Kattie is so itchy it's driving us both nuts! Advice?

Hi all,
I'm back with another dilemma with my problem kitty. Well for the past two months she has been getting progressively itchier and itchier. The poor thing is just constantly licking and chewing at her back and sides, and scratching at her neck. I'm a vet tech, currently not in the field, but stay current, and I've done everything I can think of for her. We have already done food trials and have ruled out food allergies. She was on orijen, but i switched her temporarily to cal naturals chicken and brown rice, as it is a limited ingredient food just in case, but the vet and I agree that it is probably an inhaled allergy as my dog is slightly itchy and my husband and I have been sneezing. Also there are no fleas and they are all on flea protection. My other cat is fine and normal.
Anyways, she normally doesn't damage the skin, but now has the pustules and scabs of milliary dermatitis. I took her in a few weeks ago when the scratching first started to get bad, and of course she got a steroid injection, which I only reserve for when it gets out of control. I hate the effects of it but it used to work well. Well now we only got a week or two of mild relief and she is now back to intense itchies where if you touch her back her skin crawls. She hasn't pulled hair out and if you just looked at her, you'd think she was the picture of health with a shiny full coat. Under that though is the bumpy scabs. Well, she obviously can't have another steroid injection as it is too soon and it didn't really work. I did get an oatmeal and aloe shampoo for her which helps for maybe a few days. I'm going to bathe her again on Saturday. She is super easy to bath so frequent baths aren't a problem. I got a pet safe hydrocortizone spray for the actual sores, which seems to prevent her from chewing as it tastes bad.(don't worry it's safe for cats) I also got a homeopathic remedy for cats and dogs, which might be taking the edge off, but we've only been on it for 4 days.
The other two things I've been giving her are omega 3 fatty acids, and chlorotabs which are an antihistamine. I've found in practice it works on cats better than Benadryl. We shall see. Got the doseage from my vet drug manual, ok'd with my vet and we shall see. She is kinda sleepy today, but isn't scratching as much. The drowsy effect wears off after 2-3 days in experience, but maybe it will give her skin a chance to heal. If this doesn't work, it's back to the vet. I'm plumb out of ideas and really don't want prednisone but will if we have to. We have also decided not to do allergy testing. In practice the vet that I worked for and I always thought it was a waste of money. You find out your pet is allergic to grass, trees, bushes ect, even the sun(one dog actually was allergic to sun exposure) but then what? You can't prevent trees and grass ect from pollinating, so you just treat the symptoms best you can. Anyways off on a tangent, but looking for suggestions if anyone has them.

little hard to read. but right chlortab (chlorpheniramine) is the go-to antihistamine for cats. but  zyrtec (cetirizine) is increasingly being used in cats. my brother's cat is on zyrtec as directed by his vet. one advantage zyrtec has is that it lasts longer.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18447800

http://www.petmd.com/blogs/dailyvet/2010/february/zyrtec_for_cats

Poor Kattie! :rub:

I don't know if you want to consider this, but when our Chumley was itching himself bare, we tried hypoallergenic food, zyrtec, etc. Conventional thinking just didn't help him. So I found a holistic D.V.M. She got him fixed up inside of a couple of weeks. He stayed on the herbal stuff she suggested for some time - I have no idea how long he actually needed it. She is trained in Chinese meds, so that's what I recommend.

I found one in Tacoma. I don't know how far this is from you, but this is her website: http://www.bpvet.info/

Our trip with Chumley was 45 minutes one-way (during non-traffic hours). It was worth it.

Good luck with your baby!

Thanks guys!

The chlorotabs seem to work for about 6 hours of good releif then seem to taper off. She is starting to groom more as the tabs are wearing off. I will definately keep zyrtec in mind and ask the vet about it. Also I was looking for a more homeopathic vet in the area and this one gets amazing reviews on yelp and a couple other sites. To boot, she also sees birds and rabbits. It is so hard to find a good rabbit vet. I am giving Kattie a homeopathic remedy called Homeopet Itch Relief. It has herbs and such in it  to help with itching. If it doesn't work, I think I might give the holistic vet a call. I believe we might see more eye to eye than I do with most vets. I usually get in mild debates on vaccine frequency, and foods as I don't vaccinate every year, and I will not feed Hills foods. I look for natural supplements and holistic remedies when at all possible, but won't rule out conventional medicine when neccessary. Thanks for finding this vet, I've looked all over and the closest one I found was in Seattle or Bellevue which is kinda far. Brown's Point is about 17 miles away, or a half hour. Not super close, but not too far for a good vet. I f Kattie isn't significantly better by next week, or showing improvement, I will make an appointment and see what we can do.
 

Kattiekitty said:

I am giving Kattie a homeopathic remedy called Homeopet Itch Relief. It has herbs and such in it  to help with itching.

Click to expand...

Alcohol is used to preserve this tincture, so you must dilute it or evaporate the alcohol. When using internally, a reasonable dilution rate might be no more than two drops per 15ml/0.5oz dropper bottle of water. If a weaker dilution works, e.g. one drop, try that first. To evaporate, bring a 15mL of water to a boil in a jar or another empty remedy bottle and add one or two drops of the tincture. Let sit until cooled. You can also use this to make a dosage bottle using another remedy bottle. Just remember that what is in this bottle is NOT preserved, so must be used within a few days.

Alcohol-based remedies have been shown to induce acute pancreatitis, damage the liver, as well as cause Heinz body anemia in cats, so I would advise not following the label instructions especially giving it straight, without diluting or boiling off the alcohol (I prefer the boiling off method).

Kitties and alcohol = toxic. I avoid it at all costs. Perhaps if you get any more homeopathic remedies, you could use pills/pellets instead?

I will say that I find it curious that others in the family are also having issues, so I would pursue that to see what is going on. Maybe have the home checked for molds or other environmental things that might be going on.

Yeah I saw the alcohol preservative. I actually dilute the tincture in water and mix it in her canned food. I let it sit before giving it to her to allow the alcohol evaporate. Also I am pretty sure it is some plant or tree blooming. It happens every year in the late spring early summer and late fall. The dog gets itchy and scratches. We get sneezy and take allergy meds and Kattie gets itchy to the extreme. This is what also makes me think it isn't food allergies as it affects all of us. My husband also gets rashes on his hands and uses a triamcinalone cream that works wonders, but I'm not willing to use that on Kattie as I don't know I'd it is safe to lick.

Kat got very patchy because he was itching so much and had scabs.

I thought it must be insects as he spends a lot of time outdoors

Vet said he had allergies and gave steroid injection plus antibiotics.

Also told me to stop using liquid flea and tic preparations (cat would go completely bonkers when I applied it, made me feel bad he was so distressed)

Seems almost all use alcohol as solvent/delivery method and it 'burns'  kitties?

Switched to crushing a 1/4 of tablet meant for 40~45lbs dog, (Kat weighs about 12lbs, vet didn't have smaller cat dose on hand so I got 4 months out of one tablet)

Cat is now furry,shiny, fluffy and happy (and out since he's eaten )

 Hope you find problem and cat gets well soon