Hi all,
I'm back with another dilemma with my problem kitty. Well for the past two months she has been getting progressively itchier and itchier. The poor thing is just constantly licking and chewing at her back and sides, and scratching at her neck. I'm a vet tech, currently not in the field, but stay current, and I've done everything I can think of for her. We have already done food trials and have ruled out food allergies. She was on orijen, but i switched her temporarily to cal naturals chicken and brown rice, as it is a limited ingredient food just in case, but the vet and I agree that it is probably an inhaled allergy as my dog is slightly itchy and my husband and I have been sneezing. Also there are no fleas and they are all on flea protection. My other cat is fine and normal.
Anyways, she normally doesn't damage the skin, but now has the pustules and scabs of milliary dermatitis. I took her in a few weeks ago when the scratching first started to get bad, and of course she got a steroid injection, which I only reserve for when it gets out of control. I hate the effects of it but it used to work well. Well now we only got a week or two of mild relief and she is now back to intense itchies where if you touch her back her skin crawls. She hasn't pulled hair out and if you just looked at her, you'd think she was the picture of health with a shiny full coat. Under that though is the bumpy scabs. Well, she obviously can't have another steroid injection as it is too soon and it didn't really work. I did get an oatmeal and aloe shampoo for her which helps for maybe a few days. I'm going to bathe her again on Saturday. She is super easy to bath so frequent baths aren't a problem. I got a pet safe hydrocortizone spray for the actual sores, which seems to prevent her from chewing as it tastes bad.(don't worry it's safe for cats) I also got a homeopathic remedy for cats and dogs, which might be taking the edge off, but we've only been on it for 4 days.
The other two things I've been giving her are omega 3 fatty acids, and chlorotabs which are an antihistamine. I've found in practice it works on cats better than Benadryl. We shall see. Got the doseage from my vet drug manual, ok'd with my vet and we shall see. She is kinda sleepy today, but isn't scratching as much. The drowsy effect wears off after 2-3 days in experience, but maybe it will give her skin a chance to heal. If this doesn't work, it's back to the vet. I'm plumb out of ideas and really don't want prednisone but will if we have to. We have also decided not to do allergy testing. In practice the vet that I worked for and I always thought it was a waste of money. You find out your pet is allergic to grass, trees, bushes ect, even the sun(one dog actually was allergic to sun exposure) but then what? You can't prevent trees and grass ect from pollinating, so you just treat the symptoms best you can. Anyways off on a tangent, but looking for suggestions if anyone has them.
I'm back with another dilemma with my problem kitty. Well for the past two months she has been getting progressively itchier and itchier. The poor thing is just constantly licking and chewing at her back and sides, and scratching at her neck. I'm a vet tech, currently not in the field, but stay current, and I've done everything I can think of for her. We have already done food trials and have ruled out food allergies. She was on orijen, but i switched her temporarily to cal naturals chicken and brown rice, as it is a limited ingredient food just in case, but the vet and I agree that it is probably an inhaled allergy as my dog is slightly itchy and my husband and I have been sneezing. Also there are no fleas and they are all on flea protection. My other cat is fine and normal.
Anyways, she normally doesn't damage the skin, but now has the pustules and scabs of milliary dermatitis. I took her in a few weeks ago when the scratching first started to get bad, and of course she got a steroid injection, which I only reserve for when it gets out of control. I hate the effects of it but it used to work well. Well now we only got a week or two of mild relief and she is now back to intense itchies where if you touch her back her skin crawls. She hasn't pulled hair out and if you just looked at her, you'd think she was the picture of health with a shiny full coat. Under that though is the bumpy scabs. Well, she obviously can't have another steroid injection as it is too soon and it didn't really work. I did get an oatmeal and aloe shampoo for her which helps for maybe a few days. I'm going to bathe her again on Saturday. She is super easy to bath so frequent baths aren't a problem. I got a pet safe hydrocortizone spray for the actual sores, which seems to prevent her from chewing as it tastes bad.(don't worry it's safe for cats) I also got a homeopathic remedy for cats and dogs, which might be taking the edge off, but we've only been on it for 4 days.
The other two things I've been giving her are omega 3 fatty acids, and chlorotabs which are an antihistamine. I've found in practice it works on cats better than Benadryl. We shall see. Got the doseage from my vet drug manual, ok'd with my vet and we shall see. She is kinda sleepy today, but isn't scratching as much. The drowsy effect wears off after 2-3 days in experience, but maybe it will give her skin a chance to heal. If this doesn't work, it's back to the vet. I'm plumb out of ideas and really don't want prednisone but will if we have to. We have also decided not to do allergy testing. In practice the vet that I worked for and I always thought it was a waste of money. You find out your pet is allergic to grass, trees, bushes ect, even the sun(one dog actually was allergic to sun exposure) but then what? You can't prevent trees and grass ect from pollinating, so you just treat the symptoms best you can. Anyways off on a tangent, but looking for suggestions if anyone has them.