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+--- Thread: To the Vet Again (/showthread.php?tid=100)
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To the Vet Again - Ragstimes1 - 08-11-2019
Last week the squirt and I took off for yet another visit with my vet. He took one look at Jamie and said Allergies but had no solutions. He said there are not many meds for cats for allergies but lots for dogs. Jamie had one shot of depo and instead of it lasting 4 weeks, it lasted 2. That's OK as I wasn't really interested in doing steroids with him. He's had the vetasyl before and that doesn't last long either. Both of the ear drops the vet would use irritate his ears to no end so we basically are using the Jackson Galaxy Skin Soother and a lot of TLC. When he really gets to itching and scratching, if I pick him up, he immediately settles down, purrs and often goes to sleep. I just feel bad. I'm still feeding him the Instinct LID turkey and he seems to really like that. Hopefully a change in food will help him. He gets no wet food or treats, no bizarre cleaning stuff, windows are pretty much shut all the time so it's hard to figure out what it could be from. The vet was smiling at Jamie watching him with his paw over my thumb kneading on the tip of the thumb. Oh, we discussed whether another cat would help and both agreed unless we could bring back Rags, Max or Beau, it was a done deal, no new kitties.
Anybody have any ideas? Aside from being frustrating for me, I feel bad for him.
Sue
RE: To the Vet Again - Tikismom - 08-11-2019
I don't know if you recall but I almost lost Tiki when he was 2. We believe that it's allergy to anything with feathers. The only food that he can have that has worked well for about 5 years now is Hill's D/D Venison and Green Pea. They make a duck version as well but he went sideways after about a year on that. It's very difficult to eliminate poultry completely without going to a prescription diet and even the LID food is not as well controlled. The prescription diets are more expensive because they even clean the factory between runs of it and other food which you won't find with the LID. Unfortunately I've never been able to wean Tiki off the prednisolone but his IBD is and has been well controlled for 7 years now on an every second day 5 mg dose of it. Although Inflammatory Bowel Disease is often idiopathic it is definitely poultry that triggers Tiki's allergic responses which were similar to Jamie's. Hope that helps.
https://www.chewy.com/hills-prescription-diet-dd-skinfood/dp/54560
You could also try the hypoallergenic foods, several companies make them, whereby the molecular structure of the protein is diminished to a size that is supposed to be unrecognizable to the cat's body as an allergen. Tiki reacted to them all though so it must not work in every case.
https://www.royalcanin.com/us/cats/products/vet-products/feline-hydrolyzed-protein-adult-hp-dry-cat-food
RE: To the Vet Again - Ragstimes1 - 08-11-2019
interesting reading. Took Jamie off chicken/salmon several years ago as he had a bad urinary tract infection yet all the tests were normal. He had blood in his urine. I finally decided that nothing the vets came up with worked and stopped those two foods. The urinary ultimately cleared up, although it took awhile. He's been on white fish/potato ever since and the only symptom he has now is itchy ears and over his eyes. The vets swears it is allergies but can't figure out to what. I finally decided to try him on a different LID food. Got the tuna since I figured it would be close to what he was eating. He would not touch it. Got the turkey and he loves that. It takes so long to get it out of their system so I don't know if the food is the source or not. It's hard to find a venison that does not have chicken or chicken fat, etc., in it. I would have preferred that over the turkey. I did a consult with a holistic vet who said turkey was great for Jamie so my fingers are crossed. He has no bowel symptoms, no diarrhea, etc. Everything in that department is normal. The second food you listed - when I looked at the ingredients, the second thing listed was chicken fat. Years ago and it was how I found Blue Buffalo, the boys were all on a Hill Science food. Can't remember which one but it was for something Rags had. It was not grain free and they ate like crazy, gained weight and cried because they were hungry, so it was like eating potato chips all day. They also had terrible mats. That was when we went on the blue buffalo and it was a great food until Jamie got allergies. Guess I'll look again at the venison/pea types of diets.
Thanks.
Sue
RE: To the Vet Again - Tikismom - 08-11-2019
Yes I saw that chicken fat was in that food. Ostensibly the protein is reduced to a size that obfuscates it from the body recognizing it as an allergen and like I said Tiki's body still recognized it just fine. Plus both cats hated all 3 hypoallergenic foods that I tried.
Best of luck. I know how frustrating it can be. My vet told me to give it about a month to see if symptoms clear up with a food change.
RE: To the Vet Again - Ragstimes1 - 08-21-2019
The vet gave me goodwinol to use in Jamie's ear instead of the tritop for the itching on Saturday. By Monday he had a hematoma. The vet said it was a coincidence but told me to stop the goodwinol. He gave him a short acting shot of steroids that said should help with the itching and help the hematoma reabsorb. Well, by today the hematoma is probably twice as big and he's quite bothered by it. We are going back to the vet this afternoon. The owner, who I've been seeing, is out, so it's back to my long-term vet. Hope he can give him something for the pain until we can do something with the hematoma. The vet said most of the time they re-absorb but that doesn't seem to be the case here and he said occasionally he will have to sedate them and lance the ear. Oh, how I do not want to go through that or put him thru it but he can't deal with this. I keep getting whiffs of urine around the house so I'm hoping that is not the case. He did just eat which is good but I have not seen him in the box all day. He just keeps that ear tucked under and I have to say I was kind of surprised when I saw it. It is much bigger. Poor little guy.
Sue
RE: To the Vet Again - Tikismom - 08-21-2019
So sorry to hear this Sue. Poor Jamie. Please keep us posted and best wishes for some relief for him at the vet!
RE: To the Vet Again - HelenMac - 08-21-2019
Oh poor Jamie so hope he can get some relief from the vet today
RE: To the Vet Again - Tikismom - 08-22-2019
How was the vet visit and how is Jamie doing today?
RE: To the Vet Again - RaggyMomma - 08-23-2019
I do hope you can find a solution to Jamies allergies and hopefully the surgery will go well
I am currently feeding Farma lamb and blueberry, because none of mine will eat venison (silly cats) and they are not eating much fish either. Rune isn't fussy about it either.
Right now Rune is having a flare up, but honestly think it is the puppy stress.
RE: To the Vet Again - Tikismom - 08-23-2019
So sorry to hear that Jamie has to have surgery. Best wishes Sue