Cat stuck in "cone of shame"

Hello! I found this website through a few google searches and it seems like a great resource! I have two cats, Scott and Shelby. Scott is fat, mischievous, and sensitive, and Shelby is shy but the sweetest cat ever. (I'm hoping to get her trained to be a therapy cat for people in hospitals or senior homes one day, she just loves loving on people!)

Besides Scott's chubbiness, he is a perfectly healthy cat. Here is a picture of him when I caught him working on his favorite hobby, ripping up toilet paper or paper towels. For some reason he thinks this is the funnest thing ever! He is too cute to be mad at LOL!

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 Shelby on the other hand, has been a constant roller coaster of health issues. January through July of 2013 she was in and out of a cone, but from July until now, she has literally had the cone on every day (except when I take it off to clean it, her face, or when occasionally she finds a way to get out of her cone) Ever since January of last year, she has slowly gotten worse and worse. Our first two vets would just give her steroid after steroid and antibiotic injections and she would still continue to have problems. I got fed up with paying so much money every other month to just have the same thing keep happening over and over so I took her to a new vet. This new vet found that she had a pretty significant heart murmur, and couldn't believe that she had been subjected to so many rounds of steroids.

We know that she has an allergy of some sort (our first vet never thought of this, but our second vet did), we just don't know what exactly she is allergic to. We have tried 3 different types of foods with different proteins, but her symptoms haven't improved. Poor Shelby is so incredibly itchy that if she doesn't wear a cone, she self mutilates to the extreme. 












The last picture is of her today, and the rest of the pictures are what we have been dealing with for the past year. We have tried different types of food,  chlorpheniramine, strides pads and apple cider vinegar and stainless steel bowls for her chin acne, and steroid and antibiotic shots, and the problems keep coming back. We think the chin acne is even worse than normal because the cone isn't very breathable and keeps bacteria close to her chin. We clean it with alcohol every day but chin acne is better than a tore up face at this point. 

Our current vet thinks that because her allergies are so severe, she has both environmental and food allergies. Today we just started the Science Prescription allergy dry food, Atopica, antibiotics for her infection, tresaderm drops for her ears, and an antibacterial/antifungal spray for her severe chin acne. Atopica is very expensive, but if we don't  have to deal with this ever again, it will be worth it. Poor Shelby has just been miserable. She isn't even 2 years old yet and h as lived almost half her life in a cone. 

At this point I am so frustrated, upset, and desperate. She can't keep living like this, and we can't afford a 200 vet bill every other month either. This has been extremely stressful for me. After today's visit, I feel really optimistic that Atopica and a hypoallergenic diet will be the magic cure. 

Has anyone else ever dealt with anything like this? I would love any advice or stories about a cat that has overcome something like this!

I don't have answers. I'm so sorry you're going through this! Poor Shelby!

Poor baby!  Have they done any cultures and/or scrapings to rule out anything like a fungal infection?  What are you feeding her and what have you tried?  (I just saw about the Science Diet, so I know what you're currently feeding.)  Have you tried plain boiled chicken?  Does she eat dry food only or canned or combination?  Have you tried grain-free? 

She has had skin scrapings done and tape tests and the vets use those results to find what antibiotic would best help. She will get better, but it just keeps coming back. Her chin acne has gotten significantly worse, probably from constantly wearing a cone. Luckily her face isn't red and infected like it was this past fall. 

Here's all the food she has been on:

1. Blue Buffalo Basics Turkey & Potato

2. Blue Buffalo Chicken Indoor (when pet store stopped carrying basics)

3. Blue Buffalo Chicken Sensitive stomach (When Scott had stinky and too soft of poop)

4. Natural Balance Salmon (when we first realized Shelby might have a food allergy (Scott did AWESOME on grain free food!)

