Dry chapped nose

[abbycats]

My Bengal cat has been to the vet for a Dry chapped nose. The vet wants to do a biopsy to see if it is Pemphigus foliaceous. Zoey is a healthy cat and has had blood tests and everything is great. I want to thank Nial who is a Bengal breeder on this forum for helping me with great suggestions to give her Salmon oil this seems to be helping her. Her nose is still dry but not as bad as it was. The vet is having me put Kerasolv on her nose to see if this will help too. If this is pemphigus foliaceous the treatment is steriods for the rest of her life, and I am very leary of steroids. Could this possibly be a vitamin deficiancy? or if it is Pemphigus foliaceous can it be treated naturally? What else could this be? Zoey is a beautiful cat with a ugly nose!!!

 

[kai bengals]

I'm very interested in learning about this as well. Several years ago we had a bengal girl with a chronic chapped nose, but the problem went away on it's own after several months.
During the problem stage I treated her with chapstick and supplemented her diet with salmon oil. The chapstick seemed to make her more comfortable and also blocked any licking she would do to her nose.

 

[drjean]

Good one!

Pemphigus foliaceous is much more common in dogs; good on your vet for thinking of it! However, unless it was really bothering the cat, I might wait on a biopsy.

I like the suggestions by Kai...usually I'd think of Vaseline, but Chapstick is waxier and will protect better against licking.

Be sure you get purified or wild salmon oil...most salmon oil is from farmed fish, who are fed all manner of toxic chemicals and basically live in a fish sewer. I like Nordic Naturals myself; they make several pet and human products.

Kerasolv contains aspirin; I'd be a bit concerned about using it (1) where the cat could lick and ingest it and (2) where it could be absorbed through the skin. Better double-check with your vet on how often and how long to use it. It's not a lot of aspirin, but cats are pretty sensitive to it.

Of course, I'm sure you already know that an excellent, natural diet is important. I'd suggest trying a hypoallergenic type canned food, since Pemphigus is an autoimmune disease and we want to make the immune system calm and happy! Here are my guidelines for food allergies, which would be the same in this case: http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.ph...llergiesincats

 

[abbycats]

Can you suggest a good hypoallergenic food? Zoey has a sensitive tummy and has been put on Z/D wet food from her Vet. Here is my problem, I live in rural Nebraska and I do not have the convience of getting to a close store that sells these foods. If I could get a couple of suggestions on which food would be the best I can go from there.

 

[drjean]

If you read the article in the link I already provided, the foods are named.