Tons of questions....Please help!

[catcrazylady]

Ok, it's New Years Eve and everybody in the house is having some type of issue all of the sudden! Ok, not everybody but several and I need some advice.

1) Magoo - Magoo has been itching on his lower middle back and hind legs lately. It has gotten to the point that he has been pulling chunks of hair out by the mouthfull. Now several things have happened that could have caused this. I started mixing in new food for a change over, winter came and we now have lots of dry heat, or he now has his winter downy undercoat that is irritating him. I have not seen anyone else itching so I don't think it's fleas but I could treat him anyway just in case. I stopped the new food and added the humidifier. I also started giving him NutriMalt paste that is supposed to replace oils for their skin and coat. Has anyone else ever used this and does it help? He has also recently developed bad chin acne. How do I treat that?

2) Abigail - The baby girl has asthma. She has a very slight case of it. We took her to the vet a few weeks ago and her heart is well and her lungs are clear. She has these horrible coughing fits but not very often. The doc gave us prednisone but I haven't been giving it to her. She hasn't had an attack for weeks. She had one tonight but is doing fine. My question is...during one of these is cool mist from the humidifier good for her or should it be steam from hot water? I can have her breathe in some of the mist from the humidifier or I can take her to the bathroom for steam but I don't know which one is best for her. Maybe neither! Just wondering if anyone knows. They usually last no more than 15 minutes or so but if I can help her out with either of these I would like too.

3) Peanut Butter & Lucky - I notice both boys have crusty stuff right outside their ears. It's like their ears have been running. Neither one seems sick at all. Both have been playing and acting silly today but do not want you to touch that area. They are eating fine and don't appear sick or feverish at all. Now I have lots of ear stuff in the house but I'm not sure which one I should use. I have a heavy oil for ear infections and deep cleaning, I have regular ear cleanser, and I have another ear cleanser with medicine for ear mites, all from the vet. I'm not sure which one I should use. Before everyone starts hollering about taking them to the vet please know that I will if either gets sick but right now with the holidays I need to do something here first. I can't afford an emergency run when it's not necessary at the moment. Plus I would rather eat dirt, climb the highest mountain, and break rocks for the rest of my life than deal with P&B when it comes to medicating! Hubby and I will need medical treatment after doing anything to him! Getting him into a carrier is virtually impossible. He is a gentle giant until it comes to something like this and I swear he turns into a mini mountain lion that would rather kill you than allow any medication. It turns my stomach to even think about having to do anything to him.
What would make their ears run like that? What medicine should I try to use?

Sorry that this is so long and full of so many questions but I need advice and I know everyone here knows something about a lot of these things. HELP!!!

[Laura's Babies]

Wow Lisa! You are having a time with assorted ailments for your babies! I have no answers for you since I have no experience in any of those things but I hope someone else does.. We gotta get Magooster fixed up fast!! (and the rest)) Somebody HELP!

[catcrazylady]

Yes, Laura they all started acting up at once!

btw, the ears are showing no signs of discolored drainage and there is no odor. Sammy is also walking around holding one ear kind of down. Would ear mites cause all this trouble?

[Vermontcat]

Well, I hope some other people can help you also but I will try to answer some of your questions.

1) Samantha had itchies from allergies a couple of months ago and I took her to the vet for it. Changing the food and making it more humid for Magoo should make him more comfortable. I also brushed Samantha more too, just make sure you are gentle around the patchy areas. It also may be stress related. I don't know about the paste or what to use for the chin acne. I hope someone else can answer that or maybe you can do a search for past threads on it.

2) I do know that for asthma, warm humid air like from a hot shower should make her more comforable. I have asthma and it has helped me and also when my kids were younger and got sick it helped them breathe better quickly.

3) I'm not sure which ear medicine you should use, is it possible to call your vet and get advice over the phone without bringing your cats in? My vet has been helpful in the past this way. When I had Samantha in for her checkup last fall she had been shaking her head and itching her ears but only needed an ear cleaning by the vet to get some gunk out. I hope I could help you a little and good luck with getting all your kitties to feel better.

[RedHedd]

WOW you sure have your hands full. I can't help with the ear stuff, but for kitty acne, I used to use Neosporin on Goldie's chin acne; cleared it right up.

As for Magoo's dry skin, it does sound like the change in diet may have caused the skin/fur changes. Is NutriMalt like Petromalt? If so, the oils in it will help with the dry skin/fur and any hairballs.

I recently tried Pro Plan indoor cat formula (mainly because Petco gave me a free 4 lbs.) for Mitzi, however both cats LOVE it. I wonder what's in this stuff as they both scream for it! Mitzi's fur is getting so nice and shiny and even fluffier (if that was possible). Now I'm battling keeping Mishi away from it as he's on the special K/D kidney food.

Perhaps a quick call to the vet just to ask a few questions, without having to actually go in with the fur herd. Would your vet just answer some questions over the phone? I know mine does. Good luck!

