Please help to understand this illness.

[Janeyk]

My cat suffers with flea allergy dermatitis, we think! I’ve been having to apply Advocate spot on to her monthly to help with this. I don’t like doing that but as I’ve never regularly flea treated my cats but she scatches until she breaks the skin and it bleeds and is difficult to heal with the scatch itch going on. If I didn’t use the spot on regularly she would have to have a comfy collar on and I would use one the antiseptic powders you can buy over the counter. However this last summer, after 2 weeks, i.e. before she was due the spot on, she was scratching these pimply things on her skin again and breaking sores again. So I took her back to the vet who said, there’s so many insects about it could still be that, not that she has fleas but they could be irritating her, especially if she’s a hunter (which she is), or it could be some other allergy as well, such as to pollens which when they breath in can irritate and come out in the skin. Anyhow she gave me a steroid cream for her which you only need the tiniest amount and I apply thinly and infrequently, if I see her scratching and starting to break the skin. It does seem to help, and I don’t use it too often, it’s called Isaderm. I hope you manage to sort your cat’s though because it can be a pain.
Edited just to add, the irritation with our cat is usually round the head/neck area.  Although when we first adopted her (from another home nearby) her fur was all growing back all over her body, and they said she’d been told she has a flea allergy.

[Sootyca]

My friend has a cat who for years has had problems with allergies. They have never been able to pin it down as to what the problem is. He has steroid injections and is fine but will then scratch and itch.  He has lost a lot of fur in the are and has got used to living with collars on and tshirts to stop him. If he doesn't have them on then he will start again. It really is that bad and she has tried everything.

In January she found http://www.stinky-stuff.co.uk and has said he has improved a lot since using that.  He's not perfect by any means and she has to keep an eye on him, but it has made a real difference to him.    A similar one I found was http://www.aromesse.com/skin-problem/petnat-skin-soother-for-cats.html which comes with a money back guarantee.

These aren't recommendations as I haven't used them but it may be worth investigating?

Good luck

[Liz]

Expiry date is 8/2018 on ours if stored correctly

[CarolM (Wendolene)]

Thanks for that Liz.    Looks like you can buy it without a vet's prescription so I've made a note and will use it as a first line to try to avoid a vet visit when Biggles next has a problem that looks like it will go into the itch/scratch cycle. Note that I say when and not if.

What sort of expiry date does it have on it?  It could be worth me having one in stock before the event if it has a reasonable unopened shelf-life.

[Liz]

We have Nutmeg who has a sore patch about the size of a 50p piece and it wouldn't heal so we are now using Vetericyn VF spray from the vets and in a week we have a lovely dried up scab and she has stopped scratching the area, not sure how much the pump is as its added in to our vets bill but the stuff is amazing

[Dawn F]

what about food allergy?  I did know someone who had a cat allergic to what he was being fed and had similar looking problem which of course got worse as they were scratched - I believe she stopped feeding everything but a venison and pea dry food but I can't remember the name, she was able to reintroduce other food over time once the scabs were healed

[brunellopippo]

To be honest we have changed 4 Vet in 2 years and all of them where saying that is only a scratch cycle. She has been spayed about 1 year and half maybe and since then the cycle started to be shorter.
She use to eat since ever in a ceramic plate, she had a skin test for funghi infection but was everything ok..
I have no clue what else can be. I think is a flea allergy even if we are giving her stronghold every 3 weeks instead of 4. We have never tried a bath could be nice to try soon and understand.

We have a prescruption for a kind of pill that she will need to take (do not remember the name) but if she starts will have to take for ever.
I did not want it because it sounds not really animal life but maybe we dont have other chance. I am waiting to see her out in a garden and without stress, maybe will be at least more happy.
Do you know anything of FIV and Felv test? Is it possible something like this?

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

[heather sullivan]

Has the vet done a blood test to see if it is an allergy?  If her eosinophils are raised that would point to an allergy of some kind? Maybe take her to another vets for a 2nd opinion? They do look very sore

[Sue P (Paddysmum)]

Me again.  Alison -  the lady I mentioned before, took Archie to the vet with a similar looking sore, and vet thought it was either fleas or a bite.  I think in terms of Lily, we can pretty much rule out a bite, as she doesn't go out, and it doesnt look like a scabbed sore - it looks pretty fresh and raw in state. 

I feel your Vet would probably have picked up on a flea allergy.  Black skin speckling round the chin and nose can often be indicative of contact dermatitis in cats (some cats develop an allergy to plastic feeding dishes and contract a form of cat acne), and that might fit with the skin lesions too, but if you dont feed her from a plastic bowl, then that seems unlikely too.   

