Cat developed allergy near ears!

ozma83

So a few days ago my cat started scratching herself in front of her ears, made herself bleed. As soon as wounds started to heal she would scratch the scab away again. We took her to the vet, and apparently she's having an allergic reaction to something - vet thinks it could be food, as just a couple of days earlier we gave her Butchers for the first time.

Anyway, she gave us a steroid cream to put on scabs, put anti-mite and fleas medication on her, and the cone of shame...

Has anything similar happened to anyone here before, and if yes, how long did it take for the wounds to heal and the allergy to go? Kitty is miserable with the cone.

GwylimT

Oh dear I hope shes better soon, if she doesn't like the collar there are other types such as soft collars and inflatable ones that are much comfier to sleep in etc.

Our cat is allergic to chicken. So now we avoid that she doesn't have any itchy skin at all.

lindze

My cat has this problem too. Started a few years ago and he will scratch in front of one of his ears like a kitty possessed and will just not stop! The damage he causes himself is quite distressing and he has had numerous tests, including a CT scan at fitzpatrick ref, but no end result other than 'allergies'. We have no idea what he's allergic to as food and environment are the same during periods of scratching and not.

Instead of him having the cone collar for the rest of his life we use soft paws from the usa so that when he scratches he can't break the skin. he doesn't mind them on one paw and doesn't notice he has them on.

I hope you get to find the cause as the behaviour seems to become obsessive quickly. Maybe you could post back here if you do find something...may give my vet something else to check for.

Slinky

My cat has a skin allergy to something, we don't know what. She was pulling fur out all down her back last summer. Vet tried her with long acting steriod jobs and Atopica which goes in food, apparently tastes foul and was very difficult to get her to take consistently. Plus it didn't work very well (and it's £98 for a bottle that lasts 2 months).

The only thing we've found that is working is she has Colvasone which is a short acting steroid and is normally given by injection, but she has 0.3mm twice a week in food and is doing the trick (and costs about £10 a month). This was a solution suggested to my vet by a veterinary skin specialist he consulted for us. Our cat is the only one he has ever treated like this (ie orally), so I don't think it's a common treatment for skin allergies. Apparently there used to be colvasone tablets but they aren't manufactured anymore.

If nothing else works, it may be worth mentioning this to your vet.

ElusiveLucy

My cat had an allergy that came out in her "armpits". The vet tried everything and in the end we put her on Atopica which worked after about 8 weeks' use. It is expensive but we've got her down to the minimum dose (3 times a week) that keeps her scab free now. it does taste horrible but I squirt it directly into her mouth after she's eaten (she is very good at taking medication because she has Metacam each day for her arthritis).


They did do allergy tests on her and it came back with all sorts, including grasses, so I am not sure we have any option other than this. She did hate the cone of shame and had one on for about 6 months in total while we found something that worked. I found one in a pet shop that had a rubberised soft strip round the neck and outer edge - she had learned how to scratch her legs with the edge of the cone prior to that and I had to stick bubble wrap round it - you can imagine what she looked like, poor little thing!

Slinky

I'm amazed your cat will let you give her Atopica orally Lucy, our one would rip you to shreds rather than let you get near her mouth with a syringe. For us this just wasn't an option, she hates being picked up at the best of times, we had to try and hide it in her food, and she wasn't playing that game very well at all.

She acts like we're trying to murder her when putting on flea treatment to the back of her neck once a month! OH dislocated his back hanging onto her one month whilst I applied treatment!

ElusiveLucy

I am very lucky that my cat is so docile and, being Burmese, lets me pick her up. My other moggy won't let me get near her so I would have a nightmare trying to give her something like Atopica

ozma83

So, update - after one week of cone her scabs had come off, though she had 2 bald patches in place of them. We tried taking the cone off, but within an hour she'd scrated again and made herself bleed on one side. So we had to put the cone back on...

We took her to the vet for her follow up the day after and the vet asked us to keep the cone on for another 2 weeks and gave us an anti-inflamatory to put in her food, which she is thankfully eating. Her hair is growing back but she's got little scabs still, and the tips of her ears are reddish now

I'm hoping this will clear out when we take her back to the vet at the end of the month...