Eosinophilic Granuloma Complex (allergic condition)

Anyone had any experience with this? My Kitty has been diagnosed with it. It is an allergic skin disease and not much is known about it. She gets itchy spots where she will bite or lick herself bald and irritate the skin, it has been confined to one of her back legs but today she has a large bald scabby spot on her neck and she has about scratched the hair off behind her ears, and she has irritation around her mouth, did this all just happen in one day it is so sad. So since April she has had 4 steroid shots, evidently this is the treatment, I'm concerned about how this will affect her in the long run. So I took her to the vet today and she got another shot. I asked if I should try a hypoallergenic diet (why do vets not seem concerned about nutrition?) vet said wouldn't hurt. So I came home with Hills z/d (yuck). Any suggestions for a better food. I looked at Natural Balance Venison and Green Pea online, think this would be better? She is a picky eater. I have been feeding Eagle Pack Holistic and Wellness wet food. As far as wet food Kitty will only eat seafood flavors and I read many cats have allergies to seafood, so maybe this is her whole problem.

So if you have any experience with a cat that has an allergic skin condition I would appreciate any suggestions. Or if you have a cat that continually gets steroid shots (depomedrol) let me know how this may affect her in the long run. Thanx

No experience with an allergic cat (knock on wood) but my horse is highly allergic to practically everything. I would be concerned with all the steroid injections.

Spirulina is shown to be an effective antihistimine but I have no idea what the reccomended doseage would be for a cat. There are over-the-counter antihistimines available for horses such as Trihist and Anihist that you can purchase at Valley Vet Supply amongst other places. I have no idea if either of these products are safe for cats, but there must be something out there besides steroid injections. I mean I have allergies and take Claritin D, Singulair, and Nasonex (not that it does me any good) so they must have antihistimines suitable for cats that won't have the short & long term side effects the steroids will have.

I would ask your vet if I were you about Spirulina or another OTC antihistimine instead of the steroid injections.

I'm having a similar problem with one of my cats. Cassie (3 year old) has always been an over groomer. About 3 months ago she started pulling the fur out of her lower stomach area in clumps. She then started licking the inside of her thighs (until they were bald). She has now moved on to the tops of her back feet (they both have strips of fur missing on them). I work at a veterinary clinic so I took her in for the vet to look at. He gave her a steriod injection to relieve the itching. It will stop the itching for a few weeks, but I really need to try and figure out what is causing the problem before the injection wears off. It's not safe to get steriod injections more than a couple of times a year. I haven't worked at the clinic very long (I'm a receptionist), but I do know that for dogs that are on steriod pills (Prednisone) one of the risks of long term usage is that they can develop diabetes or cushings disease. It can also cause liver damage. Dogs that are on Prednisone long term need to come in for yearly blood work to check their liver funcion. I would think it would be the same for steriod injections in cats. The vet has only seen hair loss similar to Cassie's in two other cats (who oddly enough were owned by the same Client but were not litter mates). The Client had allergy tests done ($150) which the vet said were not very reliable at all. The test came back saying that the cats were both allergic to wool. She told the vet that she didn't even have any wool in her house though?? I looked at the report and it said that they recommended moving the cats to another house for 4 weeks. Who is going to actually do that (not me)? I think probably the reason they were recommending this was so that they could prove that it was definately something in their environment at home and not a food allergy? The Client tried changing brands of litter 3 times and she also tried the hypo-allergenic food (she bought IVD duck & pea dry and IVD duck & pea canned). Nothing worked so the Dr. then recommended that they go to Cornell University to see a specialist. As far as he knows she never took them to Cornell (we haven't seen the cats since then so he's not totally certain). Anyways, I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what is causing Cassie's problem. The vet is thinking it's probably a contact allergy and not a food allergy (because of where her hair loss is located). Usually cats (and dogs) with food allergies will have chronic ear infections and hair loss near their face. The only thing different in my house since her problem started is their cat litter. I was using Arm & Hammer "unscented" scoopable litter. I switched to the Arm & Hammer "Multi-Cat" variety when we adopted our fourth cat at the beginning of March. I think shortly after that is when her problem started. I'm going to buy a box of the unscented Arm & Hammer today and see if that helps. Maybe she is allergic to the perfumes in the scented litter?? I really hope it's the litter and not a food allergy. I really don't want to have to put her on a hypo-allergenic food for 8 weeks! It wouldn't be a problem for me to keep the cats seperate during feeding times, but sometimes my husband or teenaged kids feed them (when I have to work late). I just know if they feed them everybody will be eating each other's food--which makes the hypo-allergenic food a waste of money (if she's eating the other cat's food in addition to hers).