Anyone have cats with allergies?

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lizaanne

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The dog thread makes me ask -

I have a cat with allergies year round. I had a complete allergy panel done on her and it appears she is allergic to many things. We have given her cortisone shots, but that only lasts for awhile and is not healthy for her to do long term. We tried oral steroids, but again, short term relief. The topical sprays are the worst, she licks them off and makes the area on her belly totally raw in the process.

So far the only thing I’ve found to improve the situation - believe it or not - was changing her from the regular IAMS hairball formula to the hairball and immune system formula (deep pink bag). I can’t believe how much better her belly is! She still itches her poor ears and face like crazy, and it looks like psoriasis on her ears.

I just don’t want to have to give her daily injections, that’s our next step, so any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Here is the Good Queen Muffin before she started with the allergies:

http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/1310/croppedkittyls3.jpg

~Liza
 
Such extended care for a cat is an imprudent use of one’s resources. Such regard is meant for humans, composed in the image and likeness of God, not animals. If this new diet you have started the cat on is sufficient to keep it healthy, then so be it. Should the cat require more than that, perhaps it is time to consider putting it down.
 
Other_Eric said:
Such extended care for a cat is an imprudent use of one’s resources. Such regard is meant for humans, composed in the image and likeness of God, not animals. If this new diet you have started the cat on is sufficient to keep it healthy, then so be it. Should the cat require more than that, perhaps it is time to consider putting it down.
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I am sorry but how cruel can you be??? The OP is asking for help on how to relieve the allergies and you’re telling her to put it down??? :mad:
 
yessisan said:
I am sorry but how cruel can you be??? The OP is asking for help on how to relieve the allergies and you’re telling her to put it down??? :mad:
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I do not unilaterally advocate for the slaughter of household pets, nor should you be so quick to read something so distasteful into my common sense approach. I specifically allowed for keeping the cat if the new diet proved effective. If it does not, then clearly the care of the animal is becoming a burden on the OP’s resources such that nothing but decadence could excuse keeping the cat any longer.
 
Sir - you are not wanted in this discussion. Please spew your hateful comments elsewhere.

Do you have a cat with allergies? I didn’t think so. So then this thread is clearly not intended for you.

~Liza
 
Other_Eric said:
Such extended care for a cat is an imprudent use of one’s resources. Such regard is meant for humans, composed in the image and likeness of God, not animals. If this new diet you have started the cat on is sufficient to keep it healthy, then so be it. Should the cat require more than that, perhaps it is time to consider putting it down.
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That is terribly cruel. :mad: God gave animals to we humans for our companions and sometimes for our food, etc. I have two cats, one who has minor allergies and the other who is fine. It would have to be something terribly severe and life threatening anyway for me to even remotely consider putting one of my dear pets down.

Back to the OP, we use IAMS multi cat and I don’t know if it has the immune system formula or not but our cats do like it. They were both on the regualar IAMS before but one got a little too fat:p . As far as doing anything else to try to prevent the allergies, it depends on what is causing them, but we try to regularly bathe the one cat and neither cat goes outside so they don’t pick up any allergens out there. Also, the one cat is allergic to dust so we can’t let our house get hardly any dust in it. Just some suggestions! Glad to hear that the food switch helped though!

Here are my two kitties Otis & Park (otis is the one with the allergy)
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He likes to sit in my lap when I’m on the computer! He loves CAF 😛
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**I have both a cat and a dog with severe allergies (still not sure to WHAT exactly…) and I can tell you what helped us. And yes we did the cortisone etc that was vet recommended as well as buying super pricey “allergy” food that made them sick.

For our dog, switching to a raw, species appropriate diet helped significantly. He’s not totally ok but SO much better than when eating “dog food”.

As for our cat, she wouldn’t cooperate with the switch to raw (cats are notorious for making things as difficult as possible, lol, as I’m sure you well know) but switching her to a totally canned diet without any grains has also helped a lot. Cats in particular should not eat dry food (kibble) and definitely shouldn’t have any grains because they are true carnivores (whereas dogs are more omnivorous). I can give you some resources if you want to know more…

but that is my advice. IF you can get your darling kitty to eat raw food (after researching it thoroughly to make sure you know what you’re doing) then I believe that would be the best thing.

As for putting the cat down, only you can decide what is a burden to your family’s resources and I doubt you’re any where near that point:rolleyes:

Malia**
 
I have a cat with seafood allergies. She will scratch her ears until they bleed if she’s eaten any cat food that contains seafood. She can’t even be allowed to drink the water from the tuna can. I used to have aother cat that lost hair on her tummy, again due to seafood.

