Hey all!
My kittens Phoebe and Milo (siblings) both have some dandruff. Milo is a longhair buff tabby so I hardly ever see any dandruff on him, other than when I brush his fur out, and his fur is not oily. Phoebe is a shorthair classic tabby, and I'm not sure if it's because her fur is shorter and darker, but I'm alarmed by how extreme her dandruff is. Her fur is very oily, I can visibly see dandruff all over hair back and along her tail, and it gets on any surface she jumps/lays on. I gave her a brush earlier this afternoon, and noticed that a lot of fur was coming out with the brush at the base of her tail (no bald spots, but it was concerning how much hair came out). From what I can tell though, it's not making her super itchy (?) and she does groom her legs and back more, but I don't think it's to the extent of overgrooming.
The only other thing (I'm not sure if this is correlated) is in the last couple months she has also become VERY chatty. She used to meow every now and then but now she constantly meows at me, the walls, out the window, at other people who visit, before she gets the zoomies, before she gets in the litter box, and so on. I thought maybe she's talking to Milo, or maybe she's bored so I've tried playing more, but that doesn't change anything. My vet suggested she could just be entertaining herself or just meowing for no reason, given she has no obvious health issues, but I don't know.... to me it just feels a little strange? Especially because it cropped up literally out of nowhere a couple months ago.
Without hashing out all of the issues these kitties have been working through: for the past three months they have been on a hypoallergenic food (Royal Canin HP) while we do allergy testing, they had a blood allergy test done about two weeks ago at my vet (no allergies other than to birch trees??), and they are scheduled for a different allergy test at a local dermatologist in about two weeks. Phoebe specifically just had a full check-up, and there are no signs of anything that could be/get serious like hyperthyroidism or parasites. We live nowhere near any birch trees, and switching to the hypoallergenic food didn't do anything to help the dandruff, so I don't think it's being caused by an allergy. What else could this be? I'm sure I'm limited with what all I can do because of the allergy test I have coming up, but it's just everywhere and I'm sure it doesn't feel awesome for her either
Any advice?
My kittens Phoebe and Milo (siblings) both have some dandruff. Milo is a longhair buff tabby so I hardly ever see any dandruff on him, other than when I brush his fur out, and his fur is not oily. Phoebe is a shorthair classic tabby, and I'm not sure if it's because her fur is shorter and darker, but I'm alarmed by how extreme her dandruff is. Her fur is very oily, I can visibly see dandruff all over hair back and along her tail, and it gets on any surface she jumps/lays on. I gave her a brush earlier this afternoon, and noticed that a lot of fur was coming out with the brush at the base of her tail (no bald spots, but it was concerning how much hair came out). From what I can tell though, it's not making her super itchy (?) and she does groom her legs and back more, but I don't think it's to the extent of overgrooming.
The only other thing (I'm not sure if this is correlated) is in the last couple months she has also become VERY chatty. She used to meow every now and then but now she constantly meows at me, the walls, out the window, at other people who visit, before she gets the zoomies, before she gets in the litter box, and so on. I thought maybe she's talking to Milo, or maybe she's bored so I've tried playing more, but that doesn't change anything. My vet suggested she could just be entertaining herself or just meowing for no reason, given she has no obvious health issues, but I don't know.... to me it just feels a little strange? Especially because it cropped up literally out of nowhere a couple months ago.
Without hashing out all of the issues these kitties have been working through: for the past three months they have been on a hypoallergenic food (Royal Canin HP) while we do allergy testing, they had a blood allergy test done about two weeks ago at my vet (no allergies other than to birch trees??), and they are scheduled for a different allergy test at a local dermatologist in about two weeks. Phoebe specifically just had a full check-up, and there are no signs of anything that could be/get serious like hyperthyroidism or parasites. We live nowhere near any birch trees, and switching to the hypoallergenic food didn't do anything to help the dandruff, so I don't think it's being caused by an allergy. What else could this be? I'm sure I'm limited with what all I can do because of the allergy test I have coming up, but it's just everywhere and I'm sure it doesn't feel awesome for her either
Any advice?Attachments
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