5. Blue Buffalo Basics Turkey & Potato grain free (we couldn't remember her having problems on this food, so we switched back to it, but grain free. Unfortunately it didn't help)

6. Hills Prescription Diet allergy (she is on this now)

We gave each of the foods at least 8 weeks to try out. She has constantly been itchy, so it's possible that maybe the food was helping, but with her environmental allergies, we weren't able to see it. We haven't tried boiled chicken because we thought that is what she is allergic to. She eats only dry, and we have tried Natural Balance Salmon grain free and the Blue Buffalo Basics grain free and they have both been great for Scott, but haven't helped Shelby. 

I mentioned to my vet that I have heard that raw food diets can really help cats with allergies, but she seems to be very against raw food. I even explained that I wouldn't go to the store and just feed her raw chicken, but I would get the raw food through frozen through Nature's variety, but she still wasn't thrilled with the idea. 

In my experience, Blue Buffalo has mixed results.  It causes one of my kitties to cough several times a day.  I don't know what it is about it, but several members seem to have problems with it.  Also, some cats don't handle processed chicken or fish well.  (Processed meaning in dry or canned food.)

Do you feed her any canned food?  What about trying something grain-free like Taste of the Wild (dry) or Innova EVO (canned)?  I would also try plain boiled chicken shredded and then with some of the broth added back in to make it the consistency of oatmeal.  She can't stay on that forever, but for a few days to see if there's any relief might help. 

Do you have her on a daily antihistamine?  What about the stress level in your home?  Do you keep to a regular routine or is it more chaotic?  Do you have lots of people coming & going or is it fairly quiet?  I'm thinking that perhaps stress is aggravating things.  Do you run a Feliway diffuser in your home 24/7?

For raw food help, check out the nutrition forum.  There's a whole sub-forum donated to raw feeding.  http://www.thecatsite.com/f/65/raw-home-cooked-cat-food

Agreeing ^

lf this were my kitty, l'd be going with my instinct and trying a raw diet - it has helped SOOO many people. My 3 cats and dog are currently on a raw and canned rotation - absolutely no kibble.

She is just on dry food right now. I'm afraid wet food would just make her chin acne worse since it's so messy. 

After this food trial I'll definitely be more open to raw/cooked homemade food. Right now though while she is on the trial she can't have anything other than the prescription diet. I'm not a huge fan of Hills Science/Prescription food, but this seems like the best option for now. 

She was on a generic claratin for a month or so, but it didn't seem to be helping. Since she probably has a combination of food and environmental allergies, it might have helped but we just couldn't see a difference because she was still so itchy because of her food. 

It's just my husband and I at home, very low stress and quiet. I don't think she is stressed. She hangs around everywhere in the house and doesn't seem to hide anywhere very often. 

I have noticed that since last night and today she has been a little bit more sleepy and isn't trying to scratch as much. I'm not sure if that's from the Atopica or her antibiotics or if she is just a little exhausted from her trip to the vet yesterday, even though she seems to love being at the vets once we get there!

One thing I have always wondered though is because she has been on so many rounds of antibiotics and steroids, would her body be able to handle raw food?

My 3 cats had raging diarrhea (different symptom but still some sort of intolerance), and my last vet wasn't keen on raw either. I argued that frankly I just didn't have anything to lose by trying it since no med would fix it and I flatly refused to try Hill's just yet. Their diarrhea was gone in 24 hours. My new vet is thrilled that I feed raw and my cats are a testament to it's effectiveness.

With what you're dealing with, I'd give raw a try. It'll probably help with Scott's weight too.

Some people feed probiotics and digestive enzymes in the early stages (l didn't) and some feed them on a regular basis. lt might be a good idea to post your info in the raw/cooked forum to solicit some ideas. There are some very knowledgeable people there who helped me transition every step of the way.

Good luck, and welcome 

Canned food is actually not as messy as dry.  I feed both, but mostly canned.  They don't have the problem of messiness on their chins like with dry food.  I'd give it a go.

