pics #18; flair up it is BAD

[Freedom]

I'm ITCHY, MOM!!! -- Bobby

Looking for ideas how to help Bobby.

He has a rash and is SO itchy. the 1st 2 trips to the vet, they put him on prednisone for 10 days. The frist time, the rash cleared up completely. Not so the second time.

I took him to another vet; who checked him all over for fleas; nothing. He has over groomed and scratched to having scabs all over as well. Now Bobby is on prednisone for a 3rd try, PLUS wearing an ecollar to stop him over grooming so we can try and get it all to heal. He is so long and lithe he reaches right around the collar!

Gave him a bath last evening, that relieved the itch for a bit.

Both vets think it is an allergy; but to what? Second vet thought first it was the allergy to flea bites; but there are NO fleas, no flea dirt, no one else in the house is itching or scratching. and with 13 pets here, if it was fleas you'd think SOMEONE else would show signs!

If it is the food, is one week on a different food long enough to tell?

I think he had the rash when he arrived here in April; not sure. I know he has had it since mid May poor guy! And it is getting worse. i just don't know what more to do to help him.

Suggestions, ideas, thoughts, welcome!

[emily_the_spoiled]

If it is an allergy then an antihistamine will tell you. After the prednisone has it under control (hopefully) talk with your vet about putting Bobby on an antihistamine. If it is an allergy then the itching should not re-appear as long as he is on the medication. If it does, then you are likely dealing with something other than an allergy.

[Medusa]

My Creamsicle just went through this for the third time. Does Bobby's hair come out as though it were a paint brush, y'know, in little clumps if you can easily tug on it? Cgirl had it so bad, the itching was driving her nuts and she seemed to be overgrooming but she was really trying to soothe the itching. He gave her a depo shot; that cleared the scabs up right away and thus, the itching. He finally had to do a biopsy on her because the shot would only last about a month, then the scabs came back. We've determined it's an allergy and, so far, it seems as though it's the treats that I was giving her. I cut the treats out for now and I'm waiting to see if the shot wears off and the scabs return. You might want to talk to your vet about giving Bobby a depo shot for some relief, poor little guy. My vet says it's so itchy, it's like having poison ivy. Cgirl lost a lot of hair before we got it under control. Her tail was like a little rat's tail and she had a bald spot on the top of her head and on her chest. But it's all grown back now and she's doing really well. Hopefully, a depo shot will help Bobby. Good luck and keep us posted.

[Freedom]

Thanks Emily & Mary.

Emily, do you ahve a name of an antihistamine I should ask about?

Mary, depo, got it. I don't give him treats, so I have to figure out what else it might be. :(

[catmandu]

Moose used to go through this as he was extremely flea sensitive and he would have scabs everywhere. We hope you Vet can help Bobby , maybe a Lion Cut to expose his skin to the air would help.

Prayers are coming for Bobby from all of us.

[kb2yjx]

Has your cat been tested for allergies??? Food and assorted things about the house? We just found out that Riley is severely allergic to canned z/d(Hill's allergy food)...

[Kalei]

Aw poor Bobby. I hope you get better soon Bobby, I can't imagine how torturing it must be to be constantly itchy to the point of licking your skin off.

I hope the vet and your mommy can find out what it is soon.

[columbine]

Smudge had the same problem, so my vet suggested that I try giving him chlorpheniramine maleate (trade name Chlor-Trimeton, but you can get it cheaper in generic) 1/4 tablet (1 mg) twice a day. I just grind it up in a bit of water and mix it in his canned food (with a spoonful of nice smelly Solid Gold tuna to cover the taste) and it clears the problem right up (except when he's in a kibble-only mood!) It does make for mooshy poops, though, so you might do well to discontinue any hairball remedy you're currently using after the first day or so and make sure he's got plenty of water to drink. Make sure it's just chlorpheniramine maleate with nothing else mixed in.

When he's not eating canned food, I put a dab of hydrocortisone cream on the worst spots once a day. I bought veterinary hydrocortisone (Corti-Calm) but it smells like alcohol (ewwwww, vet's office!) and he won't let me near him with it, so I just put it on my own eczema instead and let him use mine!

Love, Columbine

[Medusa]

It doesn't necessarily have to be treats that he'd be allergic to. Food allergies of any kind are the most common allergies in cats.

