What were your cat's allergy symptoms?

[artgecko]

Hey folks,

I'd like to know, from those of you who's cats have been diagnosed as being allergic to something (either food or environment) what their symptoms were prior to being diagnosed... Scratching, eye problems, anything else? I'll explain my situation below (and just so you know, I am going to see the vet today, so I'm just trying to get some background info)...

I've been taking care of three (formerly feral) kittens for a while now and the two older kittens (frasier and niles) have had bouts of eye infections off and on... The vet has given antibiotic ointment which seems to work, but niles shows what I'd call an allergic reaction to it (the cream also has a steroid in it to reduce swelling). His eye gets even redder and inflamed, he squints it up and acts as if the ointment causes a painful reaction...So, I haven't been able to give him a full dose of the ointment, as the reaction gets worse... I tried substituting neosporin (which we have used to successfully treat pink eye in ourselves and our dog) but his reaction was the same... Both ointments contain: Neomycin and polymycin B sulfates and Bacitracin Zinc and the perscribed cream contains Hydrocortison. Both also have mineral oil and a petrolium product base.

But, that isn't my only "allergy" concern... I switched the kittens onto WBCL and then chicken feed as litter... Would a re-occuring eye infection be a possible symptom of allergy to corn? I don't think it is, as one of his eyes appears worse than the other, and he eats food with corn in it (without any other symptoms that I can find..no scratching, etc).

Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Art

 

[sharky]

eye weeping could be an enviormental allergy ... maybe try swheet scoop or feline pine scoopable

Zoey pulled hair out do to soy and wheat allergies neither a "severe one"

 

[beandip]

I agree with Sharky...on the weepy eye and the litter suggestions.

I ended up having to ditch the whole chicken feed idea here because Beandip had a reaction to it. The other 7 were fine. His symptom was constant grooming...he didn't pull his hair he just licked it all day long. It came up so quickly that it was easy to figure out what did it. I went back to our old litter and he was completely back to normal 2 days later.

He used to eat tons of corn in his food and didn't have a reaction to that at all. Not to say that he wouldn't today, but we're not going back to corn-heavy cat food so I guess we'll never know

EDIT

As far as the eye ointment goes, there are times when the steroid containing medicine can do more harm than good, if the diagnosis isn't 100% I wouldn't use it.

A lot of times the eye infections are viral. In that case, putting L-Lysine in their food may help. The capsules are at the health food store. I think Pumpkin actually likes the taste of that stuff. It has a slightly salty flavor to it.

 

[artgecko]

Thanks for your replies!

I went to the vet ~11AM and she said that he had a corneal abrasion (scratch) on the eye that has the worst symptoms... She perscribed a different type of eye ointment (diff antibiotics and no steroids) so we'll do that for 10 days and see if that was the true issue...if it doesn't clear up, will try switching to clay litter and see what happens... He doesn't groom himself constantly though, no hair pulling, and no obvious "rash", so I'm crossing my fingers that it was just the meds and scratched eye and not a true allergy.

I'm hoping that he doesn't have herpes... I thought he might due to the reaction to the sterioid cream before, but the vet said that if he did have herpes, the eye infection would have been much worse. We have some lysine tablets around and I tried crushing some into their dry food before, but didn't see an improvement in the eye condition... I'll restart the lysine after we get through this course of antibiotics and see if it has an effect.

While at the vet's office one of the techs mentioned that another customer had lost her cat recently and might be looking to replace him...so hopefully we will find a new home for niles (the one with the eye issues), but we'll have to wait and see.

Thanks again!
Art