Itchy, scratchy, balding cat - what alternative strategies to help?

[LivingInaBuildingSite]

Just before lockdown we adopted a pair of cats, brother and sister, 2 yo.
The girl cat, Wilma, has never truly settled with us.

For background: She prefers my DH who works away a lot and doesn’t really come that near me which I find difficult as our cats have always been more mine. Leaves me at a bit of a loss how to help her. She was definitely the man’s cat of the couple we adopted them from.

She’s always itchy, always over grooming, and has loads of bald spots, thinning fur, some actually sore areas that come and go.

I took her to the vet about a year ago, he suggested steroid injections and we tried a couple but they made no difference and going back every 2 weeks (aside from the ££) for a useless injection seemed pointless. He agreed and said hopefully she’d settle down.

She may have some kind of eczema/dermatitis, as well as possibly some ongoing pysch issues to do with moving. She may have some kind of allergies that we haven’t discovered properly yet.

She is due her annual booster soon and I’m kind of dreading the vet appointment. (My vets seem to specialise in lectures & I am considering moving vets) Is there any kind of alternative treatment we could try for a few weeks before I go to see if it helps? The booster appt can wait a little while as there is a window of time for getting it.

Just after any ideas thanks.

Ask about getting a referral to a veterinary dermatologist. I'm sure they will be able to get to the bottom of it

Thanks @Newuser82 i will ask about that too.

Get hypoallergenic food. And get flea treatment from the vet. Had this with my cat. Switched the food and got advocate from the vet plus a low dose of steroids for quite a while, Also how are you making sure fleas are not getting back on the cat? You need to hoover daily. This worked for us. My vet. also prescribed pitiron which you can buy from the chemist. Half a tablet a day

Apoquel had been brilliant for our girl, but be aware it is a dog medication, and not licensed for use in cats. Our vet has recently said they will continue to treat cats already on it, but not start new cats in it due to the licensing issue.

the vet advised adding half a piriton a day when her allergies flare up, and she is on steroids. I’d say you need to tackle the flea and worming - injection of tablets, and if your vet is not very accessible/amenable
I’d consider moving. In Our experience, having a cat with allergies has meant a lot of trips to the vet, and bloody good insurance!

We adopted a stray cat and the vet first thought he had a flea allergy - exactly the symptoms you describe - however it turned out to be a form of OCD over-grooming.Once he had calmed down and settled in, he stopped over-grooming and all his fur grew back. It took a while though.

Given the fact these cats are rescues and Wilma hasn’t settled I’d consider that this may be what’s happening here. In which a cat behaviour specialist may be more helpful.

In which case ^

When I said cant be bothered I meant keeping on top of it despite having to work and look after family. Sometimes life gets too much and little things slide. With animals who are ill you have to make them priority but sometimes you can't, its a balancing act. Which is why I said its perfectly acceptable to rehome. You said yourself this has been going on years.

Make sure every medication is vet approved or prescribed as various medications can interact, its also based on weight and health etc. Dont order online without getting the nod first.

The injection mine has is Program. It seems to work & is given every 6 months so we try to time it with his boosters when we can.

First thought is flea allergic dermatitis when I read your post

As previously mentioned apoquel is a dog medication and recently a warning has been issued advising against using it in cats.
There are quite a few licenced medications for cats. Treating skin allergies on cats is hard and you do need to stick with it and keep going. My own cat with allergies is now completely controlled with Purina HA food, but original was on steroids and cyclosporine.

Ok, so started off with a visit to my usual vets (saw the same grumpy lady as last week with another cat which wasn’t great).

• said they don’t do Program injections & it doesn’t work as well as Prinocate anyway
• said no to Apoquel and wouldn’t work as well as the steroid injections we’d already tried
• Said I’m welcome to try piriton but it won’t work as well as steroids (didn’t find out how I actually give piriton to my cat, human tablets? Dose?)
• recommended steroid tablets on a high dose, decreasing over a few weeks and come back before we’re finished them to see if any progress
• And the expected lecture on keeping up with flea drops which I hold my hands up, I’m not 100% on the case with them. I’ve always been a bit lax and it’s been fine but I think with Wilma in the house I can’t afford to be lax anymore.
• she did at least let me buy 3 months worth of Prinocate for all 3 cats to avoid the faff of getting there on time every few weeks.

so I’ll hold off moving vets just yet, see how well these tablets go down (tablets and cats not gone well in my experience!) and if they have any effect.
as well as flea drops and flea treating the house, etc.

will update if anything changes.

