My cat Jack

Hello all,

Wondering if any of you have experience with what might be going on with my cat.  Jack is 10 years old; I adopted him 2 years ago.  He'd been at the shelter for 6 months!!  Broke my heart.  Briefly, he'd been in one family w a companion cat for 6 years; both were surrendered together (not sure why), the companion was adopted right away and then Jack languished at the shelter for 6 more months.  Black cat syndrome.  People just didn't "see" him, and as time went on he became increasingly withdrawn and unhealthy looking.  Dull coat, underweight.  The day I visited, I was sitting on the floor and this boy pushed his way onto my lap and literally tried to crawl into my belly (he's never done this since!)  I fell in love with him and brought him home.  He's my gentle ben... my sweet baby bear.  ANYWAY, he's always been very lethargic.  Doesn't play much at all (I've tried everything!); mostly sleeps (he's a cat!)  He's very good with other cats; I have two younger girls... one of which is absolutely smitten with Jack and follows him everywhere.  Point is, I think he's as well adjusted as he could be for a 10 year old who's had some major stressors in his life.  So, here's the thing... one of his issues is that he constantly scratches at his ears, to the point where there are often patches of fur missing (I'm sure this is one reason he was looked over for adoption for so long).  My vet suspects food allergies, but I'm not sure.  It doesn't seem connected to eating.  And the antihistamines don't stop it.  We recently came back from being away for 10 days (we have a sitter who visits 2 x per day) and there was practically no fur left on his ears!  We keep his nails trimmed and I'm constantly intervening when he starts scratching.  But I wonder if this might be a stress/boredom habit?  Also, maybe depression?  (I know, I'm a bit dramatic.. but maybe...?)  He's recently also developed a cold (not related to the ears thing, I don't think), which I started treating with homeopathic meds but they upset his tummy so I'm just waiting/watching for now.  

So I guess my question is... have any of you ever dealt w a cat that does stress scratching?  What are some of the ways you've had success in addressing this?  Have any of you tried antidepressants for your cat(s)?  Why and did it help?  Any other thoughts on how I can get Jack some relief?  Other than wrapping his back paws or putting him in a cone 24/7?!  (jk... I would never do that... )  Any help/suggestions appreciated!

I would suspect food allergies also.  One of the first place food allergies show up is in the ears in cats.  Here is a true story from a few years back.

Two fat black brother cats were left at the vet's office by their owners, who were divorcing, and neither of them wanted the cats.  They were bigt fat black cats 8 years old.  Sad story.  Our rescue group took them and they were really sweet and happy cats, but both had cauliflower ears, like old tom cats, because they had scratched them for years and years.  They had been fed one of the common supermarket brands that has as its first ingredient ground yellow corn.

The most common allergens are grains, particularly corn and wheat, so we put them on a grain-free diet as a trial to see if it helped, and we put them on wet food instead of dry because they needed to lose some weight.  Their wet food proteins were chicken, turkey and dried egg products.  There were no grains of any kind, and no starches at all (like peas, potatoes or any other veggies.)  Within a week they had stopped scratching their ears, and within another couple of weeks they started to slim down.  Then they went to a foster home.  Their foster family kept them on a grain-free diet (they feed all their animals that) and they never dug at their ears again.  The foster family ended up loving them so much they adopted both of them.

Sometimes what cats are allergic to is hard to find, but if you start simple, sometimes the answer is simple too.  We never knew exactly WHAT they were allergic to, but we did find out very quickly that when all grains and vegetables were eliminated the allergies went away.  Obviously they were NOT allergic to chicken, turkey and eggs, or any of the processing ingredients in the canned food (carrageenan and guar gum) that some cats are allergic to.   I don't know what you feed your cat, but the best way to find out if it's allergies is to eliminate the things that are most commonly allergens.  You need to read all the ingredients in the food you are currently feeding.  Shelters usually feed mostly dry food, and very few feed a dry food that has zero grains and zero vegetables, so that could have been where his problem started.  We started the fat boys out on just wet food.  You don't need a special diet food, almost ALL of the PATE varieties of Friskies, Fancy Feast and Sheba are grain & veggie free -- no corn, wheat, soy or rice, and no other vegetables.  Not true with the textured varieties, slices, shreds, chunks and gravy etc.  Why don't you try a canned grain-free diet for a couple of weeks and see if the ears stop itching? 