Now none of my kitties get any food whcih contain fish or fish meal.
 
I have a cat with allergies, and we haven’t been able to identify them. I’ve tried switching to every known food out there, to no avail. :rolleyes:

I have settled on the IAMS hairball formula, because he likes it and it does keep the hairballs away.

But, I have found that I have to give him an every-other-day dose of steroid and an anti-anxiety drug to keep him from biting and scratching himself to pieces.

The steroid I had to experiment with to find what would keep him relatively itch free, and yet not over do it with the med. I give him 1/4 of a pill every other day and 1/4 of a pill of the anxiety med at the same time.

He won’t eat raw food or even canned, never has. The thing he’ll eat other than dry food is a spoonful of yogurt everyday, it is the only thing he begs for and the only thing he’ll eat other than the dry food, he won’t even touch tuna! 🤷

I know that the sterioid is risky for long term health, but I really have no other choice. It is relatively inexpensive and it gives him a comfortable life, that’s all I can ask for, I just can’t let him live a miserable one. 😦
 
Both our kitties love love love tuna water!! 😃 And Muff doesn’t get any worse when she has it, so I don’t think that’s the problem.

I’m afraid that she would never eat raw. She has no idea what people food is, and never even wants it if I try to offer her a small bit of chicken or beef. They are both 100% indoor kitties.

We just bought a new vacuum cleaner last week. I could not believe how much stuff this thing picked up!!! :eek: It was as if I had never vacuumed in six years - honestly, it was picking up carpet lint as if the carpet was new (it was six years ago)!! Guess my 15 year old Kenmore wasn’t really doing much of anything every time I used it - who knew!! 😊 So maybe now that I am REALLY vacuuming that might make a difference for her too.

I may consider trying to bathe her - but I really think that might be like putting a blender blade in the bath tub. Not a pretty sight. But worth a try. Any suggestions on a good cat wash for allergic skin? I’m thinking something with oatmeal maybe? 🤷

~Liza
 
Jeanette_L said:
He won’t eat raw food or even canned, never has. The thing he’ll eat other than dry food is a spoonful of yogurt everyday, it is the only thing he begs for and the only thing he’ll eat other than the dry food, he won’t even touch tuna! 🤷
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**Cats get super addicted to kibble and it’s very tough to wean them off, but it IS possible. I took a long time to switch my kitty but I’m so glad I did.

First I found a dry food that was grain free (she liked Felidae). Then we gradually got her to eat canned. She will ONLY eat Wellness brand in the chicken flavor, lol.

So you need to really experiment if it’s something you want to try. With a young cat and a young dog I just couldn’t keep them on steroids for the rest of their lives…I knew there had to be a better way.

Malia**
 
View attachment 1384

This is my poor Bo. I think you can see in this picture he’s having a flair up, his little lips and chin are swollen and pink. This was taken before I had gotten the right dosage down, he doesn’t have these flair ups any more. 🙂
 
lizaanne said:
Both our kitties love love love tuna water!! 😃 And Muff doesn’t get any worse when she has it, so I don’t think that’s the problem.

I’m afraid that she would never eat raw. She has no idea what people food is, and never even wants it if I try to offer her a small bit of chicken or beef. They are both 100% indoor kitties.

We just bought a new vacuum cleaner last week. I could not believe how much stuff this thing picked up!!! :eek: It was as if I had never vacuumed in six years - honestly, it was picking up carpet lint as if the carpet was new (it was six years ago)!! Guess my 15 year old Kenmore wasn’t really doing much of anything every time I used it - who knew!! 😊 So maybe now that I am REALLY vacuuming that might make a difference for her too.

I may consider trying to bathe her - but I really think that might be like putting a blender blade in the bath tub. Not a pretty sight. But worth a try. Any suggestions on a good cat wash for allergic skin? I’m thinking something with oatmeal maybe? 🤷

~Liza
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:rotfl:

You’ve got more courage than me! I’d have to knock mine out to give him a bath! And even if I did manage one, that’d be the last one, I can guarentee that! 😃
 
Feanaro_s_Wife said:
**Cats get super addicted to kibble and it’s very tough to wean them off, but it IS possible. I took a long time to switch my kitty but I’m so glad I did.

