BS: Cat with allergies!

Subject: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 11:40 AM

Now, I have heard of many people being allergic to pets but this is ridiculous...

Last year our mog, Homer, developed what the vet believed to be a psychological problem. He was licking his side so much that he licked himself sore. We put a collar on him and after a few weeks the sore healed and he eventualy stopped harming himself.

However, he has now started again with a vengence. We took him back to the vets and they now want us to take hime for allergy tests! No skin of my nose (pun intended) as he is insured for vetinary treatment but is anyone aware of anything else we can do? Or anything else it may be? I have looked on t'worldwideinterweb and found one or two ideas but I am looking for advice, anecdotal or otherwise, from anyone with similar experiences.

I would be very surprised if someone out there in the Cat box doesn't have some ideas. We seem to have views on everything else;-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: Becca72
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 11:55 AM

I've never been owned by a cat who had this problem, but I know a couple people who have. Sometimes it's a behavioral thing (be thankful they're not pissing on stuff instead is what I say about that) and sometimes it's medical. A friend of mine has a cat who is 16 years old and suffers from kidney disease. She doesn't like her medication and tends to tear the hair out of her hindquarters and the base of her tail, perhaps because she's uncomfortable and trying to make it feel better?

But skin allergies would also do it.

Subject: RE: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 12:45 PM

Just found tha tthe allergy tests will be between £100 and £900 - better check that the insurance will pay that! Dunno if they will really help anyway - What if we find he is allergic to something he can't avoid? :-/

He is a 8-9 year old neutered male btw. Quite small, fussy eater.

Subject: RE: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 03:39 PM

My singing partner, Margaret's cat, Fritz is allergic to fish. It makes the poor guys eyes run and look sore. It's hard finding cat food that doesn't have fish products in it somewhere.

Subject: RE: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: Bee
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 04:13 PM

Have you tried changing his food? Our dog had food allergies which manifested as scabby, dry, itchy sores and lots of hair loss, and she was allergic to airborne pollen in spring. Changing her food to lamb and rice worked except in spring, when she had to take steroids, unfortunately. May work the same with cats.

There's a cat box? I have just gotten a new kitty, haven't had one in quite a while, and need all the advice I can find. Demon Toebiter is his provisional name. If he lives past kittenhood I'll consider something sweeter.

Subject: RE: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: lady penelope
Date: 07 Nov 06 - 04:18 PM

We had a cat that was allergic to flea bites.....

Subject: RE: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 02:45 AM

We have a cat that is allergic to fleas too.... he would bite all the fur off his belly and the fur would drop out along his backbone, showing little scabs and sore patches. To add insult to injury, he's allergic to most flea preventatives too. They made his hair fall out even more and he would throw up all over the house.

We finally found that a regular combing and a pill called '4fleas' that can be taken daily and caused no side effects helped. His fur has grown back and he's back to being revolting in other ways.

Check that your puddy has no fleas - I found a standard nit comb available from pharmacies was best as "flea combs" had teeth too widely spaced to get the little buggers and their dirt.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: Becca72
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 08:59 AM

Bee,
I'm currently owned by 3 cats, myself (2 of them are under a year old) and I've shared my residence with cats most of my life so if you have any questions and I can be of help, ask away! :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 09:11 AM

Sabine had an "overgrooming" problem for awhile after she joined our household. First time, she had a furry back, naked flanks and upper legs and furry boots. Looked really silly. Then she let it grow back. A few months later she licked off some polka dots and a racing stripe, before letting them grow back in.

The vet said she was fine. No fleas or anything of that ilk, and no indication of allergies. It was probably nerves.

She settled in and she hasn't gotten obsessive for several years (except about killing small woodland creatures and leaving them where we're sure to step on the corpses or the nasty bits).

She's very demanding of affection -- try more one-on-one petting time. It might make a difference. (Oh, and it's cheaper than a shrink for the petter, too.)

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: Bee
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 12:05 PM

Hi, Becca!

Thanks. I've lived with many cats, but haven't had one for a while, and it's about twenty years since I had a young kitten. He's not quite eight weeks old - had no choice of leaving him with his mum longer. My main concern is trying to get him to eat more solid food. I'm offering him wet and dry, and as he was still nursing, I've been giving him Cat Milk. He doesn't want the dry at all, and will eat minute bites of wet Iams kitten food, but will drink all the milk I'll give him. I'm worried the milk is not enough, nutrient wise, so I limit it even when he wants more, to try and get him to eat solids. He does seem perfectly healthy and active, and goes to the vet next week for needles. Any advice is welcome.

Subject: RE: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 12:54 PM

Try mixing a little cereal with the milk and offering him that... then mash up the meat into it.. that might help him onto solids - but 8 weeks is perfectly old enough for a kitten to be eating solid food.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 01:00 PM

We are, under advisement, going to ensure his flea protection is over rather than underdone and going to feed him on Hills 'science diet'. I'll keep you posted. Thanks all and please keep 'em coming.

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: Bee
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 01:01 PM

Thank you, Liz. I'll try that. I suspect I'm just over anxious.