Step One:  Read the ingredients in the food you are feeding your cats.  Write them down.

Step Two:  If there are grains and vegetables, try using foods without grains and veggies.  (It is hard to find that in dry foods, so consider canned.)

Step Three:  Do this faithfully for at LEAST 2 weeks and watch his scratching.  Write that down as you go.  How often do you see him scratching his ears?  Make notes. 

I hope your solution is as simple as ours was.  Shorty and Fatty are ever so much happier and their ears are still damaged but covered with hair and not scabs.

Also, be careful with homeopathic medicines. Some are fine, but some are not.  They were originally designed for humans, not cats, and there are many human medicines that are poisonous to cats.  If you are not super familiar with what you are using, please check with an animal practitioner who is familiar with homeopathics and cats.

Hey Red Top- thanks so much for taking the time to give me such detailed, thoughtful advice.  I've been trying to discover the offending culprit and have tried Jack on a few different "single protein grain free" dry foods; sometimes I think a new one helps... but then he seems to level off at the same amount of scratching.  Occurs to me that if it's allergies it might also explain his lethargy?  I'm heading to the store right now; going to look at the canned foods and start Jack on one of those today.  

Has the vet checked him for a yeast infection in his ears?  My RB kitty used to get yeast infections in her ear and then scratch her ears like crazy.  We had her sedated, her ears cleaned out thoroughly and then the vet used BNT ear gel to treat the infection.  Worked like a charm! 

Hey Steph- took Jack to the vet just a couple of months ago... specifically to address this issue.  She didn't find anything amiss re his ears, but will keep that in mind for next visit.

I tried Jack on Wellness Turkey flavor and already I'm noticing some big differences in his behavior; he seems to have more energy... is that possible?  After he ate yesterday, he ran off and tussled with Rosie for a few minutes.  He never does that.  Made me think that the dry food is just NOT for him. He also didn't seem to do much (if any) scratching.  Will need a few more days to establish a pattern but right now it looks good.  But my partner fed him dry this morning (I'll need to fill him in on what's happening re the food switch), so I gave him his meds.  

I wish I'd known sooner about the issues with dry food! At this point I'm considering taking all 3 of them off of dry and going with wet.  Will keep you posted!

We feed 90% grain-free canned, but we do supplement with small servings of grain-free dry food snacks a few times a day.  It's not even equal to 1/8 Cup of food.  One of my kitties can't tolerate an all grain-free diet, so he gets a little bit of prescription dry food for his tummy issues.

Red Top Rescue said:

 
Also, be careful with homeopathic medicines. Some are fine, but some are not.  They were originally designed for humans, not cats, and there are many human medicines that are poisonous to cats.  If you are not super familiar with what you are using, please check with an animal practitioner who is familiar with homeopathics and cats.

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I agree with Red Top Rescue about Homeopathic medications except that  I cannot agree  with the statement that some homeopathic medications are 'fine, some are not'.    IMHO none are 'fine' and all are not..   I am a human doctor, not a veterinarian, and everything that I write should be checked with your vet, but well controlled trials on large numbers of human patients have shown no therapeutic effect using homeopathy.  In many cases the results were worse because of allergy and Homeopathy is now considered a "pseudoscience".    It is likely that homeopathic medications are the same in cats and that they should be avoided.

: 

You wrote about Jack's ear scratching:   "But I wonder if this might be a stress/boredom habit?  Also, maybe depression?"  You are not being dramatic as I understand that  stress and boredom have been reported to be associated with ear scratching in cats.  You would have to ask your vet about depression, however.  Finally you should be aware that most antihistamines can cause drowsiness, as can antidepressants.

With kind regards,

Geoffrey.