First I found a dry food that was grain free (she liked Felidae). Then we gradually got her to eat canned. She will ONLY eat Wellness brand in the chicken flavor, lol.

So you need to really experiment if it’s something you want to try. With a young cat and a young dog I just couldn’t keep them on steroids for the rest of their lives…I knew there had to be a better way.

Malia**
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What’s funny is, this is the only cat I’ve ever had that would eat dry food! My other cats would only eat canned, and they were extremely picky about which brands. And I always had problems with urinary tract infections with them due to the ash content in the wet food, which led to cancer in both cases. It was a horrible way to go.😦

So, I’m scared to death to try to switch. Mine has been otherwise healthy for 7 years, no infections of any kind, so his urinary tract and bladder has remained healthy, and in that I am relieved. 🤷
 
We have rescued many feral cats, socializing and placing as many as possible. Those that weren’t suitable for placement, meaning they either required special care or weren’t temperamentally suited to a new home remained with us. Our group includes an asthmatic, an epileptic, a 21 year-old with weakening kidneys, and one that’s develops bladder crystals.

We only had one incidence of the type you describe and it was short-lived. It came on suddenly and I thought the poor boy was going to rip his skin off. He actually fell off the top of his cat playpen (think large cage with hammock and shelves for when it’s necessary to confine them) trying to scratch himself. His nose was purple, his ears were purple, he was panting and really ripping into himself. Of course it was late Saturday night. Since I had just switched to a new, “all-natural” food, I decided not to give him that anymore. I also gave him a half of a valium (vet-prescribed and on hand for one that develops bladder crystals when she gets too stressed). I wouldn’t recommend that unless you have discussed it with your vet. Anyway, he was fine by the next day and we’ve not had a problem since.

Cat allergies are notoriously hard to deal with but most often it is the food. Usually you have to eliminate one thing for a period of time and if nothing happens, move on to something else.

For anyone with cats, one service that I found was very helpful with other health issues was the Camuti Consultation Service of the Cornell Feline Health Center. There is a fee but frankly it was less than my vet’s. I called them because we weren’t comfortable with our vet’s recommendation of extensive testing or constant medication/sedation for the cat with bladder crystals. They gave me more info than the vet about the options he was proposing and gave me other options that my vet hadn’t, including adding more water to her special food and using distilled water. That actually did the trick.

Good luck.
 
lizaanne, my sister is trying powder supplements for her dog. She just got them. I’m thinking of buying them for my dog too (you know, from the dog allergy thread). The one she gives her pooch is for dogs only, but I found this one on the web, and it looks as if it would work. It’s worth the try! And if it doesn’t work, then, at least your kitty is getting all its vitamins.
 
Ok - I may start trying to play with their food a bit and see if that helps. Just this small (totally coincidental) change to the immune system formula has made such a difference, I really am inclined to think that it could be more food related than anything else.

Oh - btw - for those who don’t know the cause of their cat’s allergies, you can have a complete allergy panel done, just like how they do with people. They don’t do the scratch test (can’t even imagine a cat sitting still for that :rolleyes: ) - but they do it from a blood test. It took about a week to get the results back, and I was amazed at how thorough this thing was!! For $150 it should have been, but at least it was a way of telling me that she did indeed have allergies and not something else we could not identify.

The only concern I have about changing food is that she has always had really horrible bowel problems when I switch. So will have to deal with that for a bit too I suppose. 😦

This is our other kitty, Guadalupe (we call her Baby Kitty):

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/8696/img0003jf9.jpg

~Liza
 
My old cat was allergic to smoke. I adopted him back when I was married, and my xDH smoked a pipe. That poor cat would cough and wheeze for hours on end, and I had him to the vet umpteen times trying to figure out what was wrong with him. He had antibiotics, steroids, and antihistamines, but nothing helped for long…until hubby took a hike and took his tobacco products with him. The cat never coughed again until the day I decided to try burning some incense during my prayer time. So after that, we went completely smoke-free in the house (unless I burned something in the kitchen!), and we had no more kitty coughing-fits. Sometimes it’s not a dietary issue, but an environmental one.
 
Don’t let that cute little face fool you too much, she can be the cat from hell sometimes!

I’ve often thought that Muffin’s problems are exacerbated by the torment she receives from Baby Kitty. She gets chased and jumped on at any moment of the day, and I’m sure the stress is just horrible for her, having to constantly watch her back. Hissing and screaming the whole time.

Then they will be curled up on the couch together - I just don’t get it.🤷

~Liza
 
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