Skin Allergies?

I have been to three different vets regarding this, and I am completely at a loss for what to do.

Background:

My cat is eleven years old.  About two years ago he started over cleaning his self to the point that he bleeds and is going completely bald in certain areas. Most of the area's are his ears, chin, legs and belly. They have done blood and skin tests, and every three months or so do the same tests over again and they never come up with anything. The first thing they had us do was switch out his dish for a different kind. Went from plastic to ceramic.. then we changed diet multiple times. He went from the Science Diet (which is what the place we adopted him from told us to use) and he was on that for 8+ years before he started having the issue. We then changed to Natural Balance Green Pea and Duck, as it was supposedly better for him than the Science Diet... after many months on that and still having the same issue, we switched to a grain free diet. Dave's natural wet food. Still nothing changed. So we tried for over three months to switch him to a raw diet, he never took to it, no matter what we tried. He would eat raw chicken, but no bone. He hated pork and beef, and beef liver. There was no talking him into anything but chicken breast with no bones. Since we never got him to completely go raw, I don't know if that would have helped or not in the long run.

Right now we have him on a low dosage of Prednisone and an Omega3 oil that we mix into his food. He's now eating Acana as his food and he doesn't seem to enjoy it at all. His skin got a little better while on this medication but never really cleared up. He's now very itchy and has bumps all over him. Watching him clean his self on a continuous basis due to the itchyness is heart-breaking.  I am just out so much money at this point and no one can figure out what's going on. I just want to give him SOME relief in some way. All this testing and poking him with needles and medication every day added with the continuous itching has got to be completely awful for the little guy.

I should also point out that the only time his skin ever clears up is when they give him a cortisone shot. Which lasts about three weeks and then we are right back to where we were. According to numerous places giving him that shot is not good for his heart and can cause more trouble than it's worth. But it does clear it up.

Now they are saying they can go in and do a biopsy on his skin but they aren't sure if it will give them any different info.. this procedure is around $400. I would be fine paying for that if they will for sure find out something, but that's a lot of money to "maybe" get some information. Very frustrating.

I guess I am just trying to find out if anyone else has any idea's or has gone through this and can suggest anything,

Thank you so much in advance.

(Sorry for the random run-on sentences, I tried to edit it to make more sense.)

I know you will get a lot of replies on this- my own experience involves my foster boy Curly who developed a skin allergy after getting his shots. He is also FIV+ and it may have been a combination of the shots and being immune-depressed.

Curly also licked and scratched all the fur from around his neck and ears and he also had to get shots of prednisone. But since he has FIV, I did not want to subject him to the shots every single month since it was not good for his immune system.

I started looking for homeopathic remedies and was very fortunate to find these allergy pills (see link below) that already contain a lot of homeopathic anti-inflammatory ingredients. Based on Curly's weight, I sprinkled half a capsule (they are liver flavored) on his food every day. I also checked with my vet as well as Curly's online FIV support group to make sure the ingredients were good for him and both were very supportive. 

As far as food, Curly did very well with BG Turkey wet food so I fed him only that. They say that the key for food allergies is to find something your cat has never eaten before and as such he cannot not have already developed an allergy to it. Unfortunately some ingredients are in almost every food, i.e. chicken, and/or salmon oil. BG is the only brand of food I have found where the ingredients do not combine a lot of other meats etc. Also it is a grain-free food and is for sale at PetCo and other mainstream stores. 

Skin allergies can take several months before they die down. The inflammation is exactly that, inflamed, and the more the kitty scratches, the more inflamed it is. I found that the allergy pills helped considerably to reduce the inflammatory response. After about 2 or 3 months I was able to use the capsules alone. And after about 10 months I added Blue Buffalo turkey crunchies to his diet. A few months after that, Curly's allergies stopped altogether. 

I also got the whisker city hypoallergenic wipes from Petsmart and used those to wipe Curly's fur. I think it helped to cool him down a little bit. I don't know if it actually soothed the allergies but it may have had an effect like a topical salve on a mosquito bite. 

