Cat with Feline Herpes, chewing and licking her fur off?

[themadmeister]

Hi everyone. New poster to this forum, but not new reader.

I've searched high and low for the answer to the problem my poor cat is having, and I've found some good answers, but my cat has slightly different circumstances, and I'm afraid to try too many things until I figure out if it will hurt her further.

Alice is a 3 year old short haired kitty, with feline herpes. When she was a kitten, her eyes were crusted shut with mucus, and she had upper respiratory infections quite regularly, to the point where we nicknamed her Darth Vadar because she couldn't breathe through her nose. Now, the most she gets is a little crusting around her nose, but is otherwise "healthy". We rescued her quite young, and she's always been very skittish. She jumps at the littlest noises, and we've come to discover that changing any little thing (moving the furniture, picking up a plastic bag she liked from the floor, etc) can really upset her.

All of these "normal" behavioral issues aside, she has started to lick and bite her fur off. She will lay on the couch and lick her stomach until it's a light pink with almost no fur, and her front two paws are now completely pink as well, she actually rips the fur from between her toes. She's started on her back legs as well. I was super worried at first that it was a Herpes symptom, because we've noticed she loses fur around her ears sometimes and she's definitely not licking there.

She has a consistent appetite, and plays with the same enthusiasm as usual, so it doesn't appear that she is in constant discomfort. We took her to the vet a few times, and the results of the visits have been less than satisfactory. The vet say it could be a million things, and that we could try anything from changing the litter, to changing the food, to starting her on an antihistimine for itching etc etc. This is a good time to mention that we have another cat, around 4 years old, who has no issues whatsoever. He's perfectly fine with any sort of change, and behaves more like a dog normally, so we aren't too concerned with changing litter or food for him.

My aunt is a vet who lives out of my state, and I asked her about it, and she said she thinks it might be a food allergy, and the safest thing to start with is to change food brands/proteins/dry to canned. Another problem is that Alice gains weight really fast. We had to take her off of wet food because she won't  let Thomas have any and licks the entire helping clean in one sitting. I control the portions and even put the cats in separate rooms to eat, but she is still a few pounds overweight and I don't want it to get worse.

We had them on Authority (the sensitive solutions one) because Thomas was throwing up the other brand we had them on. They were both perfectly happy on Authority for probably a year and a half. The ripping of the fur has been going on for a while, but I don't know the exact time that I noticed it. I'd say at least 5 months though. We switched to a different protein, still Authority though. She took to it immediately, and didn't have any problems switching. I know hair can take a while to grow back, but she is still vigorously chewing her fur.

What I'm really here to ask is: the suggestions others have made about this situation...is there anything I should be scared about as far as Herpes goes? I don't want her to get sick or have another reaction to something.

Not sure if this is worth noting either, but Alice wouldn't clean herself when she was a kitty. Thomas cleaned her because she was too sick and tired and had no energy to keep herself up. He would lick her face and back and make for 20 minutes sometimes and she would fall asleep. I don't know if she vigorously cleans herself now because she learned from him or what, but she definitely spends more time doing it than he does.....

Thanks for your help in advance!!

 

[happybird]

By chance, did you switch to Authority turkey? My cats are fine on the chicken flavor, but there is something in the turkey flavor that gives them diarrhea and makes my sensitive girl very itchy and miserable. Plus, many dry foods will switch the type of grain used without warning. Biting at the feet and belly licking does sound like a food allergy.

 

[cprcheetah]

Chewing can be due to allergies, fleas, or sometimes something called Psychogenic Alopecia.  I have a cat who has a combo of allergies and psychogenic alopecia.  Currently she is only treated with cyproheptadine (antihistamine) for her allergies but at the moment using it for appetite stimulant.  She is extremely difficult to give medications too.  The licking/chewing has been curbed quite a bit with the antihistamine.

 

[stephenq]

Hi,

I'm so sorry to hear about this.  As stated by others, there are really 2 obvious issues.  Allergies is one and some combination of diet change, particularly to an allergy diet like a duck and peas or rabbit and peas and/or combined with an anti histamine should help if its allergies. 

If it doesn't help then you have to suspect what cprcheetah said, it could also be Psychogenic Alopecia AKA obsessive over grooming.  Stress is a big factor in this, and nervous cats are more prone to it. Sometimes wearing an e-collar to help break the habit along with de-stressing the cat can help. Feliway plug ins may help, and I've heard of some cats who even get some anti anxiety drugs for a while to help break the cycle.

