Seborrhea, And Skin Scrape Test

[Dendi]

My 6 year old male cat (mixed breed) has always been a bit greasy, but it has gotten worse over the past year, but it is just his tail. Over the past year he began losing fur on his tail, and it's pretty greasy, and it has brown flakes. I saved up, and I took him to the vet yesterday, and they told me he has seborrhea. The vet wanted to do blood work along with urinalysis to see if he had any underlying illness that would be causing it. His blood work, and urinalysis came back today with normal results, and nothing out of the ordinary. Now the vet wants to do a skin scrape test, but I'm worried about it being painful for my little guy. She said if nothing shows on the skin test that she would just give me a special mousse, and shampoo for him. My question is do you think the skin scrape is necessary at this point? She said she didn't suspect mites by looking at him. He's just so nervous I hate to take him back to the vet to be poked at again if I don't have to.

 

[cat princesses]

Hi!

I don't believe the skin scrape test hurts at all. The vet will take a small blade and put those cells on a slide and look under the microscope, that's what the dermatologist did for my cat. I would take your cat to a good groomer - I did that for my girl, she had very bad dandruff and it helped. I'm not that knowledgeable with seborrhea in cats - I wonder if a fish oil supplment would help because I think overall, that's helpful for skin and coat.
Maybe other members will chime in as well.

 

[KJIA]

My cat has allergies, not seborrhea, but she too was also losing some of her fur due to it. We tried numerous things, but what worked best for us was a brand of shampoo called Douxo. You can find it on Amazon or at many pet stores. We used the allergy "calm" formulation, but they do have one formulation specifically for seborrhea. It comes in a shampoo as well as no bath spray or mousse. I feel the shampoo works the best as it really penetrates my long hair kitty's coat. However, we have used the spray and mousse as well. Those just get spritzed on and they are dry in a few minutes-- maybe a better option if your cat is difficult to bathe.

Is your kitty in any distress or uncomfortable? If he seems to be doing alright, you could try the shampoos first. If symptoms improve, that's great. If not, then you could return to the vet for the skin scraping test.