Scabby cats, part deux

SillyMangoX

Ok so many of you know the story with my cats itchy skin but for those that dont, about the start of June peach got very itchy, particularly around her ears and tail, itching led to scratching and scratching led to oozing inflammed scabs. So it was off to the vet, dose of steroids and antibiotic and she was right as rain. For a few weeks. Now its beginning to come back, not as severe but a defenate increase in scabbyness. Whats really puzzling me though is Cream is also starting to develop scabs in the same pattern, ears and tail. But the most puzzling part is both of them have a large raw scabby area on their bellies! Peach has one large one, Cream has 2 slightly smaller ones, but they are nearly identical in position. Has anyone ever seen anything like this before? Theres no creepy crawlies involved as both were treated at the first sign of itch. The vet said last time it was allergic dermatitis but didnt know the cause. Im after changing them to skin and hair food in the hope of it helping but that might take up to 6 weeks. Next step is going to be going down the route of allergy testing but my parents are really not going to be happy about that, as my mam said, she hasnt had a paycheck in a long time that hasnt been used on the doc for me or the vet for cats! Has anyone experience of long term allergic dermatitis and has rough estimate of cost for tests and treatment? I hate having my babies in discomfort

The Sweeper

Can't remember what you tried last time, but cats can take allergy to lots of things:

Fish - cut out all fish based catfood and /or treats
Plastic dishes - replace all plastic catfood and water bowls with ceramic or stainless steel
Carpet products - shake n vac or other similar items, stop using 'em
Corn - replace food that uses corn as a protein with one that doesn't

Plants in the garden - are they outside at all? Do you know what's growing in your yard?

SillyMangoX

Thanks for all the suggestions, they don't normally get fish based food, dry food is usually chicken flavour and wet food is whiskas poultry ones as the other ones stink!

We've no carpet in the house and they don't get near the floors while being washed so maybe not a cleaning product.

Current food I have them on seems to be chicken rice and oils, I think there might be maize in it too, but I cant be sure of the ingredients of the food they were on at the time of the flare up as Ive the packaging thrown out now.

And they both eat out of stainless steel bowls which are wahed regularly, although the last 2 days Ive been feeding Cream from a plastic bowl because I thought he was scared of his refelction in the bowl, turns out he was just startling at the appearance of the food :rolleyes:

They both have access outside between 8am and 6pm, and as we are in the country side it really is hard to know what plants they have access to. We have crops growing in the garden such as onions, strawberries, corn, more stuff growing in the greenhouse like cucumbers, grapes, tomatoes, plus all the wild weeds that grow around the ditches, and they go into my neighbours garden too who also have flowers and crops growing so it's really hard to tell what it is that may be causing it. I figure it must be something they are passing through in a ditch as the scabs are mainly head and tail, and maybe it's underneath them too which is why the bellies are raw..

I wouldn't have thought it to be that common for 2 cats to have this kind of allergy flare up, especially seeing as they were originally from a farm so were probably that bit hardier (although inbreeding may have been a problem...)

Themadhouse

I assume the vet checked for ringworm with a woods light?

SillyMangoX

Yup, no sign of anything contagious, may be a possibility of mites I suppose but very unlikely as they were treated with advocate. I'm going to ring the vets the in morning and see will they leave me a course of prednisilone without seeing the cats, but if they do have to come in I'll see will they do some blood tests or skin scrapes or something along those lines. I was thinking maybe they were getting at ragwort but the rash doesn't really look the same, it's more blistery than what the cats have, same for any rash by weeds I know that are in my garden. Peach is definitely worse though she has scabs actually in her ears. (Definitely no mites, vet said they were the cleanest ears she's ever seen). Skin problems are so tricky!!

Themadhouse

Hmm, one of ours got milary dermatitis after a reaction to frontline.

Ovarid can be used to treat allergies and dermatitis.
Its normally used to keep a cat from going into heat but has been known to work well with allergies. Google it and see, might be worth talking to the vet about it.

Miss Lockhart

My cat is currently covered in itchy scabs and no amount of steroids and antibiotics is keeping it under control. This is an annual occurence from June to October. It is harvest mites.

There are no products to control harvest mites. Frontline will kill them when you spray them directly but there are no products with residual effect.

SillyMangoX

Themadhouse wrote: »

Hmm, one of ours got milary dermatitis after a reaction to frontline.

Ovarid can be used to treat allergies and dermatitis.
Its normally used to keep a cat from going into heat but has been known to work well with allergies. Google it and see, might be worth talking to the vet about it.

I recon it could be something like that with Cream as his only started after treating him with advocate, and he developed a scab right where we put the spot on. Hopefully the vets might be a bit clearer on a cause tomorrow, first visit it was just 'treat once and see what happens' but she said to come back if it reoccurs. I've never heard of the ovarid for allergies, is it safe to use in neutered/male cats?

Where would they pick up harvest mites? And if it was something like that would the dogs not have gotten it too I wonder..

Miss Lockhart

They could pick them up anywhere once they have any outdoor access.

My dogs are completely unaffected and my other cat (RIP) was never affected even though I sometimes saw the mites on his fur.

SillyMangoX

I took some picture if that might help, they aren't great because they kept wriggling but it might give ye some idea!

Cream:






Peach:

SillyMangoX

Update for those interested, the vet thinks that it's kind of a prickly heat thing, they are just intolerant to it! He said it would be lumpier if it was from a plant so at least I don't have to worry about that! So another course of antibiotics and steroids and if it comes back, just ring up and they'll give me more without having to bring the cats over!

Themadhouse

Fingers crossed! We want them spik and span for Dec!

SillyMangoX

I think I might sit out that show just in case, I'd hate from them to get a flare up due to stress! I'm still gonna go up for the day to see some cute cats though But if there is another show on the Limerick again next year we'll be first in the queue

Themadhouse

Loads of time to decide. Up until the end of oct i think.