I'm sure the never-ending saga of my cats and allergies has been mentioned before. Lorelei hasn't had an outbreak ever since I finally got the flea problem sorted, but Carter has been progressively getting worse. I'll probably wind up bringing him back to the vet this week, so I wanted some advice to possibly ask the vet about.
All right, you want to know how bald he is right now? He's pretty much completely defurred his underside, most of one of his back legs, and the insides of his front legs. The hair loss is starting to creep up the sides of his body, and working its way around the rest of his legs. I know its him doing it too because I can tell when he's just doing normal grooming and when he's actively sucking hair off because he's quite loud about the latter (natch, he must always make his presence known
)
Because the previous depo two months earlier hadn't seemed to stop the problem in the long term, I tried some over the counter skin products to calm his skin, including a few cortisone sprays and then finally a bath with an aloe and oatmeal shampoo. His skin felt a lot softer after that, but he still didn't stop licking his hair off. I took him for another depo two weeks ago when he'd started getting little rashes all over his skin in the balder areas. They got worse over the weekend. He returned to the vet Monday morning for a full checkup and she told me that the rashes were not likely from flea allergy just because of the way they formed and the lack of spine breakout. She gave me two options - either immediately switch him over to prescription food to rule out a food allergy, which she said would take us about three months to know for sure if it was working, or try giving him something for anxiety, which we'd know within 10 days. Obviously I tried the latter. Thank the DOYC, he can't smell these inside the pill pockets and thinks he's getting extra treats every night with his supper. It's been completely painless giving him the pills. At first I thought they were working, then just around the weekend, I started hearing that decisive sucking sound during his grooming. By the end of the weekend, the little bit of peach fuzz he'd started to get on his tummy was stripped clean. The rashes are almost completely gone, however.
So the vet will be calling me when the 10 days are up for evaluation and to be completely sure that this is or isn't working, I'm going ahead to wait until the 10 days are up, especially because the adverse affect this is having on his health is likely a very cold tummy since the rashes are clearing up. But I really want to know if anyone else here can provide me with my ideas of things we can try to clear up Carter's problems. I'm actually afraid to post new pictures of him now because I'm afraid people will think I'm ignoring a serious medical problem, when I'm actually at my wits end trying to help him past it.
Oh, and his energy level hasn't changed a bit. Still cuddles, still attacks moving limbs, still pounces on Lorelei whether she wants to play or not. Seriously, if he wasn't at the point where he looked like he was wearing a bad toupee to stay furry, you'd never know there was anything going on with him.
All right, you want to know how bald he is right now? He's pretty much completely defurred his underside, most of one of his back legs, and the insides of his front legs. The hair loss is starting to creep up the sides of his body, and working its way around the rest of his legs. I know its him doing it too because I can tell when he's just doing normal grooming and when he's actively sucking hair off because he's quite loud about the latter (natch, he must always make his presence known
Because the previous depo two months earlier hadn't seemed to stop the problem in the long term, I tried some over the counter skin products to calm his skin, including a few cortisone sprays and then finally a bath with an aloe and oatmeal shampoo. His skin felt a lot softer after that, but he still didn't stop licking his hair off. I took him for another depo two weeks ago when he'd started getting little rashes all over his skin in the balder areas. They got worse over the weekend. He returned to the vet Monday morning for a full checkup and she told me that the rashes were not likely from flea allergy just because of the way they formed and the lack of spine breakout. She gave me two options - either immediately switch him over to prescription food to rule out a food allergy, which she said would take us about three months to know for sure if it was working, or try giving him something for anxiety, which we'd know within 10 days. Obviously I tried the latter. Thank the DOYC, he can't smell these inside the pill pockets and thinks he's getting extra treats every night with his supper. It's been completely painless giving him the pills. At first I thought they were working, then just around the weekend, I started hearing that decisive sucking sound during his grooming. By the end of the weekend, the little bit of peach fuzz he'd started to get on his tummy was stripped clean. The rashes are almost completely gone, however.
So the vet will be calling me when the 10 days are up for evaluation and to be completely sure that this is or isn't working, I'm going ahead to wait until the 10 days are up, especially because the adverse affect this is having on his health is likely a very cold tummy since the rashes are clearing up. But I really want to know if anyone else here can provide me with my ideas of things we can try to clear up Carter's problems. I'm actually afraid to post new pictures of him now because I'm afraid people will think I'm ignoring a serious medical problem, when I'm actually at my wits end trying to help him past it.
Oh, and his energy level hasn't changed a bit. Still cuddles, still attacks moving limbs, still pounces on Lorelei whether she wants to play or not. Seriously, if he wasn't at the point where he looked like he was wearing a bad toupee to stay furry, you'd never know there was anything going on with him.