Fiv Cat With Pillow Foot.

i have a two year old cat that I took in as a feral about a year ago. Unfortunately Kitty tested positive for FIV. Recently he developed Plasma Cell Pododermatitis or Pillow Foot. About a month ago the vet gave him a steroid and antibiotic injection, cleaned up his feet and sent him home. We are now experiencing what looks like a new flare up. Does anyone know anything about holistic treatments for immune disease in cats such as probiotics and others. In particular does anyone know about AskAriel.com, a site that sells supplements for cats. This is a brand new thing for me and any advise you may have about FIV cats and in particular pillow foot would be very much appreciated. Thank you

I don't have direct experience, however, I did a quick google search and found any number of sites devoted to holistic cat care that are NOT selling products. Since there were so many, I'm going to just give you the link to my search. I hope it helps!
holistic medicine for cats - Google Search

BTW, I grew up on Panama City Beach, Florida. My mother managed a motel there.

I am a human doctor, not a vet, but there is no scientific evidence that "holistic" medicines have any therapeutic effect in humans, nor in felines. Using this sort of unproven medication will not only waste your money but, and this is more important, will put your cat at risk and can be dangerous.

If you have concerns about your cat's health then you should discuss them with your vet - and not rely on unproven medications that are on sale only to make money for the salesman.
Be very careful,
Geoffrey

I’m researching everything I can and working with my vet when he has flare ups of pillow paw (a painful condition of the paw pads) I researched and purchased a immune supplement but he won’t eat his food if it’s mixed in with it. He limps and leaves drops of blood behind him from his cracking paw pads. I bring him to the vet, he cleans his paws up, stitches if necessary, shot of prednisone and an antibiotic. Things are better for a week or two and then it flares again. Does anyone have any knowledge or experience with this auto immune disease or FIV in general? He’s only three years old and I can’t stand to see him so miserable. I don’t know what the best thing to do for him is.

debtelli11 said:

I’m researching everything I can and working with my vet when he has flare ups of pillow paw (a painful condition of the paw pads) I researched and purchased a immune supplement but he won’t eat his food if it’s mixed in with it. He limps and leaves drops of blood behind him from his cracking paw pads. I bring him to the vet, he cleans his paws up, stitches if necessary, shot of prednisone and an antibiotic. Things are better for a week or two and then it flares again. Does anyone have any knowledge or experience with this auto immune disease or FIV in general? He’s only three years old and I can’t stand to see him so miserable. I don’t know what the best thing to do for him is.

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I do have a cat with FIV and am learning along as well. I don't have experience with pillow paw but have heard of it, sounds very painful. Could possibly his food or something environmental trigger a flareup?

Thanks for your reply. You are now the only other person I’ve ever met with an FIV positive cat. There’s really not a lot of information or options out there about feral FIV. It’s a tough subject because they’re so hard to treat. I wish I knew what the trigger was but it came out of nowhere and nothing had changed except the seasons. It has gotten warmer and new things are blooming. I’m determined to find out everything I can to help him. Hope I don’t get my heart broken too soon.

I have an FIV+ kitty as well. He apparently used to be quite the troublemaker as a street cat. I haven't had to deal with anything directly related to his diagnosis but I hope you can help your kitty out. FIV is overwhelming and a bit scary at first but from personal experience, it's something that rarely crosses my mind anymore. He acts just like any other none FIV kitty.

This link is to a longish thread where a cat had a paw injury. A post on page 2 of this thread suggested an epsom salts soak for the affected foot.
Claw ripped off
I think that is worth a try for Kitty.

A little more searching on paw problems and I found this post in a thread
Oozing Paws And Urination
cheeser Buddy had persistent paw issues that seem to be related to a food allergy

foxden said:

A little more searching on paw problems and I found this post in a thread
Oozing Paws And Urination
cheeser Buddy had persistent paw issues that seem to be related to a food allergy

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Buddy's paw problems are mostly due to a fungal infection which was triggered by a food allergy, which upset his already compromised immune system, so I don't know how much help I can be. But for what it's worth...

Buddy is FIV+, and was already symptomatic when we took him in about five years ago. He got addicted to shredded textured canned food after we switched him to a strictly wet food diet for his urinary tract problems, and after a couple of years, he developed an allergy to chicken and other poultry which manifested as black gunk on his nails, nail beds, and paw pads, with some occasional inflammation, bleeding, and infections which are resistant to most antibiotics.

At one point the vet thought Buddy's immune system had become 'overactive,' and may have developed an autoimmune disorder in addition to all of his other ongoing health problems. Yet his immune system was also considered 'underactive' since he has so much trouble fighting off infections and requires longer courses of antibiotics when he's sick. Well, that didn't make sense to us at first. How could a cat possibly have both an overactive and an underactive immune system at the same time? But apparently chronic inflammatory conditions are pretty common in cats with FIV.

We have since learned that the key for Buddy is to try to 'modulate' his immune system, instead of trying to boost or suppress it. Zyrtec (we use the generic), Jarrow lactoferrin, and 4Life Transfer Factor Classic were recommended, and do seem to help keep his immune system more balanced, and we can up the dosage during flare-ups.

The vet also recommended that we switch Buddy to a novel protein diet, and use Ketohex wipes on his feet to keep the fungal infection at bay. After awhile, the wipes dried out his paw pads and made him more prone to inflammation. Now we clean his feet with Curaseb shampoo, which has worked out much better for us.

If you haven't already, I highly recommend that you check out fivtherapy.com. Most of the info is way over my head, but there's a wealth of info that you can discuss with your vet.

Hope you and your vet figure out what works best for your kitty soon!