Feline allergies - Omega 3

Stormy, my 13 month old male, has been battling allergies since we got him 10 months ago. We originally thought it was feline acne, but the itchiness progressed to his face and ears. He has had 2 depo shots and a round of antibiotics, which work wonders, but only for six weeks. He has been taking Benadryl twice daily and I have been applying relifor once daily. He also has nail caps on his rear claws to prevent mutilating himself. Nothing seems to be working. I started giving him Omega 3 on Saturday. The pics above were taken just prior to the first dose, and the scabbing is much milder than it was prior to his last depo shot the first week of December. I am really hopeful we will see improvement in the next month. I do not want to continue with depo shots because of the possible side effects.

Before you ask, he did have a skin scraping (sat perfectly still for it, must have felt great) and no mites or parasites were found. Stormy's twin sister, Alfie, has perfect skin and fur.

If anyone has other ideas, please let me know. I am desperate to stop his itching.

That looks very uncomfortable for Stormy.  I'm glad you're on top of things and looking to find answers for him. 

What are you feeding him? 

What kind of bowls do you use, plastic, ceramic, metal, or glass?  How often do you wash them? 

What's the stress level like in your home? 

Is your home quiet of busy?  Do you use any kind of calming agents such as Feliway or Rescue Remedy?

Benadryl isnt a good antihistamine for cats. All the vets I have worked for use Chlorampheniramine which you can also get over the counter. You might want to try a limited ingredient diet such as venison or duck, something that your cat hasn't been exposed to. You need to feed it for 12 weeks for an accurate food trial.

I give my kitties Claritin, the plain Loratadine (generic).  I give them 1/4 to 1/2 tablet once daily to help with their allergies.  My vet recommended that and it's been wonderful!

Stormy is on the RC SO diet, 1/4 can in the morning, kibble in the evening. He was nearly blocked in November and we haven't put him back on Science Diet since. He eats from stainless steel bowls which are cleaned immediately after being fed, and his ss water bowl is cleaned daily. I do have Rescue Remedy, but to be honest, I only used it twice when he was dealing with the FLUTD. I didn't see any change in his skin though at the time I was more concerned with his urinary issues.

We tried chlortrimeton before Benadryl. It also had no effect.

I'm wondering if it's a food allergy, actually.  This was going on when he was on the Science Diet as well?  Have you tried him on a grain-free or limited ingredient food?  I'd give Feliway a try and see if that helps.  It may take 6-8 weeks to notice any significant changes, though it usually works in less time than that if it's going to work.

I wondered that as well. I am nervous about switching foods. The FLUTD really scares me. I have a bag of Fromm's that I feed to his twin sister, Alfie. And I do recall the salesman at Healthy Pet telling me it can be fed to Stormy and is much better for cats than the SO diet.

There is a Yahoo group for owners of FLUTD cats that's very good.  https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/FLUTD/info   Lots of great information and helpful people. 

Good to know! I am also in Texas, Austin to be exact. The cedar has been unbearable lately which may be making Stormy's allergies worse. We may have to institute a shoes at the door policy to keep the bulk of the pollen out of our home.

I don't think there's any way to keep mtn. cedar pollen out of your home.  It comes in when you open the door and through any drafty place in your home.  The cedar pollen has even been bad up here.  I used to live in the Hill Country (Kerrville) and got a serious sinus infection during Cedar Fever season.  UGH!!  Try the Feliway as well as the grain-free food if you decide to go that route.

I brought Stormy to his vet today. No depo shot today, but we went home with Mulirocin ointment and Hexichlor and OpconA eye drops. We are also switching his diet to hypoallergenic HP. If the scratching doesn't improve in 3 days, he is to start a tapering dosage of prednisone. So I did say no steroids, but he may need them to kick start the healing. This will hopefully be his last round of steroids, but I'm really hoping he won't need them. He went in today with some bleeding near his mouth because he'd scratched so hard. Poor Stormy.

The receptionist, vet and tech all commented on his easygoing personality. I'm including a pic of him doing a really horrible job of hiding.

If it is a true food allergy it can take up to 12 weeks for the itching to stop, just a heads up.  Zyrtec antihistamine has proven to work well in cats.  As for the bladder diet, I have 2 bladder kitties and neither one of them are on a special diet other than canned food with extra water added to it daily.  They get no dry food, just treats.  I haven't had issues for 4 years, up until DeeJay had other issues that probably made her more susceptible to an infection.  http://catinfo.org/ has a lot of excellent information.  It is where I learned all about bladder problems in cats.  It is written by a Veterinarian.