pics #18; flair up it is BAD

[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!





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!