Premium food causing the problem?

[pinecone]

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• pinecone
• Jun 5, 2014

Here's the one with the skin problems. You can see his legs are nearly bald. I'll have to get a picture of his back. Poor kitty has nearly no fur on his back. Unfortunately, they don't make clothes to fit cats cause he leaves his back alone when I have his thundershirt on. But it doesn't cover the legs.

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• pinecone
• Jun 5, 2014

 

[pinecone]

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• pinecone
• Jun 5, 2014

Poor back. He mowed a new spot after getting his thundercoat off.

 

[peaches08]

Poor guy.  What's the plan now?

 

[pinecone]

Well since they've tested negative for parasites and other skin infections, and this new area was mowed the day after I fed poultry based food (with tuna as an ingredient also), I'm kind of leaning toward repeating the food trial and also having more skin biopsies done at their appointment this weekend.

I still have the kangaroo prescription food so I'm going to try to get them to eat that for a while. I just wish I knew for sure which protein they are allergic to without going back to old foods to promote a flare up.

The other boy has a urine ph of 6.5 and will have a follow-up xray and ultrasound this weekend.

The amitriptyline doesn't seem to do anything at all so I'll talk to the vet about that as well.

 

[autumnrose74]

 
You know, I really wish I had not gotten them vaccinated at all. They are indoor only cats. They received their first round of vaccinations around 3 months old and the last one was given when they got neutered. I just trusted the vet, which I have since learned is not always wise.

Maybe, but NYS requires all cats, dogs, and ferrets to be vaccinated at least against rabies, and if they aren't vaxed for that, and happen to bite someone, the required 10-day quarantine must take place outside of their own home, and at the owner's expense (except within NYC for some reason). Home quarantine is only allowed when the animal is up-to-date.

If your pet bites a person and you wish to avoid euthanizing and testing it for rabies, it must be confined and observed for ten days. If your pet is not up-to-date on its rabies shots, the ten-day confinement/observation period must take place, at the owner's expense, at an appropriate facility such as an animal shelter, veterinarian's office, or kennel. If your pet is up-to-date on its rabies shots, the county health department may allow the ten-day confinement/observation period to take place in your home. During the ten-day confinement period, the county or a designated party must verify that your pet is under confinement and observation, has remained healthy during and at the end of the ten-day period. (*In New York City, ten-day observation periods may be done at the home of the pet owner, regardless of the animal’s rabies vaccination status.)

https://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/zoonoses/rabies/docs/pet_owners_fact_sheet.pdf

I think that they go a bit overboard when it comes to indoor-only cats, but then again, an owner can claim they are indoor-only when in fact they are letting them out every single day. And cats test positive for rabies more often than any other domesticated animal in NYS.

 

[ritz]

I would also ask the vet about alternatives to amitriptyline; I'm sure there are other classes of anti-anxiety/anti-depressants.
And, sometimes a combination of two drugs works better than one. My bosses' cats peed everywhere due to stress, cats were on Prozac for a while. Finally a combination of drugs worked. (Sorry, don't know the drugs and boss has since moved on.)

 

[pinecone]

The behaviorist suggested giving them another week on the amitriptyline. So we'll give it another week. But they are being WAY more vocal at all hours of the night and driving me mental lol.

My colleague just started noticing FHS symptoms in her own kitten. Seems to be a lot more common than I thought.

I also tend to leave the curtains open for them to watch the birds all day and was told that some cats can't handle this kind of excitement and it only stresses them out. So that's also a possibility.

Vet visit this weekend: another skin scrape done and negative. Bladder looks clear on the other cat. Vet suggested that I leave one cat at a family member's house for 4 weeks to see if there is an improvement in any of the symptoms by separating the two and also if there is something in my home that they are allergic to. I am not sure I am willing to leave one of my little babies somewhere for a month, but I could do a separation trial in my own home to see what happens.

sigh!

 

[goholistic]

I don't have much to add, but wanted to wish you the best of luck in figuring this out. It does seem weird that this all started after neutering and vaccinating.

I would recommend getting some Feliway diffusers in the home if you don't already have them. "Mowing" can also be a sign of Psychogenic Alopecia (basically, overgrooming caused by stress). I would have thought that the amitriptyline would have helped if this was the case, though.

Perhaps another type of anti-anxiety medication would work better. Amitriptyline is a tricyclic anti-depressant (TCA). There are others that are classified differently, such as anxiolytics and selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRI). I'm certainly not suggesting that medication is the answer and this is obviously a discussion with your vet. I'm just further exploring this part of the topic.

It sounds like you are taking everything into consideration.

 

[pinecone]

The specialist wants me to give it one more week on the amitriptyline in hopes that it just needs more time.

I've started giving them the rayne nutrition food again since it helped with their mowing in the past.

The feliway diffusers are in every room of the apartment and I'm not sure if they're doing anything. I certainly smell the one by the bed. But other than that I don't notice any calming effects. I've tried the feliway spray as well.

I'm running out of things to try lol.

Hopefully I'll have the ability to build them a nice outdoor condo soon with a kitty door from the house so they can go outside but still be safe and protected. They keep busting my window screens from trying to attack the birds.