our cat keeps scratching

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Corey - 23 Mar 2004 23:22 GMT

My wife and I need some advice on what is going on with one of our two cats.

For some reason she keeps scratching her neck and face. We cut her nails
every two weeks and I used a flea comb on her last night which came up
negative to everything but little white hairs.

The problem is that she continually has scabs around her neck and she has
gotten something with her eye causing it to redden slightly on the eyelids
and causing the area to swell. It doesn't cause her any pain, but it's hard
to tell since she starts purring if you get close to her.

There is another cat involved. They get along most of the time (mainly at
night when they have to sleep together when the heat is off), but they do
have theeir moments so we can't really rule out that it isn't the other cat
behind the small scabs. But then there is the scratching...

We have insurance and any ideas at all will be appreciated.

Thanks.

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Karen - 24 Mar 2004 00:02 GMT

> My wife and I need some advice on what is going on with one of our two cats.
>
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
>
> Thanks.

Sounds like allergies to me. Try vacuuming and dusting EVERY day for a
while. If you own an air purifier run it. If things improve, it could be
inhalent allergies. (If so, vacumming and a good air purifier do wonders to
keep the twitchies down.) If not, try food elimination. Your vet has
special foods with the protein completely broken down. You have to feed it
for about 8 weeks to see a difference. If it improves then you add different
foods back in until the behaviour recurs, then you know which foods are the
culprits. If the scabs are too bad, you must see a vet, who will put the cat
on antibiotics to keep out secondary infections. They might also try depo
shots, as that helps allergies, but I would not want to try that unless I
knew I coudln't control it through environment or food.

Karen

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Yngver - 24 Mar 2004 00:16 GMT

>Sounds like allergies to me. Try vacuuming and dusting EVERY day for a
>while. If you own an air purifier run it. If things improve, it could be
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>shots, as that helps allergies, but I would not want to try that unless I
>knew I coudln't control it through environment or food.

I agree that it sounds like allergies, but I would not rule out a flea allergy
even though you don't see any fleas. With this kind of allergy, just one flea
bite can cause severe itching and the cat can scratch itself raw.

Since you have insurance, why not consult your vet? A blood test can indicate
whether an allergic reaction is going on, and the vet can go from there.

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Cheryl - 24 Mar 2004 01:03 GMT

<snip>

> If it improves then you add different
> foods back in until the behaviour recurs, then you know which foods
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> want to try that unless I knew I coudln't control it through
> environment or food.

A week or so ago I posted that Shamrock was starting to get lesions again
after 2 months on antihistamines, EFA vitamin pills, and a depo shot. I
don't like to bring him in for another shot unless it gets really bad
because he just gets so many of them. I almost discontinued the
antihistamines thinking they weren't doing any good, but one thing that I
did a week or so before the lesions showed up was give him a food with
fish. I suspected fish in the past but he'd been doing so good, and he
loves fish cat food. Instead, I'm back to keeping fish out of his diet
and surprisingly the lesions are going away, with a little help from a
topical steroid spray. They never go away without a depo shot, ever in
his history. I now think the antihistamines are working, but not to the
point of making an allergen a non-allergen. No more fish for Shamrock,
ever. Poor boy. :(

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Cheryl

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PawsForThought - 24 Mar 2004 01:52 GMT

>From: Cheryl jlhshadow@NOSPAMhotmail.com

>No more fish for Shamrock,
>ever. Poor boy. :(

Give Shamrock a big hug from me. I can relate, I also have a fish allergy and
can never have fish.

Lauren
________
See my cats: http://community.webshots.com/album/56955940rWhxAe
Raw Diet Info: http://www.holisticat.com/drjletter.html
http://www.geocities.com/rawfeeders/ForCatsOnly.html
Declawing Info: http://www.wholecat.com/articles/claws.htm

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Karen Chuplis - 24 Mar 2004 02:14 GMT

> <snip>
>> If it improves then you add different
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
> point of making an allergen a non-allergen. No more fish for Shamrock,
> ever. Poor boy. :(

My vet told me that is one of the things cats are most likely to be allergic
too. We don't do fish here because of Grant. But he never got lesions Thank
God.

karen

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Sunflower - 24 Mar 2004 14:25 GMT

> <snip>
> > If it improves then you add different
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
> point of making an allergen a non-allergen. No more fish for Shamrock,
> ever. Poor boy. :(

My latest rescue is also allergic to fish. She was a "shelter cat", meaning
she had a job at the shelter to capture rodents in the food storage area.
The Animal Control folk always fed her canned fish catfood in addition to
her dry food. And, she always had some hair loss and sores. Animal Control
didn't want to spend the money on isolating the problem, so the Humane
Society did make sure she had Revolution and would get her the occasional
steriod shot. When she developed some more serious health issues and had to
be fostered, she came to my house. I don't feed any of mine fishy cat food.
It's purely for aesthetic reasons. I can't stand their breath after they
eat it. But, after being at my house for 3 months, her other health issues
are healed, and for the first time in 3 years, she has no hair loss or sores
on her anywhere. I think I isolated her allergy without even really
attempting to. BTW, she's finally learning to interact with other cats as
fellow creatures rather than furniture that moves. And, she jumped up on
the bed to get petted last night. She still totaly ignores me when I try to
call her, but then I have a 10 year old that I've had her whole live that
does that too.

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Cheryl - 25 Mar 2004 00:35 GMT

> And, she always had some hair loss and sores. Animal Control
> didn't want to spend the money on isolating the problem, so the Humane
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> for 3 months, her other health issues are healed, and for the first
> time in 3 years, she has no hair loss or sores on her anywhere.

That is great! Shamrock's history is similar. He was a stray and the SPCA
here took him in and I started fostering him. He had sores all over his
back and they first thought he'd been in a fight. It became apparent that
it wasn't from fighting because they kept coming back. He was initially
given advantage like clockwork because they thought flea allergy, gave
him a depo shot and sent him home with me. No fleas here but I kept him
on the advantage, vet combed him, found no signs, did skin-scrape, fur
cultured for ringworm, everything short of a biopsy. It's been very hard
to narrow down what his allergy is. He's been here two years now (I
adopted him soon after starting to foster him; kind of unadoptable - a
biter!) and he's a real sweetheart. The allergy thing breaks my heart
though.

Signature

Cheryl

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-L. : - 25 Mar 2004 06:48 GMT

> <snip>
> > If it improves then you add different
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
> point of making an allergen a non-allergen. No more fish for Shamrock,
> ever. Poor boy. :(

Mimi gets EGC lesions if she eats salmon or tuna - whitefish seems to
be ok. I sure wish they would do more research on this disease!

-L.

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PawsForThought - 24 Mar 2004 01:50 GMT

>From: "Corey" mail@corey.net

>The problem is that she continually has scabs around her neck and she has
>gotten something with her eye causing it to redden slightly on the eyelids
>and causing the area to swell. It doesn't cause her any pain, but it's hard
>to tell since she starts purring if you get close to her.

Keep in mind cats are very stoic by their nature as predators, so will often
not exhibit pain.

>We have insurance and any ideas at all will be appreciated.

Since you have insurance, I would most definitely get your kitties to the vet
for a thorough examination.

Lauren
________
See my cats: http://community.webshots.com/album/56955940rWhxAe
Raw Diet Info: http://www.holisticat.com/drjletter.html
http://www.geocities.com/rawfeeders/ForCatsOnly.html
Declawing Info: http://www.wholecat.com/articles/claws.htm

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