So I went and visited an old friend in my hometown and her cat had had several issues in the past (I think she's over 10 now?). She's so overweight that she can't groom herself appropriately, and frequently has gunks of poop hanging from her butt fur that my friend would try to clip out. I didn't see any this time, but she was lying down when I visited and her diet has since been changed.
Aside from being overweight (she has a relatively small frame, but I think when I went with her to the vet several years ago, she was 16lbs or something. She never plays -- or rather, is never played with -- and only runs for Temptations treats, of which friend's mother used to give minimum five a day, and felt I was cruel - jokingly I hope - when I petsat and only gave her one treat, split into quarters and tossed around the house for her to run after), she has some skin problems. She had a patch on her side where the fur wouldn't grow back fully and it looked like she'd overgroom. Eventually it did grow back, but recently she's been having a recurrence but in a few patches rather than the same one. My friend switched her to a grain free food (from Science Diet to Performatrin grain-free) and that hasn't helped. She's tried Pet Naturals of Vermont Skin + Coat chews, but her cat had absolutely no interest in them. She gave the treats to me, and unless I mix it with their kibble, my cats don't like them either (apparently the dog formula gets good reviews for dog preferences, but not much difference in coat condition anyway...). She also has a liquid supplement for skin and fur she's tried to add to food without luck.
I've advised switching to a wet food in case her skin is feeling itchy and she just needs more moisture, and that it's easier to mix supplements into wet food than it is to top dry in most cases. She hasn't been back to the vet, but my friend is really considering taking her again. She's afraid the vet will dismiss it as the same issue as last time - fleas, and a flea bite allergy because they saw some black dots on the skin on her back. If fleas were the case, her cat (strictly indoor) would show more signs, her dog would show signs, her rabbit would show signs, and since the dog and cat are always sleeping in bed with my friend, my friend would also have bites. I told her to seek a second opinion and consider whether a protein source within food is the culprit. I learned in that Reddit thread, though, that diet and allergy trials are very time-consuming and require consistency - something my friend doesn't always have.
It's hard to ensure anything gets done when I'm so far away now, and I can't be a support system and a source of real-time knowledge when my friend asks. She's paranoid and I don't think she has any other friends who actually care about animals as much. Is there anything more I can tell her? This cat was born to a stray her family let stay in their garage, and I've seen this cat get declawed and forgotten about... cats are largely a lie-around-and-people-will-infrequently-pet-them part of the family, whereas dogs tend to trump them. The cats didn't have any toys, just treats.
Here are some old pictures I took, I think 2 years ago, when I petsat. You can see the old bald patch.
And my favourite:
Aside from being overweight (she has a relatively small frame, but I think when I went with her to the vet several years ago, she was 16lbs or something. She never plays -- or rather, is never played with -- and only runs for Temptations treats, of which friend's mother used to give minimum five a day, and felt I was cruel - jokingly I hope - when I petsat and only gave her one treat, split into quarters and tossed around the house for her to run after), she has some skin problems. She had a patch on her side where the fur wouldn't grow back fully and it looked like she'd overgroom. Eventually it did grow back, but recently she's been having a recurrence but in a few patches rather than the same one. My friend switched her to a grain free food (from Science Diet to Performatrin grain-free) and that hasn't helped. She's tried Pet Naturals of Vermont Skin + Coat chews, but her cat had absolutely no interest in them. She gave the treats to me, and unless I mix it with their kibble, my cats don't like them either (apparently the dog formula gets good reviews for dog preferences, but not much difference in coat condition anyway...). She also has a liquid supplement for skin and fur she's tried to add to food without luck.
I've advised switching to a wet food in case her skin is feeling itchy and she just needs more moisture, and that it's easier to mix supplements into wet food than it is to top dry in most cases. She hasn't been back to the vet, but my friend is really considering taking her again. She's afraid the vet will dismiss it as the same issue as last time - fleas, and a flea bite allergy because they saw some black dots on the skin on her back. If fleas were the case, her cat (strictly indoor) would show more signs, her dog would show signs, her rabbit would show signs, and since the dog and cat are always sleeping in bed with my friend, my friend would also have bites. I told her to seek a second opinion and consider whether a protein source within food is the culprit. I learned in that Reddit thread, though, that diet and allergy trials are very time-consuming and require consistency - something my friend doesn't always have.
It's hard to ensure anything gets done when I'm so far away now, and I can't be a support system and a source of real-time knowledge when my friend asks. She's paranoid and I don't think she has any other friends who actually care about animals as much. Is there anything more I can tell her? This cat was born to a stray her family let stay in their garage, and I've seen this cat get declawed and forgotten about... cats are largely a lie-around-and-people-will-infrequently-pet-them part of the family, whereas dogs tend to trump them. The cats didn't have any toys, just treats.
Here are some old pictures I took, I think 2 years ago, when I petsat. You can see the old bald patch.
And my favourite:
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