Seasonal Cat Allergy

Fridge

My cat appeared to have an allergic reaction to something during the summer. He was scratching himself loads and lost a good bit of fur that hasn't really grown back. He even was bleeding a bit because he kept scratching himself. We got him a skin biopsy and then vet said that he could either go on HRT or Steroids, but both of them sounded a bit bad for his liver, and other side effects.

My Mam suggested we leave it, and funnily enough, in the Autumn, it went away and he's fine now. But I'm just wondering if it comes back this summer, and it is something seasonal he's allergic to, what should I do? Does anyone else's cat have this?

morgana

Could it be that your cat is allergic against fleas etc. Thats what my cat has and she starts scratching badly in and around June and stops in autumn ... when she gets too irritated the vet puts her on steroids (prednisolone) to help with the irritation. But the max is about 2 - 3 weeks because, again, due to side effects. I am still looking for something milder to help her through the summer, so if anyone has ideas I'd be grateful.
Of course, I'll start frontlining her probably beginning of May, to keep the little feckers away as long as possible ..

Fridge

morgana wrote:

Could it be that your cat is allergic against fleas etc. Thats what my cat has and she starts scratching badly in and around June and stops in autumn ... when she gets too irritated the vet puts her on steroids (prednisolone) to help with the irritation. But the max is about 2 - 3 weeks because, again, due to side effects. I am still looking for something milder to help her through the summer, so if anyone has ideas I'd be grateful.
Of course, I'll start frontlining her probably beginning of May, to keep the little feckers away as long as possible ..

Oh do fleas only affect them in the summertime?
What's frontlining?

morgana

It seems like it, as we do not have them fleas inside she must pick them up outside and her irritation disappears with approaching winter. And in spring they seem to need some time to get back up to strength as she started scratching badly last June.
Frontline is a flea-killing agent you can get from Vets only. You spray it on and kills on contact. It also kills them inside should they have brought some uninvited guests inside :-). However, if you find any of the little feckers inside you need to clean everything as best as you can (steam cleaner is good) to get rid of any developing infestation.
Our vet diagnosed her flea & tick allergy when we first got her (rescue cat) as she had some fleas but not enough to typically cause the severe kind of irritation she was showing.

Alun

We had a cat with a flea allergy once, and it was the same every year. The problem is that it only takes one flea bite to set everything off. You can almost drown the cat in Frontline or Stronghold (not literally, of course!) and it won't make the blindest bit of difference. All it takes is one solitary flea to jump off another cat and take one bite in its last dying throes, and that's it. All these potions are really for flea control, to keep them under control and to stop them multiplying and breeding. Although when you put it on it kills any fleas on the cat at the time, they don't seem to be designed to cause the immediate death of the occasional flea jumping onto your pet unfortunately.

BrianD3

This must be common because it happens to our cat every summer without fail too. By the end of it she is missing a lot of fur and even has wounds from all the scratching. She then scratches the wounds and they bleed. We've tried all the treatments mentioned and some seem to improve things for a while but basically the vet has given up trying to get to the root of the problem.

I have noticed though that the scratching seems to improve if she is out in the garden than inside the house. Of course going outside may not be an option if your cat is an indoor only one. Also feeding her special dry food (can't think of the name) seems to improve it a bit too but really its hard to know. When the cat is scratching she likes to have something hard to sit on like a window sill etc. sitting on furniture and carpest seems to make the scratching worse.

luckat

I've had cats that had flea allergies and they were tormented by them. And one that got a kind of mites spread by foxes, which affected the back above the tail. The mites problem was solved by Frontline, I think, as well as the flea problem. But obviously none of us can diagnose online (or, in my case, even offline!) so maybe you should bring the kitty to a specialist small animal vet, like the Sandymount Animal Clinic in Dublin, for inst.