I just wanted to share a positive experience I’ve had with my cat who has severe allergies.
We’ve spent years trying to get to the bottom of what causes his allergies, doing all sorts of testing and food elimination trials. Unfortunately nothing worked, even hydrolysed foods, air purifiers, removing all scented candles from the home, hoovering daily, atopica treatment - our poor little guy seems to be allergic to everything.
Until a few months ago he was on daily oral steroids as it was the only thing that stopped him ripping his fur out. I should add that the vet recommended trying an antihistamine about a year ago which we did. We had him on half a cetirizine a day but it didn’t make any difference.
Anyway, one day I was doing our weekly food shop in a supermarket and I saw loratadine on the shelf. I thought for 75p it’s worth trying. I gave him half a tablet once a day (half the human dosage) and low and behold… his itching dramatically increased.
It has now been a few months of him taking loratadine and his allergies are much better. It hasn’t been a complete miracle cure, he still occasionally itches but it’s manageable. He’s only had to have steroids twice in the last few months on a particularly bad few days (I think it was the cheese he ate off the kitchen floor...
I just wanted to share my story in hope that it could help someone else. Allergies in pets are so hard to diagnose and even harder to treat without steroids - and it’s horrible having to see your little one suffer. It also shows that different antihistamines work for different animals, so don’t give up if you’ve tried one and it hasn’t worked!
If anyone else has any positive allergy stories I’d love to hear them
We’ve spent years trying to get to the bottom of what causes his allergies, doing all sorts of testing and food elimination trials. Unfortunately nothing worked, even hydrolysed foods, air purifiers, removing all scented candles from the home, hoovering daily, atopica treatment - our poor little guy seems to be allergic to everything.
Until a few months ago he was on daily oral steroids as it was the only thing that stopped him ripping his fur out. I should add that the vet recommended trying an antihistamine about a year ago which we did. We had him on half a cetirizine a day but it didn’t make any difference.
Anyway, one day I was doing our weekly food shop in a supermarket and I saw loratadine on the shelf. I thought for 75p it’s worth trying. I gave him half a tablet once a day (half the human dosage) and low and behold… his itching dramatically increased.
It has now been a few months of him taking loratadine and his allergies are much better. It hasn’t been a complete miracle cure, he still occasionally itches but it’s manageable. He’s only had to have steroids twice in the last few months on a particularly bad few days (I think it was the cheese he ate off the kitchen floor...
I just wanted to share my story in hope that it could help someone else. Allergies in pets are so hard to diagnose and even harder to treat without steroids - and it’s horrible having to see your little one suffer. It also shows that different antihistamines work for different animals, so don’t give up if you’ve tried one and it hasn’t worked!
If anyone else has any positive allergy stories I’d love to hear them