Pemphigus folacious! Advice?!

I am new to this site; so not sure if I'm using correctly or posting in the correct area or not. Anyways, I have a 2 year old long hair mix-breed kitty. She had always been a show stopper. Absolutely gorgeous, everyone always makes comments about her. She is so incredibly sweet. However April of this years she began getting yucky looking. Scabs lesions crusts, the whole shabang. So I had taken her to a vet clinic that ended up being of no help for us. (After paying near $2,000 for not even a proper diagnosis or sign of change) I am now at a new vet who has been incredibly involved. WE HAVE A DIAGNOSIS. No more wondering! Which is nice. At the same time I am terrified for my baby's future. She has 1.a bacterial skin infection 2. Underlying allergies is an issue as well and 3. She has been diagnosed with pemphigus folacious. I had never heard of pemphigus folacious until this week. I am happy to have a diagnosis. But I am scared for what her life will be like now. On top of already paying out $2000 at this point, which is a lot of money. (Of course she is worth it) I am struggling to decide what is best for her future and if this life time treatment for this disease is going to be a financial burden that I will be capable of carrying. I have no clue what this process is going to be like and I am hoping someone might be able to offer so advice on this if anyone has gone through it with a furry loved one of their own. I of course want to do everything in my power to help her. But I am curious of her quality of life during this treatment. And if I'll be able to care for her in the ways she needs financially speaking. Anything would be helpful at the moment! Thank you!

She does look beautiful!

I'm glad you found a good vet you can work with. I'm not an expert, but we've had a few people here in the past with pemphigus foliaceus, so here are a few threads where this has come up before - 

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/235745/11-year-old-kitty-probably-has-pemphigus-foliaceus

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/8766/cat-has-thick-hard-crust-on-back-of-ears-what-is-it

Here's the search string. You can probably find more threads that are relevant there, but you'll have to check as it brings up every thread where pemphigus foliaceus has been mentioned.

Good luck, and do let us know how she's doing and what worked. It could help others down the road.

Pemphigus is a type of autoimmune disorder of the skin in cats. I remember partaking in a thread some time ago about a kitty who ended up with this diagnosis after a major attempt at making hypoallergenic changes. Let me see if I can find it.

Oh, here it is:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/272203/kitty-with-severe-allergies-any-help-is-appreciated

Also, if your new vet is not a holistic vet, I would recommend that you work with both a traditional vet (Western medicine) as well as either a holistic vet or one that specializes in traditional Chinese medicine.