Don't know about the feline but steroids and antibiotics is the perfect combination to cause humans to get fungus infections. 2 bouts of bronchitis and I was one of those lucky humans that can no longer take both at the same time. So if...
Bless you that you are so strong to help that little girl the way you do. My Virgil has allergies he coughs and sneezes a lot each day. We keep room purifiers on for him and we have cool mist humidifiers one in the kitchen where he hangs out most of the day and one in the room he sleeps in at night. The humidifier is on one side of the room and the purifier at the opposite side. We have 7 DSH cats in total, all who get brushed at least once a week to help Virgil. I vacuum every other day so there is no dust around Virgil. And on weekends I wash cat blankets, cat beds and throws just for my big guy. I use unscented sheet detergents, unscented softner and unscented bounce in the dryer. I use Swheat Scoop liter that used to be pretty good on the dust but lately it's been getting finer and finer so that's about to go. I stopped the steroid shots on him after 2 years because of the likelihood of diabetis and the fact he now weights 22 lbs. Every morning Virgil comes into the bathroom with me while I shower to get the nice warm mist. I have elected to stop treating Virgil but I don't believe you have that option. My life could be so much worse after reading about Shelby, you rock!

turkey is a lot like chicken and some cats react to it just as if it were chicken.  With a food trial you want to feed something like Rabbit or Venison.  I know Natural Balance has a Duck and a Salmon Limited Ingredient.  Nature's Variety has a Duck, Rabbit or Turkey Limited Ingredient Diet.  How long are you feeding her each of the diets?  A food trial has to last 12 weeks.  Zyrtec is an excellent antihistamine for cats. http://www.petmd.com/blogs/dailyvet/2010/february/zyrtec_for_cats-5403  I give my allergy cat 1/2 tablet once a day and it really helps him.   I had a cat years ago who was EXACTLY like your kitty, he would self mutilate and had constant ear infections to the point that we had to remove his ear canals.  We put him on a rabbit diet (raw) as this was before the limited ingredient diets and he did really well.  Before that he was on constant steroids and medications.  I would definitely consider raw for your kitty.  My chihuahua is allergic to chicken in cooked form but has been on it in raw form for 3 years and she doesn't react to it as cooking changes the protein.  Have you ever tried Soft paws on his claws to help with the self mutilation? 

I hate to even mention this because I can't imagine your vet hasn't checked already, but given that you said she has a heart murmur, has she had her T4 and free T4 checked for hyperthyroidism? It doesn't sound like she has most of the other symptoms, but from what my vet said when we tested my kitties, it can cause grooming issues (over- or undergrooming), hair loss and itchiness. It's probably a long shot, especially if she's not losing weight (something like 95+ percent of hyperthyroid cats lose weight), but I thought I would mention it.

I'd also second @stephanietx and @blackcat416 about the skin scraping and fungal infection, if you haven't had a skin test yet. My cat got a fungal infection on her nose and chin once, and it looked exactly like your girl's nose in the second picture there and was extremely itchy. I lucked out in that my vet had seen it before and knew right away what was going on, but I guess they're not very common. Still, cats can get fungal infections such as valley fever (not sure where you're located, but it's endemic to parts of the U.S. Southwest and California) or aspergillosis, and I know fungal infections can lead to systemic problems like lung/heart issues in humans. If she's been having issues for a year now, she'd probably be showing a lot more symptoms and be much sicker if it was fungal, especially with steroid treatments, but again, might be something to check into.

Aside from that, I don't have any advice other than the limited diet suggestions from everyone else. But I hope you get her all figured out soon! She seems like a sweet kitty and it's so hard to see them so uncomfortable. I hope she's feeling better ASAP.

Thanks for all of the responses everyone! To answer the questions, the salmon food trial was only 8 weeks. I had her on Natural balance duck for two weeks when I first suspected a food allergy, but the vet told me that duck was too close to chicken and wanted her to be on the Salmon version. Shelby has been on the Blue Buffalo Turkey and potato for 8 weeks as well. 

She has soft paws on her back claws and they help lessen the damage, but she still won't stop scratching or licking her front leg and over grooming her face and can mess up her face very quickly if she doesn't have a cone on. She has had skin scrapings done before and I know she has excessive yeast in her ears, but I"m not sure what the results were from the skin scraping. She had the skin scraping done when her face was severely infected and thankfully, that has gone away. 