My money would've been on the cat litter as a second potential cause, but as Carol has said, allergies can be the very devil to diagnose. 

It will be useful to see what happens when you move from carpet to hard floors.  As Carol has mentioned, could it be worth asking your Vet if a second opinion would helpful?  The reason for your request would not because you don't trust your current vet, but just whether a second pair of eyes might have some other ideas to consider.

Sending soothing thoughts for Lily.   

[CarolM (Wendolene)]

Hi Brinellopippo

From what you say it does sound very much like an allergic reaction and has Sue has said they can be the very devil to diagnose and to treat.  My Biggles is prone to something similar and back in the early days when he first got it he had the sore biopsied.  The result did indeed show that it was an allergic reaction but, other ruling out potentially serous non-allergenic causes, that didn't really get us very far because we didn't, and indeed still don't, know for sure what he is allergic to.  Without doing patch tests of every likely topical allergen and exclusion diets to rule out (or in) all possible oral allergens then we are unlikely ever to know.
The most usual cause of allergies is flea bites.  Even when  you use veterinary anti-flea products regularly the flea actually has to bite the cat in order to ingest the poison so in a cat who is highly allergic they can still get a reaction to just one bite.  Likewise in products that also kill the unhatched eggs they still have to come into contact with the skin in order to be killed.  Most cats are not that allergic though so using anti-flea treatment regularly and hoovering a lot (sigh) usually controls it.
As I have said,  Biggles (an avid hunter who keeps some unsavoury company on his travels) still gets spots from time to time (mostly under his armpits or on his belly) and while many now heal up without the skin getting broken, the occasional one does get sore when he gets into a scratch/lick cycle.  In that case a course of low dose oral prednisone usually sorts it out, with oral antibiotics as well if I haven't caught it in time and it's got infected.


The black dust under Lily's nose sounds odd though, unless it's flea dirt.  If you can definitely rule that out then it might be worth getting a second opinion if your current get has no ideas

[brunellopippo]

Thanks everyone. Really kind.

Lily is indoor cat, we have carpet since when we took her, different houses but again carpet. Soon we are going to move and she will have hard floor and garden. At the moment can stay on the balcony and I have flowers and plant. Can she be allergic to a specific plant?
She makes this by scrathing and licking continuously, only after cortisone injection she stops any skin re-action and starts to be healed in 5/10 days with no itch, but then this cycle will repeat after 26/30 days.

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

[Kay and Penny]

I'd like to ask too if the soreness is because she is scratching, or does it look raw like that even if she can't reach to scratch

[Judecat (Paula)]

Hi Brunellopippo and

One other thing, is Lily, who is very pretty BTW, an indoor only or an outdoor cat? That could make a difference if she has an allergy to some vegetation.

Paula.

[Sue P (Paddysmum)]

That sounds from where she exhibits the irritation that it's more likely to be an external irritant, being paws, chin, belly, etc.  Do you have carpets or hard flooring ?

Am just waiting in dentist at the moment but will see if I can find Alisons posts about Archie which might help.   

[brunellopippo]

Hi Sue,
Thanks for your quick reply. She is 2 y.o. and she always had itch on the skin but never (since last 10months) something like this strong. Vets always gave her injection and, we have tried with different hipoallergenic feeds, or cleaning with non bio products, being careful to buy all kind of litter of hipoallergenic brands. Normally she has this on the legs and neck, on the belly and between paws. Like you can see close to her nose has a kind of black dust (imagine that a vet told us was normal as they are going to put their nose everywhere :/    )

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk

[Sue P (Paddysmum)]

Hi Brunellpippo

Welcome to Purrs   

That looks a little similar to something which one of our other member is experiencing with her cat, but unfortunately she's just gone on holiday.  I'll back track and see if I can locate what the vet told her, as I know that she has been to the Vet very recently.  Which part of your lovely Lily is affected?  Is it her leg?

When did you first notice it?  How old is Lily?  Has anything in her routine changed of late?  Sorry for all of the questions, ut sometimes it can help narrow the issues.

Sometimes these sorts of irritations can be due to flea allergies, or a reaction to medication, or a household irritant.  Sometimes it can be a reaction to diet, so it can be quite hard to pin down.   It almost looks slightly ulcerated, but it's difficult to tell from a photo.

She's very beautiful, your Lily.   

[brunellopippo]

Hi guys, we have been many times to the vet and nobody can understand what it is. We have tryied to contact other doctors too but a part spot on and injection of cortisone we have received nothing else. Has anyone of your cats had something similar, any chance?
After the cortisone it goes and the itch is calming down but in about 30 days here it is again.

Sent from my SM-J510FN using Tapatalk