Well Kattie had her recheck today. She is doing great! Even gained 2 ounces lol. The doctor checked her over, he felt her lump which he thinks is probably inflammation from the other doctors injection. We are watching it closely but since it has gotten smaller we are comfortable watching it. Her allergies are now the thing that we are trying to address as her depo shot has long since worn off. The new doc doesn't like giving them and agrees that we need to address this in a different way than the past vet. She has progressively gotten more itchy again, and is getting the milliary dermatitis on her lower back. He is pretty definite that it isn't food allergies as we have done food trials in the past without success, plus the scabs aren't where they typically are in a food allergic cat which is on the face and near the ears. Plus alot of cats with food allergies react with gastrointestinal issues, which isn't the case with her.
Anyways, with the way the scabs are presenting it is classic of a flea bite allergic dermatitis, which I've read and have known. She had actually started to get hypersensitive back when she was a clinic cat. If a flea jumped on her she went crazy. Needless to say, at the clinic she had Frontline every month. Now she lives with me and I haven't seen a single flea on anybody. I check my dog and he gets a bath once a month. He never has fleas or flea dirt on him. My rabbit is clear and both cats are clear. I don't see a single sign of any fleas. I don't currently have any of them on flea control because I don't see any fleas. However, my neighbor said she was dealing with fleas and thought that the common area in our apartment complex was infested, which I though was odd. My other neighbor who has a chihuahua says she hasn't had any fleas or a problem with the common area and her dog goes out there everyday. Now I also walk my dog everyday, so he could potentially bring them in, but again I just don't see them.
Now doc wants to rule out the simple stuff before going and doing more workups and what not. Flea allergic dermatitis is relatively simple to treat so he wants to start there first. He wants me to treat all the animals with a topical, so I probably will use advantage. He says I can probably get by treating the other animals every other month, but treat Kattie every month as she is hyper sensitive. he said just one bite from a flea can send her over the edge. He also is giving a short course of oral pred just in the meantime. Our goal is to get her off steroids completely. He says he never likes to use depo or injectable steroids and only uses them as a last resort. Too many risky side effects and there is nothing you can do once it is in the system. I really like this vet, and he is waaay better than the other one so I guess we will here him out and try the flea control. I guess it is possible to have a very minor as in one or two fleas problem, but I stay on top of than stuff and have never had an issue. We shall see. We go back in a month or so after starting the flea control to see if she is getting any better.
Anyways, with the way the scabs are presenting it is classic of a flea bite allergic dermatitis, which I've read and have known. She had actually started to get hypersensitive back when she was a clinic cat. If a flea jumped on her she went crazy. Needless to say, at the clinic she had Frontline every month. Now she lives with me and I haven't seen a single flea on anybody. I check my dog and he gets a bath once a month. He never has fleas or flea dirt on him. My rabbit is clear and both cats are clear. I don't see a single sign of any fleas. I don't currently have any of them on flea control because I don't see any fleas. However, my neighbor said she was dealing with fleas and thought that the common area in our apartment complex was infested, which I though was odd. My other neighbor who has a chihuahua says she hasn't had any fleas or a problem with the common area and her dog goes out there everyday. Now I also walk my dog everyday, so he could potentially bring them in, but again I just don't see them.
Now doc wants to rule out the simple stuff before going and doing more workups and what not. Flea allergic dermatitis is relatively simple to treat so he wants to start there first. He wants me to treat all the animals with a topical, so I probably will use advantage. He says I can probably get by treating the other animals every other month, but treat Kattie every month as she is hyper sensitive. he said just one bite from a flea can send her over the edge. He also is giving a short course of oral pred just in the meantime. Our goal is to get her off steroids completely. He says he never likes to use depo or injectable steroids and only uses them as a last resort. Too many risky side effects and there is nothing you can do once it is in the system. I really like this vet, and he is waaay better than the other one so I guess we will here him out and try the flea control. I guess it is possible to have a very minor as in one or two fleas problem, but I stay on top of than stuff and have never had an issue. We shall see. We go back in a month or so after starting the flea control to see if she is getting any better.