The quote below is from this link at wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychogenic_alopecia

Grooming is a natural behavior for cats. Cats spend 5%-25% of their waking hours grooming.^[3] Grooming becomes excessive when it takes precedence over other activities or no longer seems functional.^[2][3] Excessive grooming, which can lead to hair loss, skin wounds, and ulceration, can result from chronic stress or develop in cats who already exhibit nervous temperaments. Even when the source of stress is resolved or removed, excessive grooming may continue.^[2] There may be some genetic basis for the behavior, and it predominantly affects purebred cats of oriental breeds, but can develop in any feline. Female cats appear more susceptible.^[2] Environmental factors suspected of causing over grooming include flea allergy, boredom, food allergy, dust or pollen causing an allergic reaction, constipation and/or urinary tract infection caused by avoidance of a dirty litter tray, dermatitis, anxiety caused by inconsistent meal times. Deprivation of sunlight could be the part of the problem for indoors only cats.

Good luck and let us know how things progress.

Stephen

 

[themadmeister]

By chance, did you switch to Authority turkey? My cats are fine on the chicken flavor, but there is something in the turkey flavor that gives them diarrhea and makes my sensitive girl very itchy and miserable. Plus, many dry foods will switch the type of grain used without warning. Biting at the feet and belly licking does sound like a food allergy.

They were on the turkey originally, (thomas took to it really well after he threw everything else up), and like I said they were on it for a long time with no issues at all. But, if they changed the formula that could be the problem. They are currently eating the salmon protein and not having any reactions, but it's hard to tell because Alice hasn't stopped biting and licking.

 

[themadmeister]

 
Chewing can be due to allergies, fleas, or sometimes something called Psychogenic Alopecia.  I have a cat who has a combo of allergies and psychogenic alopecia.  Currently she is only treated with cyproheptadine (antihistamine) for her allergies but at the moment using it for appetite stimulant.  She is extremely difficult to give medications too.  The licking/chewing has been curbed quite a bit with the antihistamine.

I'm definitely worried that she has PA. It makes sense considering her nature. I just feel bad because we are so happy with how far Alice has come behaviorally since she was a kitten. She didn't really play at all, and spent more time sleeping and wheezing than anything else. Now, it's rare to see her without a milk ring or toy and she plays with Thomas all the time. Antihistimines make her a zombie, and I don't want to have to keep her on one indefinitely, or for a long enough time that it affects her overall mood.

Quick question: is this inherently harmful for her? Like, she's been doing it for a long time but she never acts like she's in pain or anything. She doesn't have ulcerations or any bleeding, ever. It just looks like someone took a trimmer and cut her hair super short around her paws. You can touch them and she doesn't flinch or try to hide them. I just want to make sure this isn't an emergency that I need to correct asap, because my vet had basically said we could try a bunch of stuff and see what happens. That's all well and good for his wallet, but I can't afford all that medication and testing and vet visits. I'm going to do what I can for my cat obviously, (she's my baby), but I want to avoid spending endless amounts of cash if I can.

 

[shunra]

I don't think this is related to her carrying the herpes virus.

As well as food / allergy issues, this can be a reaction to stress as well, and I had a cat who chewed the fur near the base of her tail when her anal glands needed clearing out.  Stresses are many and varied - boredom is one example of a non-obvious stress.  And unfortunately as far as I know a cat that does this for a valid reason can continue to do so once that's cleared up.

If external parasites and anal glands have been ruled out, you are looking at allergies and/or stress.  Does she improve when given anti-histamines?  I suspect you might need to continue for a month or so to see if she is improving.  If she does that suggests to me she is itching, if not stress feels likely.

Have you tried a single novel protein diet?  You haven't said where you live so probably the US.  In the UK we can get quite a variety of german cat food through Zooplus and some of them are single-protein.  A novel protein is one she's not had before - reindeer for example.  Again a few days isn't long enough to tell if it's helping.

The long game diet-wise is making your own raw food so you know and can control exactly what's in it.  However it's got to be done right to ensure it's balanced. 

This might also be helpful:

http://www.icatcare.org/advice/cat-health/pruritic-itchy-cat-–-when-it-not-fleas