I hope you are successful as well with your kitty. The key is patience and to stick with a steady regimen and resist the temptation to keep switching things. I highly recommend the allergy pills, they can certainly do no harm and should work together with the steroid. http://www.2docspethealth.com/blue-label/allergy-defense-formula.html

Well, I am not sure what is going on now. He has been throwing up at night, and is refusing to eat the Acana he has been eating for months. It's like he is scrounging for food constantly and at night he finds things when we are asleep in the trash I guess. He would prefer to eat old food that makes him sick over his normal food... So I gave him some "bad for you" food, like Meow Mix and mixed it with the Acana.. he ate just the meow mix and left the Acana. I can't keep giving him meow mix though. Not sure what I should do.

Oh, how I wish he could just tell me what he wants.

Thank you for all the info regarding his skin allergies, I am going to pick up those things this weekend and see how they pan out. Much appreciated, and if it gives him relief, I am sure he would love to thank you as well.
 

My boy is a itchy kitty too. If you can, I would strongly suggest taking him to a Holistic Vet, if you have one in your area. I finally did this last year. I was tired of the regular vet just putting him on Prednisone when it flared up. (because they couldn't find anything either & was more than seasonal).  He would chew raw spots on himself!  Anyway, the Holistic Vet diagnosed him w/ having "Damp Heat" in his body. This is where the inflammation & heat was coming from, making him itchy.  He recommended only feeding "cooling foods."  (In Chinese Medicine, there are cooling, & warming foods).  I am now giving him a Chinese herb I learned about from someone on here who's kitty was diagnosed w/ the same thing. (no coincidence there ) It, has really helped.  Sounds like you were on the right track w/ the BG turkey.

I give Angel that, or the by nature (same price as BG, but one oz. larger!) What's also nice about by nature is it has liver too. It's Turkey & Liver  or/ Beef & Liver. (flavors I buy him).

Turkey is cooling, but I've also heard neutral.  Duck & Beef are neutral. Rabbit is cooling. (IF you could ever find it w/out other meats in it!)

(chicken & venison are warm, so I would stay away from those, just in case  - can't hurt).

SO, If you have one in your area, it would be totally worth taking him. This way you hopefully can get to the root of the problem, instead of just treating the symptoms. (sense the vet can't find anything).

They aren't trained to look for such things.  I was also pleasantly surprised that the Holistic vet was only a few dollars more (42.00 vs/ 38.00) for an office visit, but spent over an hour w/ us for the first visit/ work-up!   You have to get a diagnosis first, but I hope this helped.

I know how frustrating this can be to watch your baby go through this, so I hope this info was helpful!

Please keep me posted. If I can help in any other way, feel free to PM me.

Kelly

I agree with Angels Mommy too about the holistic vet. I have another kitty with cancer and I finally found a good holistic vet for him. A good holistic vet can give you more insight about what is going on.

I was very happy to find the allergy pills from the 2docs pet health website because they are made from of a combination of holistic ingredients and were approved by my vet, which meant that I didn't have to buy a lot of individual holistic ingredients. Plus they aren't very expensive. 

Also since the powder in the capsules is liver flavored, it is more palatable than some of the holistic remedies. I'm sure there are other good ones out there but I wasn't able to find any others that combined ingredients. And if you use the BG turkey and sprinkle 1/2 capsule of the pill on it, the taste should be turkey and liver lol.

I know I am really pushing these allergy pills but you know with your cat how hard it is to watch the suffering and it was such a relief to see my foster boy slowly improve and to be able to discontinue the prednisone shots. They will not cure the cause but they will relieve the inflammation and symptoms. 

I also agree with Angels Mom, in my case chicken didn't work really well for my kitty- turkey and beef were better. I feed my other cats natural balance so I did have the duck and the venison brands but did not try them bc they had either chicken or salmon oil in them, and at the time I was concerned that my cat's allergy was to one of those two foods. But it turned out to be a vaccine allergy which made him sensitive to certain foods, probably chicken given how the vaccines are made.

BarbB, That Allergy Defense Formula looks good. I may have to try that too. "I swear, Angel is taking more supplements than I am."   "Anything for our babies!"

  (Gets expensive though, the Prosperous Farmer pills he's taking for damp heat, are about the same price.    )

Well, I allowed the Vet I have currently been going to talk me into a few more things, I honestly think he is getting worse. I am trying to find an allergy pill that I can get local to keep my cost down and I am failing horribly. Going to keep looking though! Thanks for all your suggestions, I have officially given up on my vet. Grr!