[krazyaboutkatz]

I'm sorry to hear that Bobby is so itchy.:( When I first adopted Storm, the food that I was feeding him had a lot of fish in it. He started scratching a lot and then he lost the fur on his ears. I first thought that he might have ringworm but I was told that some cats are allergic to fish. I then changed his diet and it went away.

If it is a food allergy he'll need to be on a different food for at least 6-8 weeks or so before you can tell if this is the cause or not. He may also be allergic to grains. Starr has been battling severe diarrhea for many months now and is now on a grain free diet. He's still on pred and now he's also on 3 herbal supplements that are helping him a lot. I'm hoping to be able to wean him off of the pred once he's been on the supplements for at least 60 days.

There's an allergy blood test that can be done but many vets don't think that it's a very accurate test and it's quite expensive. He'd also have to be off of the pred for a while before having the test done. I sure hope that you'll be able to find out what's causing this or at least be able to treat him for his problem and keep him comfortable. Good luck.:)

Here's a link to a more holistic natural approach for itchy skin: Healthy Pet Journal-Natural,Holistic Health Care For Cats & Dogs (http://www.healthypetjournal.com/default.aspx?tabid=20623).

[Freedom]

Wow I am getting tons of information and lots of ideas. I know Bobby would love to thank all of you for suggestions.

[Catty1]

If your vet okays some antihistamine, Bobby would get some quick relief...hope he feels better soon! :)

[jennielynn1970]

Honeybun, my FIV+ boy, was getting super itchy all of a sudden, and after I sat back and thought about what was different, and when he was doing it, I think I narrowed it down to one of the pouched foo products. That WHISKAS PURRFECTLY FISH stuff. He loves it, and chows down on it, but then the rest of that day and night, he is constantly jumpy and biting at his fur and twitchy all over.

I stopped the Purrfectly Fish (much to the rest of the gangs displeasure), and he seems much better. No twitchies or itchies since. :)

[Freedom]

I feed Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover and just checked the ingredients on line. It has lots of good stuff: chicken; fish meal and salmon; turkey and duck, various grains; just to name a few.

I think I will try to find a food with just fewer ingredients so that I can start eliminating things food wise. I just hate seeing him like this, and listening to his bell jingling all day and all night as he itch, itch, itches!

[jennielynn1970]

When my one cat was having a hard time with dry foods, the vet told me to get something the most simple kind of food available.. one without all the additives and stuff to help this, that and the other type of thing. I changed over to California Natural Chicken and Rice, and they all loved it.

I use Nutro Lamb or Chicken now, and they all seem fine, but I am also down to only one who had the sensitivity to the food. The others seem to eat anything you give them.

[Freedom]

Bobby had a recheck at the vet this morning. The vet was amazed with my list of questions for him, he he and asked about PT.

Bobby's scabs have started healing a little bit and some are coming off.

Vet didn't want to use depo or ati--- (something ) because Bobby is FIP + and the mix isn't recommended as it supresses the immune system too much. Thanks for the info, Medusa.

We are going to:
keep on the prednisone once per day
start the chlorpheniramine maleate 2 mg twice per day (thanks, columbine)
Hill's z/d low allergen dry kibble food

I had switched foods for Bobby on Tuesday evening, to the Nutro chicken and rice. But the vet said as this itching has been going on for some time, we need to get Bobby some relief. And with the over the counter foods, it may not include fish but is processed where they process the food with the fish. So we need to start tough to get the itching to stop post haste.

It should be interesting trying to feed Bobby himself with so many pets in the house and to make sure I put down and pick up everyone else's food while he is separated.

[Medusa]

As long as Bobby's getting relief, that's the important thing. I have to take Cgirl in again tomorrow for another depo shot. I tried some new snacks and she got the sores back again. Dumb me, I just thought I'd try something new. I'm cutting out snacks altogether. Hopefully, that'll do the trick. Can't very well give snacks to the rest of the fur posse and not Cgirl. They went all their lives w/out snacks til just a few months ago, so they can go w/out them again. Well, you and your vet are on top of things, so I'm sure you'll get to the bottom of it.

[Freedom]

Well, things were getting slightly better, the sores were healing and the scabs coming off. I ran out of meds and knew I had to take another pet in the next day, so we skipped the meds for JUST 24 hours. OMG, POOR BOBBY.