If you are giving steroids I highly recommend cutting them in half, dipping each part in primula cheese spread before wrapping in wafer thin (must be wafer thin) ham/chicken. Afterwards give a bit without anything so they don't get an aftertaste of tablet. Then count your fingers. Carefully.

Good luck!

We''ve had itchy/overgrooming/balding/sore issues with Willow since NOV last year!

She's had steroids. Antibiotics. More steroids. Biopsies. 12 weeks of elimination diet. More sets of steroids.

And now we're trying Atopica.

Niether steroids or atopica are desireable for her to be on long-term, but apparently the only other alternative is now to take her for a dermatology referral!

So we are giving the atopica a go and hoping it helps, then that we can lower the dose to find an effective but not high level dose. Steroids never seemed to clear it up.

Even one flea bite can apparently trigger a large reaction, so even using good anti flea drops won't prevent the problem as they only kill the flea after it's bitten a treated cat.

Neither steroids or atopica are desirable for her to be on long-term, but apparently the only other alternative is now to take her for a dermatology referral!

Yup, that's where we've ended up with one of ours, now on an individually developed anti-allergen vaccine as she turns out to be allergic to... well, life, basically. Mould, grass, outdoor plants, indoor plants, dust mites, flea bites, you name it.

Ooh, I came here to see if there was anything on this! My cat started flaring this year and is a sad mess. Same story at vets, steroids, souped up flea treatment, anti biotics, changing to very expensive hypoallergenic food and she is still gnawing at herself.

the vet said she has seen a lot more cat skin reactions this year so she thinks there is something environmental. Mine is a wanderer whilst my other cat goes to the garden and back and she is fine. My neighbour’s cat has come up in a similar itchy rash and he also wanders.

just put a soft collar on her today and plan to keep her in for a week or two to see if it helps. Was going to ask if bathing her would help if it is grass pollen or something? And if so just water or a medicated cat shampoo?

Cushings disease? Often manifests as balding and bad skin.

The other thing that worked for my itchy boy was chlorexyderm. He’s a very chilled boy so bathing him was ok - I appreciate that it’s really not an option for some cats - but when we bathed him the water came off brown! It turned out he had a serious yeast infection on his skin on top of everything else. Four baths in two months cured it. You can see if it’s starting to flare up again because he gets a brown sticky discharge around his claw beds. Sometimes he has to have his feet washed but it’s rare now it’s under control.

i keep thinking of extra things! We had a sycamore tree at the bottom of the garden - the sap off that made his skin much worse if it got on him. We had the bastarding thing cut down last year and he’s had no flare up this year.
So for us it could be:
chlorexyderm for the yeast infection
stupid manky tree removal
piriton
magic Apoquel.

or a combination of all the above, but MousePipe cat is a much happier, floofier boy these days.

Well she's been on the atopica for 2 weeks ish and as if by magic, her tummy looks normal!

It's the first time she's been rash free with a normal furry looking tummy since last Nov! Hopefully, because it's improved so quickly, the vet will advise us how we can quickly lower the dose and try and find the lowest workable regime for her.

Thats good news @DrMadelineMaxwell !

That is good news @DrMadelineMaxwell !

I don’t know what Atopica is, but will almost guarantee that my vet doesn’t use it 🙄

Wilma is, not quite improved, but different. She is still over grooming but I would say less so.
she seems slightly ‘demented’ - that’s the best way I can put it, sort of playful, sort of crazy - I know steroids can affect humans in funny ways so maybe it’s that?

at least I have managed to get her to take most of the tablets, I’m counting half a tablet or more as success.

I will make a follow up appt for next week and see what the vet thinks, hoping I see a different individual at the vets though.

Mine eats like a horse after his steroid injections. I use it to give him all the food he's refused to eat previously

Our boy was the same but now he is on hypoallergenic proplan purina food and he's completely stopped!

No dreamies or other chrap treats either, just the freeze dried meowees

Our cat developed lots of food allergies. Steroid injections were expensive and not long lasting.
Tried Blink cat food but that didn't work.
She now takes Apoquel every day mixed into a bit of tuna and is back on her Felix wet food.
She's much more relaxed and her fur is growing back.

Just thought I’d update.

she’s been on steroid tablets for a while now and I have to say she is like a different cat. She’s playful, much friendlier and more relaxed.

I’ve been good and done the next set of flea drops on time. Been combing all 3 cats, still finding the odd flea on her brother but none on her.

she’s down to half a tablet every 3 days to see if such a low does will work, that’s only been the last week or so though.

have had to experiment with food, so have found a pouch thing that has cat pudding in 🤔 but she’s inhaled that with a crushed bit of tablet so far.

hopefully, we’ve turned the corner now.