More or less posting this to document my experience for others that deal with this problem. About half a year ago after some traumatic medical events, my cat seemed to develop an allergy. He was extra itchy everywhere and groomed everywhere more than normal, but the main affected areas were his paw pads and the backs of his legs. He’d chew his paw pads raw, and removed quite a lot of hair from his back legs: we did all kinds of tests at my vet and the initial thought was that it was stress induced. So we put him on a behavioral med but that didn’t help at all. I tried different supplements, fish oil, topicals, but nothing helped. Finally we resorted to a low dose of prednisolone. This seemed to totally solve the issue so we inferred that the itching must have been due to an environmental allergy, since steroids don’t fully alleviate the symptoms of food allergies. Fast forward to about a month ago, and suddenly the prednisolone isn’t as affective as it once was. Ontop of that, he began to have some bowel issues, sometimes he’d have a week of very soft stools, sometimes a week of very hard stools, but it always varied and never stayed the same. Along with the varying stools we would notice him appearing slightly bloated, and also noticed him being gassier than normal. Finally we realized that there was a good chance this really could be a food allergy. 2 days ago we made the shift of switching him from Hills C/D to Hills Z/D. Now we wait around 6 weeks to see if his symptoms subside or not. After ruling out environmental allergies, behavioral causes, and contact allergies (we don’t use any cleaners on our floors, and switched his litter to dr elseys which is only clay with no silica or fragrance), food allergy seems to be the cause that makes the most sense. He still isn’t licking or chewing at himself nearly as much as he once was, but his paws are still getting significantly dry unless we wipe/balm them and I’m thinking that it could be due to nutritional issues. If this doesn’t do the trick, our next step is a skin scrape, or a veterinary dermatologist. So wish us luck, fingers crossed in a month and a half, he’s back to his normal self.
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Hoping this is the answer to my cats allergies.
- Thread starter vsvpflex
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Thank you for posting this. Please do follow up and let us know if you have been able to resolve it.
Clay can actually be a common allergy for cats.
They can injest some of the litter when they clean themselves, which could be why it also mimics a food allergy.
I would suggest trying paper or even the crystals litter. Basically any clay alternative that's available to you with no clumping agent.
They can injest some of the litter when they clean themselves, which could be why it also mimics a food allergy.
I would suggest trying paper or even the crystals litter. Basically any clay alternative that's available to you with no clumping agent.
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- #5
He was on paper litter after his traumatic medical event and was still chewing his paws bloody.
Could it possibly be anxiety based? Anxiety medication could be tried.
IBD can even develop from anxiety and PTSD.
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- #7
As stated above, he was on a behavioral med and it did not help.
Behavioural medicine can mean a number of things.
There's different medicines for depression than anxiety which is why I asked
https://www.petcarerx.com/article/cat-depression-treatments-what-are-your-options/1384
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- #9
So far so good. Today marks a week into the food change so obviously we aren’t seeing monumental differences yet, but we are seeing enough differences to think that the food change is benefiting him so far. Initially have dealt with a tad bit of soft stool during the food switch which obviously isn’t uncommon. Only other odd thing we have noticed is that the hair on his back by his tail feels a bit greasier than normal
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- #10
Week 3: all gastrointestinal symptoms have cleared up. Stool has been completely normal and he is no longer bloated (which is fantastic since he had been bloated for months.) still dealing with his paws becoming very dry, and having to balm them every other day. I know skin related symptoms are the last to clear up, so we are obviously not making any definitive assumptions yet, and are going to give the food trial the full 8-10 weeks to fully assess if it has been successful or not
WOW, this is an amazing update!
I went back to your first post. I'm so glad he has you and that you were able to pin down the situation. Good on you!
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Just a thought....is it possible the paw balm is drying his feet out? A lot of lip balms can actually dry your lips out more than help them. Chapstick is one of them. Why Some Lip Balms Make Your Lips Feel Drier & What To Do | mindbodygreen.
Have you tried Cat Music? It can have amazing results, even if the situation seems mostly taken care of.
Also, I don't know if it's been mentioned but raw coconut oil could possibly be better. It's safe if he ingests it.
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- #14
We were curious if this was the case as well, but are kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. Don’t want to make the situation worse by continuing to use it, but at the same time are terrified if we stop using it, his feet will crack and be problems again. They get very dry
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Maybe try some coconut oil on his paws
coconut? I've noticed some of my typing seems to be disappearing, not sure what's up with that.
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- #17
unfortunately he absolutely loves Coconut oil. So if I put it on his paws, it’s just going to lead to him licking his paws which is going to dry them out even more. These are the ingredients in the paw balm we’ve been using on him :
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Yes, I was wondering how my word got butchered
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You will never know unless you eliminate it and it could take some time, but just put a little bitty bit of coconut oil on his paws and play with him until it absorbs.
Comfrey is toxic to cats.
That aside, if your cat has allergies it will be less about what is or is not toxic and more about what your cat is allergic to.
I would cease using the balm while giving the hypoallergenic food, and for awhile afterwards. If it begins to clear up, you'll know something in the balm was also aggravating the feet. I mention this because we had the intestinal problems clear up on the LID, but the feet problems remained due to pet wipes.
Consider the paw pad issue like a person's contact dermatitis. I won't get tummy pain by using a product with tomato in it, but I will get contact dermatitis.
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