Anyone got a cat with allergies?

[seekingwaxwings]

For the second summer running our cat has got sore patches on his toes, scratches on his face where he's scratched himself and a pink irritated looking nose. Last year he was diagnosed with allergy (probably to some pollen) by the vet and had a course of tablets that sorted him out. This year I rang the vets and got some more tablets (steroids) as his face was sore again and he had lots of rough lumps on his ears. Sorted him out but now it's back again so I need to take him back to the vet for a more permanent solution.

I wondered if anyone treats their cat with feline allergy tablets, similar to one a day ones that humans take? When I try to google or search amazon I just get results for people who are allergic to cats!

Our cat seems to suffer with mild hayfever - puffy eyes, sneezing etc every year. We did take her to the vets a couple of years back when she scratched her face and eyes quite badly, and she was also given steroids. I've mentioned her irritation/allergies to our vets a couple of times in passing but they seem reluctant to prescribe anything (I'm sure with good reason!) so I never really took it any further. But Im planning on taking ours back later this summer once/if things improve with CV, as while her symptoms are pretty mild it does cause her irritation so if there's anything we can do it seems worth looking into it.

I do know that cats can have antihistamines (Piriton) - though of course I'd only ever do this via a vet's recommendation as they will have knowledge re suitability, contraindications, dosage etc!
We also have immunotherapy treatment at our vets - it's geared more towards severe allergies I think, but may be worth asking about if Dcat suffers badly?
artuvet.com/en/for-veterinary-clinics/treatment/artuvetrin-therapy/

I give mine1/4 a tablet human Piriton when their hay fever is bad.

I adopted a cat with a severe allergy, she had badly traumatising her back. It took a lot of medication to bring it under control. However, long term
Management is hypoallergenic diet she eats a combination of Hills D/d dry and hills z/d wet. Diet ( chicken in particular) is the number one cause of allergies in cats.

Thanks everybody. I'm taking him to the vets on Monday, hopefully they will prescribe something that won't cost too much as he also has chronic cystitis that he has tablets for daily.

One of mine has bad allergies but we never identified what to. We tried hypoallergenic food etc but nothing seemed to help. He would scratch himself raw on his eyebrows and bite himself insistently. When we found him as a stray he was covered in wounds. Flea allergy is also common in cats but that’s not the cause for him. Anyway under supervision from the vet he takes an anti-steroid every other day and this keeps it in check. Anti-steroids are not mean to be used for a long time so it needs to be done with agreement from the vet. Sometimes I stop giving it to him to see if something has changed but if I skip a day, he starts scratching and scratching pretty much straight away.

We used to have a cat moonlighting with us - he came in at 8 am and went home at 8 pm, presumably when the children went to bed. He sneezed non stop one summer - must have had hay fever! Poor cat!

My cat has had flare ups where she scratches near her ears (happening again now) ruthlessly. She’s had numerous courses of steroids which used to work, but not anymore. She’s also had a low allergy diet for a year which made no difference. The vet is now discussing cyclosporine. We’ve also had a immunotherapy chat but that is wildly expensive with about a 50% success rate!

Update; the vet prescribed antibiotics for his poorly paw ( I think he overgroomed it because it was itchy and it then got infected) and more steroids, this time to be continued at a lower dose until after the summer. I would rather he didn't have steroids long term and would prefer something like cat piriton but this wasn't suggested.

We have to wash his paw every day in warm salty water! Yesterday we managed a quick dip then he scratched my stomach and escaped out the window. I will try wrapping him in a towel first today. Please pray for me x