Hi all,
I am hoping that someone might have some suggestions or be able to share their experience with me.
We adopted a cat in July from the shelter. She had just had most of her teeth removed due to an infection (they found her wandering around the woods several weeks before). Her mouth looked pretty rough--inside and out. They put her on two courses of antibiotics and her gums/mouth were okay again.
However--what we thought was associated with her tooth infection had not cleared up. She has a bald patch under her lip/on her chin. She gets small sores that bleed and turn brown. She sometimes gets little brown spots on her nose. Since we got her, she has had good and bad days. Sometimes, we would wake up and her little bald patch/lips would look great, other days not so much. It didn't seem to correlate with any changes.
Two weeks ago, she was itching her ears and her mouth so much that we took her back to the vet (thinking it was mites). They agreed that her chin looked very inflamed, so, I took her in for an xray to make sure it was not residual inflammation from her tooth infection. It was not.
They instead told us that it was "eosinophilic granuloma," which is an autoimmune problems associated with allergies (and to my understanding, it manifests as ulcers on the cats mouth, itching, etc.). She was put on prednisol for 2 weeks. After a few days of taking two pills per day, her mouth looked better than we have ever seen it. Then, when she was weaned down to one pill, she started itching (aggressively) at her mouth again; and a sore popped up. I should not that she doesn't have an actual mass growing on her chin...the skin is just raw and pretty inflamed.
I took her back again and the vet has given me a four week course of "atopica"--which is meant to have fewer long term side effects than the prednisol. After two doses of this, her mouth looks just about the same as before we put her on the steroids (not great), and she is itching one of her eyes to the point that the skin around it has become inflamed. She has been put on a hypoallergenic diet (wet and dry food), and is now eating *significantly* less--it seems like this might be due to the atopica, which I have read might be a side effect.
I am not sure what to do at this point as nothing seems to be helping to clear it up. I don't know if I should suggest to the vet that she goes back to the two prednisol's per day, or if I should try this atopica for a week (it has only been two days). Additionally, she really hates this new (very expensive) food. The vet seemed to think that it is more likely that it is an environmental allergy than a food one (her stomach is okay), but she said it wouldn't hurt to try this.
Does anyone have any experience with this immune problem? Could this be something else that the vet is not seeing?
Thank you for your help.
I am hoping that someone might have some suggestions or be able to share their experience with me.
We adopted a cat in July from the shelter. She had just had most of her teeth removed due to an infection (they found her wandering around the woods several weeks before). Her mouth looked pretty rough--inside and out. They put her on two courses of antibiotics and her gums/mouth were okay again.
However--what we thought was associated with her tooth infection had not cleared up. She has a bald patch under her lip/on her chin. She gets small sores that bleed and turn brown. She sometimes gets little brown spots on her nose. Since we got her, she has had good and bad days. Sometimes, we would wake up and her little bald patch/lips would look great, other days not so much. It didn't seem to correlate with any changes.
Two weeks ago, she was itching her ears and her mouth so much that we took her back to the vet (thinking it was mites). They agreed that her chin looked very inflamed, so, I took her in for an xray to make sure it was not residual inflammation from her tooth infection. It was not.
They instead told us that it was "eosinophilic granuloma," which is an autoimmune problems associated with allergies (and to my understanding, it manifests as ulcers on the cats mouth, itching, etc.). She was put on prednisol for 2 weeks. After a few days of taking two pills per day, her mouth looked better than we have ever seen it. Then, when she was weaned down to one pill, she started itching (aggressively) at her mouth again; and a sore popped up. I should not that she doesn't have an actual mass growing on her chin...the skin is just raw and pretty inflamed.
I took her back again and the vet has given me a four week course of "atopica"--which is meant to have fewer long term side effects than the prednisol. After two doses of this, her mouth looks just about the same as before we put her on the steroids (not great), and she is itching one of her eyes to the point that the skin around it has become inflamed. She has been put on a hypoallergenic diet (wet and dry food), and is now eating *significantly* less--it seems like this might be due to the atopica, which I have read might be a side effect.
I am not sure what to do at this point as nothing seems to be helping to clear it up. I don't know if I should suggest to the vet that she goes back to the two prednisol's per day, or if I should try this atopica for a week (it has only been two days). Additionally, she really hates this new (very expensive) food. The vet seemed to think that it is more likely that it is an environmental allergy than a food one (her stomach is okay), but she said it wouldn't hurt to try this.
Does anyone have any experience with this immune problem? Could this be something else that the vet is not seeing?
Thank you for your help.
