Anyone else got a cat with mild but persistent skin issues? Cat tax included.

[iloveeverykindofcat]

Miss Zara's skin has always been a bit problematic. She's nearly 13 now. It's not too bad, she doesn't lose fur or bleed, but frequent dandruff, chin acne, tiny scabs which seem to be an annoyance to her because she 'nibbles' her paws and stomach while grooming, as though its itchy. She's mostly Abyssinian so her fur is short and slick and she's been spending a lot of time in grass this summer which seems to make it worse. In the past we didn't have so much access to grass and bushes so she spent more time indoors - now she loves to be out in the big communal gardens, in the bushes, in the grass, but I think her skin is worse. I wipe her chin, neck and tummy her down with very very dilute hibiscrub in cold water which she seems to appreciate and also stops any potential infections. Today happens to be Bibi's booster so I'm going to ask the vet if there are any other products that might help, but has anyone found any good solutions for their cat?

PS - she's been on a variety of diets throughout her life, including raw, and none have made a noticeable difference. I will change her food if anyone has a miracle cure, but I'm reluctant, because well, she's getting older and she's quite fussy. Picture duly included.

No advice but your cat is lovely, OP.

She's lovely! DCat3 has quite sensitive skin, she often has little scabs too. In her case, it turns out she has food allergies (not 100% sure what, we think maybe beef). Might be worth considering, especially if you've changed her food a few times.

Also - DCat1 got a lot of chin acne when she was eating out of a plastic bowl. Switched to metal/ceramic and the acne cleared up very quickly.

Beautiful! We had one with a flea allergy. Switched from frontline to advantage and sorted.

She could be allergic to several things. My friends dog is allergic to a long list of items including all commercial dog food.

If you have pet insurance, they may pay for an allergy test?

Sure it's not a flea allergy? One of mine had a flea allergy, never actually had fleas that we could see, but maybe was reacting to the initial bites before the frontline zapped them.

Vet advised us to switch to a tablet - comfortis? - and that cleared it up almost overnight.

My cat has the same thing. Vet thinks it is allergies. She did have fleas earlier in the year and she has a known flea allergy but they say it could be food. I did change her food so they may well be right. She's been on steroids for weeks, tapering down as her skin has improved but will have to keep an eye.

Thank you! Well, I haven't seen any fleas, but I'll get her flea treatment today anyway as its about time. We already changed from a plastic to china bowl. Changing diet will probably be a last resort as she's very picky - she likes fish or chicken, shredded texture, in sauce or gravy. Jelly/chunks/red meat has always been refused, except for when I fed raw (Nature's Menu). A lot of people say raw worked miracles for their cat's coat/skin/allergies/digestion, but it didn't for us. It wasn't bad or anything, just I didn't see any difference between raw and a high quality tinned food/sachets.

What flea treatment do you use? Plus our girl would itch if we were even a day or two late with it

Grass allergy?

Well, we didn't end up getting to the vet yesterday as the traffic was gridlocked and we missed our appointment time 😒. Bibi's (other cat) booster has been rescheduled for next week. So I've ordered their flea treatment online - we use Frontline, that's what the vets we've been with have typically used. Grass allergy is a definite possibility.

@Wolfiefan Interesting that Advantage worked better than Frontline for you! I think we've used Advantage once, but our vets have always given Frontline, so I perhaps naively assumed it was best.

Frontline is well known to be ineffectual in great areas of the U.K. I would change to a better product and spray the house.

I have one with a flea allergy and her skin did get quite bad at one point.

I bought a gel from this range:

https://anicura.co.uk/collections/all?filter.p.tag=For+Cats&filter.v.price.gte=&filter.v.price.lte=&sort_by=manual

It's really helped. I've had to be a bit 'tough love' to apply it - put a load on my right hand, sneak up on her when she's relaxed/sleeping, grab her by the scruff of her neck with my left hand and rub it on her before she knows what's going on, but it's made a world of difference and a few days doing that has really improved her skin, it's also soothing so less scratching and making it worse.

I also bought an Anicura gel, there's definitely less scratching going on since.

Good to know re: Advantage. I combed her with the nit comb today (she has short fine hair) and no sign of fleas/eggs, but I guess one or two could be hiding out. I'll look into Anicura too.