/D, by hills, no animal by-products either.
By the way..... I looked at their retail site and they do not have any cans of hypoallergenic on their retail line either? Are you sure it is Royal Canin?
Also, if any brand is selling you a food that claims to be hypoallergenic with Animal by-products... well, run from it - you can't control what's in it, therefore it wouldn't make sense in an allergy point of view I do not see any of the major prescription lines - at least the reliable ones, doing this...

Originally Posted by Carolina

Are you in the US? What Royal Canin Hypoallergenic Canned food? They do not have a prescription food, and certainly not one with meat by-products?

Not in the US anyways. I Feed Royal Canin Hypoallergenic HP, and would LOVE if they had a wet - they don't. They do have canned single protein/LID - like duck and green pea, rabbit and green pea - NO animal by-product there. Z/D, by hills, no animal by-products either.
By the way..... I looked at their retail site and they do not have any cans of hypoallergenic on their retail line either? Are you sure it is Royal Canin?
Also, if any brand is selling you a food that claims to be hypoallergenic with Animal by-products... well, run from it - you can't control what's in it, therefore it wouldn't make sense in an allergy point of view

I do not see any of the major prescription lines - at least the reliable ones, doing this...

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Royal Canin does have a hypoallergenic wet food, you can see it here on their website:
http://royalcanin.ca/index.php/Veter...allergenic-Wet

Originally Posted by Carolina

Are you in the US? What Royal Canin Hypoallergenic Canned food? They do not have a prescription food, and certainly not one with meat by-products?

Not in the US anyways. I Feed Royal Canin Hypoallergenic HP, and would LOVE if they had a wet - they don't. They do have canned single protein/LID - like duck and green pea, rabbit and green pea - NO animal by-product there. Z/D, by hills, no animal by-products either.
By the way..... I looked at their retail site and they do not have any cans of hypoallergenic on their retail line either? Are you sure it is Royal Canin?
Also, if any brand is selling you a food that claims to be hypoallergenic with Animal by-products... well, run from it - you can't control what's in it, therefore it wouldn't make sense in an allergy point of view

I do not see any of the major prescription lines - at least the reliable ones, doing this...

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Almost positive it was Royal Canin. I only bought one months supply of it but it was $2.50 a can and I knew I could find better for $1.50 per can or less. I'll check again next time.

Originally Posted by nerdrock

Royal Canin does have a hypoallergenic wet food, you can see it here on their website:
http://royalcanin.ca/index.php/Veter...allergenic-Wet

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That's it. My vet has a whole aisle of Royal Canin veterinary diet foods. They do have canned and dry. I was mistaken about the byproducts in the ingredients. I think I was not sure what is contained in "venison meal."

Originally Posted by nerdrock

Royal Canin does have a hypoallergenic wet food, you can see it here on their website:
http://royalcanin.ca/index.php/Veter...allergenic-Wet

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Nope - two things: that's Duck, LID, and that's canada, not US. That's not the HP diet, and definitely there isn't animal byproducts in there.

Originally Posted by lunatuna

That's it. My vet has a whole aisle of Royal Canin veterinary diet foods. They do have canned and dry. I was mistaken about the byproducts in the ingredients. I think I was not sure what is contained in "venison meal."

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Ok, those are Limited ingredient diets - those are also in Canada, US we have pea.
Venison meal is completely different than Animal by-products. It is the venison meat, minus the water, FYI - it is very protein dense - as meat has up to 75% of its weight in water.
If you read "meat meal, or meat by-product meal" that is another story.... But lamb meal, venison meal, etc - that is just the meat, skin, etc, processed/cooked in such a manner where the moisture content has been reduced to about 10% of its weight or so.

Originally Posted by Carolina

Nope - two things: that's Duck, LID, and that's canada, not US. That's not the HP diet, and definitely there isn't animal byproducts in there.

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I was just saying that there is a prescription wet food diet by Royal Canin that is hypoallergenic. The OP didn't say where she was located, and since you said that it wasn't on the US site I figured she was probably in Canada.

I am in the US but what difference does it make. The label says hypoallergenic selected protein. Yes I was mistaken about the venison meal ingredient but that doesn't make a difference either. That is not the reason I am asking for advice.

Luna, it does make a difference... And it is not because of the brand- but I have been feeding hypoallergenic foods for quite a while and have "navigated" through them, if you will- what raised a red flag to me was if in fact you had fed a true hypoallergenic diet- which by the way, the LID diets, are not. Even though they are called hypoallergenic, they are only hypoallergenic if your cat is not allergic to that specific protein/starch. Peas, unfortunately are an allergen, and found in all those foods... If your cat is allergic to chicken, like my Bugsy, there is a good chance it will be allergic to duck too- a good example the food is not hypoallergenic, but LID.
The only food I know to be in fact truly hypoallergenic is Hills Z/D *wet* - the dry is a low allergen, as it contains brewers rice.
I am not sure if you can afford, but your vet can work a deal with you... They make a LOT of profit and can give you a good discount on the case, just an fyi

Thank you. I am only defensive because Luna's vet is who recommended that diet and sold it to me in their office. I was just taking the advice from my vet seriously.

Originally Posted by lunatuna

Thank you. I am only defensive because Luna's vet is who recommended that diet and sold it to me in their office. I was just taking the advice from my vet seriously.

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Iunderstand... RC is actually good diet though....Good luck - hope Luna gets well soon