Subject: RE: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: Becca72
Date: 08 Nov 06 - 01:54 PM

Bee,
Liz is correct. Sounds like you're the one who got stuck with the unlucky task of weening him. But he's well old enough to be on solid food. It seems a bit mean, but if you reduce the amount of milk you offer him and increase the availability of the solid food at some point he's going to make the switch. The wet food is probably going to go over best at this point.

Subject: RE: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: Anne Lister
Date: 09 Nov 06 - 09:53 AM

I'm an asthmatic who reacts to cat fur ... luckily I've been "rehabilitated" by my husband's cat Cleo and can cope with her silky fur. However it now transpires she herself is asthmatic - haven't dared to find out if she's allergic to me!

Anne

Subject: RE: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: Bee
Date: 09 Nov 06 - 12:14 PM

I had to be mean, but it worked - he's eating the Iams kitten wet food, of course the expensive stuff! Now, if I can teach him to stop biting my toes!

Subject: RE: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: Becca72
Date: 09 Nov 06 - 12:52 PM

Unfortunately, Bee, he may never outgrow that. I have 2 kittens who are 9 months old and I still am unable to move any body part under a blanket without them attacking. Then again, if my 9 year old feels the urge he'll go for my toes, too. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: Cats
Date: 09 Nov 06 - 04:54 PM

When we first had Isolde of the White Paws, Jon insisted on playing 'bed mice' with her by sticking his toes under any piece of newspaper or cushion that happened to be handy. She now has a foot fettish about his toes and he has to make sure she isn't around when he steps out of the shower or she'll try and lick his toes to death!! I did warn him but would he listen???? She did have a hair loss problem a few weeks ago but that is now growing back or I'd have to make her a tunmmy warmer for the winter. She had found a hedgehog in the garden and picked up fleas from it, which, according to the vet, are more virilent than ordinary cat fleas. She had never had anything like that before and went wild trying to pull her hair out. See if he's been in contact with any other type of wildlife that she may have picked something up from. It does sound, though that it is a recurring problem and it may be that he has had a cahnge of routine that has upset him or is feeling lonely. You could adopt a friend for him... another young cat looking for a good home or even an older female cat who might mother him.

Subject: RE: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 10 Nov 06 - 05:20 AM

Glad to hear the little... darling is on the hard stuff.... IAMs is a very good food, but to be honest, has not a great deal in it that they can't get from other, less expensive sources. After all, they evolved to eat small rodents, birds etc...

You may find it necessary, if on an exclusive prepared cat food diet, to supplement it with some real raw dead animal - meat scraps from your Sunday roast, trimmings from stewing beef, fish heads, bacon rinds, the odd meaty bone... Their teeth and tongues are designed for getting raw meat off a bone and for scrunching those bones up. If your kitty was removed from his mother fairly early, he may not have learnt to eat 'real' prey. This may be to your liking if you don't want half eaten mice in your shoes. Same will occur if your kitty came from an 'indoor' cat. But sure as eggs is ovoid objects containing embryos, something in his dim kitty brain will make him want to chase small furry or feathered critters and eat them.

We had a cat who lived exclusively on prepared cat food but was quite dull and listless. When she had her kittens she didn't know what to do with the cords or placenta. Usually animals instinctively eat the placenta and bite the cords. I came home from school to find 4 6hr old kittens still attached to the afterbirth.

She was forever tired and the kittens weren't getting enough milk so I started sneaking her scraps of raw meat and bones and she perked up almost immediately. She started to hunt for the kittens and they all turned out mostly OK. She was very sleek and energetic afterwards. It may be a nutrition thing, it may be a boredom thing... I never did find out, but when I left home and she stopped getting the scraps, she reverted to her old self.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: Bee
Date: 10 Nov 06 - 12:40 PM

Liz, I completely agree with your food strategies. I've been trying him on various bits of fish, cheese, egg, etc., and I fully expect him to earn his keep mousewise. I don't think I need worry - he's an agressive little critter. I live in the country, and have been taking him out in the yard with me. Moths and flies are not safe, and I hope he'll move up the prey column as he grows. I've only had one cat in the past that wouldn't hunt - the big lazy tuxedo, Bluepetal (okay, it was the early 70s), would back into a corner and look worried when his littermate killed something, and he once brought a racoon home with him - as a friend.

Subject: RE: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 10 Nov 06 - 09:30 PM

A racoon???

Blimey! And I thought bringing home a pork chop was exotic!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: Bee
Date: 10 Nov 06 - 10:21 PM

Tsk, porkchop! I expect my kitties to bring home rabbits, and one of 'em regularly did... that is - yours didn't bring the rest of the piggy with the chop, did he?

Subject: RE: BS: Cat with allergies!
From: Becca72
Date: 11 Nov 06 - 03:08 PM

I have to say, I recently found the most amusing combination of cat toys...I bought a laser pointer and catnip oil-laced bubbles. Hours of fun! Then they doze right off to sleep off the effects of the nip.