Right now she just is extremely itchy, has crusty eyes (sometimes her nose), waxy ears, and gunk between her paws, and of course the horrible chin acne. Oh, I forgot to mention, we had her tested for feline aids and other autoimmune diseases and they were negative. 

If this prescription food works for her and we switch her to a different type of food (either raw or limited ingredient), will we still need to do an 12 week trial, or will we notice right away if she is allergic to it? 

I am very interested in putting her on a raw food once we get her face cleared up, but how expensive is raw food? If it is comparable to the cost of a bag of Blue Buffalo, I would love to try it. But we are already stretching our budget to not feed our kitties grocery store junk, and if it's more expensive than Blue Buffalo or natural balance I don't think we will be able to swing that. I'd be more interested in commercial raw since my husband and I travel a few times a year, and would need something easier for whoever is watching them to prepare. 

CoastieCat said:

If this prescription food works for her and we switch her to a different type of food (either raw or limited ingredient), will we still need to do an 12 week trial, or will we notice right away if she is allergic to it? 
I am very interested in putting her on a raw food once we get her face cleared up, but how expensive is raw food? If it is comparable to the cost of a bag of Blue Buffalo, I would love to try it. But we are already stretching our budget to not feed our kitties grocery store junk, and if it's more expensive than Blue Buffalo or natural balance I don't think we will be able to swing that. I'd be more interested in commercial raw since my husband and I travel a few times a year, and would need something easier for whoever is watching them to prepare. 

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If she is highly allergic you might notice an increase in itching etc.  However it can take up to 12 weeks for her body to adjust to the new foods and sometimes you can have a 'clean out' period where they react more than they would normally just because the body is getting rid of the other food out of their system.  Raw feeding for my chihuahua is more expensive than grain free however a 4# bag lasts her 6 months so feeding her raw she eats more than that.  HOWEVER I have saved hundreds if not thousands in vet bills and medications for her.  She was to the point of going on atopica, she was already on steroids.  We did all the food trials with her too.  She was so miserable skin red and inflammed, infections all the time.  She was on 7 medications for her chronic issues.  She is now on 1 (for hydrocephalus) and has had minimal problems in the last 3 years.  She literally has 28 pages of medical history up until 2010 (5 years), and maybe 1  or 2 pages since then (when we switched her to raw).  She was allergic to chicken in cooked form but handles it in raw form without problems.  As cooking changes the protein. 

Hi there )

i read what u have written and my Tonkanese has this over grooming problem and it comes every 3 months and then its shot time and most of the time in a cone because she will lick till there are wounds, now she is on Prozac and just maybe this will help, i hope because im heart broken. Vet says no fungus or ringel worm, so i wonder and it started after i got her fixed.

Andrea Delhaie said:

 
Hi there )

i read what u have written and my Tonkanese has this over grooming problem and it comes every 3 months and then its shot time and most of the time in a cone because she will lick till there are wounds, now she is on Prozac and just maybe this will help, i hope because im heart broken. Vet says no fungus or ringel worm, so i wonder and it started after i got her fixed.

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Do you think it's behavioral or do you think it could be an allergy? My cat has an over grooming problem but that's mostly because she is very itchy and has waxy ears, dark gunk in-between her feet, and gunky eyes. If your cat has these symptoms too, it might be an allergy and not just behavioral. 

My cat has clean feet,ears and eyes with all the over grooming, i just dont know whats up

Andrea Delhaie said:

 
My cat has clean feet,ears and eyes with all the over grooming, i just dont know whats up

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Hmmmm, it sounds behavioral to me, but I'm not an expert. Shelby's problems aren't behavioral so I don't have experience with that. There is someone on here, I don't know her screen name, but her cat's name is Lucas and he had problems similar to my cat, but his were behavioral I believe. I would do a search and you should be able to find it. 

Another thing, is your cat on a flea preventative? Maybe your kitty is allergic to fleas?