Right now he is:
wearing an e collar (been on 5 weeks)
eating z/d low allergen food
taking chlor tri meton 2 mg twice per day
taking cefa drops 1.5 ml once per day

I think a flair up like this in 24 ours means the food is not the problem!

Here are the pics. They are a bit graphic.
This is just the top of his back. He is like this head to tail!

http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q57/sfsamm/Spet%2019%202007/IMG_0678.jpg

http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q57/sfsamm/Spet%2019%202007/IMG_0676.jpg

We had a skin scraping, there are NO mites.
Anyone have any ideas? Should I take him in to the vet tomorrow (Friday) to let him see what happened in the 24 hour laspe (which the vet does NOT know I stopped the meds for 24 hours.)

[Freedom]

Just did a quick on line search, and I MAY have xcaused this flair up. I gave him a bath about 2 hours back.

It says that warm water can cause this; cool water would have helped him.

Also says the shampoo may cause this flair up.

Oh Bobby, I am SO sorry, I didn't mean for this to happen!

[jazzcat]

Ouch! That looks painful. Poor Bobby, I hope you get well soon.

[kb2yjx]

O my!!! That is a bad looking rash!! Our Riley who is allergic to many things NEVER had a rash like that!!!! Can your boy eat the z/d canned(which Riley was allergic to)instead of the dry? I think the dry has BHA, BHT, and ethnquion(sp) as perservatives. Riley is doing well on the canned EVO and for a treat gets some goats' milk(HE LOVES MILK). PLease keep us posted....Prayers of healing and comfort out to you and Bobby....

[moosmom]

Sandie,

Ask your vet about Pemphigus Aereolis (sp?). All the symptoms you've describe are identical to PA, a suppressed immune system problem.

The cat's immune system kills the cells that make new skin. It causes painful scabs and itching. Advanced PA means it's spread to the nailbeds. My cat RB Marina Mar had it and by the time I caught it (the vet diagnosed her with ringworm) it was in the advanced stages.

You and Bobby will be in my thoughts and prayers.

[krazyaboutkatz]

Poor Bobby.:( I hope that the vet will be able to give you something to make him more comfortable. I also hope that you'll be able to find out what's causing this. Bobby will be in my thoughts and prayers.

[kb2yjx]

Another possible ailment to ask about: mycosis fungoides. You can GOOGLE it for a description and some sites have photos. Sometimes a vet can feel threatened when you are suggesting a diagnosis. However, if I had not done that with our cat, Molly Meu, after reading a vet question and answer page in Animal Companion, she would be dead right now. Molly has exocrine pancreatic insuffiency(EPI)and was starving to death because she lacked the enzymes to digest her food. I read the symptoms that were mentioned in the column and quickly called and faxed the vet the info. Molly was started on the pancreatic enzymes and had the blood test the next day. Molly looked 200% better in 3 days, and is doing very well. I know I have digressed from your cat's problem, but we are the advocates for these creatures that cannot speak for themselves. You are doing the right thing by asking the vet lots of questions!!!! Is there a 24 hour/day emergency animal hospital in your area that might have a vet dermatologist in your area??? Maybe that is where you should take Bobby!!!

[Freedom]

Thanks everyone for all the input. I phoned the vet this morning. He has stopped teh Chlor tri meton and we will start BEnadryl.

I go in tomorrow with Marlin and maybe Lacey; will consider taking Bobby as well (he told me to feel free). I may just take in the photos, as it is not nearly as red now.

I will DEFINITELY bring in all these questions tomorrow! Thanks so much.

kb2yjx, I agree with you, we are the advocates for our pets. The vet I used for 14 years really didn't appreciate it when I asked questions. This new vet (I had to get a new one for the foster dogs, as the prior vet didn't work with rescue groups) is pleased when the owner shows involvement in the pet's care. He was astounded when I took in a list of questions the first time I took Bobby in (from the earlier part of this thread). He has gotten used to me taking the initiative with the foster dogs, as well. He says he expects me to arrive with text manuals in hand at any time now! He also does research on line and has given me some printouts for one of the foster dogs. What is odd: he is OLDER (by about 8 years) than the other vet! Ah well. Thanks again!

[Donnaj4962]

Awww, poor sweet Bobby. I hope he is better soon. That looks very painful. :(

[kb2yjx]

Hi Freedom!!! What I find interesting, is that sometimes a younger person can be less open to change than an older one!!! But at least your newer vet does not mind the questions!!!! Good luck today at the vet!!!