[moosmom]

Lisa,

PB & Lucky sound like they have the same thing LilEli has. It's crusty stuff just inside the ear (no outside for Eli). He scratches it and shakes his head. Unfortunately, because he's semi-feral, I have to wait and corner him to put medication for a yeast infection in his ear and clean it out.

I also had a cat, Marina Mar who had crusty stuff outside her ears. Turned out it was Pemphagus Aereolus. It's caused from a suppressed immune system that causes painful ear scabs. Nothing helped it (we tried every antibiotic there was). She had been poked, stuck, prodded to death! Finally the vet said that she had one more thing we could try which would require blood work every 2 weeks and weekly injections, similar to kitty chemotherapy. That's when I said enough was enough. RIP Marina Mar.

As far as the Gooster's itching, it's probably a food allergy. Especially since you said you just added other food to his already existing food.

My Mollie Rose has kitty asthma. I don't give her prednisone because she's an older kitty (almost 11) and the vet said regular use of the stuff can suppress her immune system. Instead, for sneezing, watery eyes and runny nose, I give her a half a tab of Chlortrymeton, an over the counter human antihystimine. It works.

[rg_girlca]

Oh Lisa, poor you and poor babies.

The only thing I can help you with, is the feline Acne as Chipper had this also. I was told by a few PTer's to put Hydrogen Peroxide, 3%, on a cotton ball and clean his chin with it 3 times a day. Also, if you can, hold a warm cloth on it for as long as the cat will tolerate it.

I did this with Chipper and now he is acne free. It took a couple of weeks but it worked and was much cheaper than going to a vets.

I hope and pray that Magoo, Abigail, PB and Lucky feel better soon.

(((((HUGS))))) for you Lisa.

[catcrazylady]

Thanks to everyone for responding. I know it was a lot all at once!

I am going to try cleaning Lucky and PB's ears with the ear cleaner with mite stuff in it. I figure it can't hurt! The stuff is dry and rough right outside their ears. I know with mites or dirty ears it's usually dark colored. Donna I had never thought of a yeast infection. All I can say is Lord please help hubby and I deal with Peanut Butter!
Thanks VermontCat for the advice on warm mist for Abigail. I just want to make things easier for her if I can.
RedHedd I'll get started with Neosporin right away! Thanks
Lorraine I'll try the Peroxide and then use the Neosporin. Thanks for the hugs because they all decided to try my nerves at once today!

Thanks everybody!!!

[christa]

Hey Lisa . . . glad I saw your post about your poor kitties. I can offer some info for Abby. As you probably know (I've posted LOTS lately about it), Josie has asthma. She is about 14 months old now . . . she's ALWAYS had the coughing fits and just recently started having ATTACKS and was diagnosed. We always thought the coughs were hairballs, but they weren't.

What I've learned . . . a cat's asthma attacks can be VERY serious! When she starts coughing or having an attack, talk to her gently, keep her calm. If you can, check her gums . . . if they start to turn purple, get her to a vet ASAP! When Josie has "serious" attacks, she has stomach spasms. If that happens to Abby, that's a sign that her stomach is pushing on her lungs to force air out . . . if this is happening, she is probably struggling. Also, if you notice her breathing out of her mouth during these episodes, not a good sign!

Please just keep an eye on these attacks. They are serious. Josie always coughed & eventually hers went into serious attacks. I'm not sure how old Abby is or how long she's had these coughing spells . . . just please don't hesitate to take her to the doctor if she continues.

Josie will be taking a steriod shot every 4 to 6 weeks (approximately). The vet thinks that the shot will last longer for Josie though for some reason. She said most of her asthmetic cats only have to have 2-3 a year.

I'd never heard of "cat asthma" until Josie's. So strange . . . Lisa, let me know if you need anything else Believe me, I've been through it lately with cat asthma!



edit: Forgot to add, it's a good idea to keep the dust in your house to a minimum . . . and I think that putting some extra moisture in the air would be a great idea! I'm thinking of doing that myself!

[catcrazylady]

Christa thank you so much! I know you and several others have asthmatic cats and I was hoping for some advice. Abigail is 5 months old and the vet and I are both hoping she will outgrow this. She doesn't do it very often but yesterday her coughing fit was worse than most. It has been weeks since she had one. I'm thinking the rainy damp weather isn't helping. We try to watch for anything that seems to trigger it and eliminate that problem. Now you tell me that I have to clean more!!! Oh the things we go through for these little ones!
I really hope she outgrows this and it doesn't get worse like Josie's. Yesterday her coughing was as loud and as harsh as a grown human male and that scared me. She only did that a couple of times and the rest were her usual coughs. She has never had open mouth breathing and I have never noticed her stomach spasming. At least not yet anyway. I may call the vet and see about getting her that shot instead of her taking these pills. I'm really not happy about giving her Prednisone but I may have to.
Abigail is so tiny and she had such a rough beginning that I hate to see her go through this. Although, it doesn't slow down any of those crazy kitten antics the rest of the time!
Thanks again Christa and I may be needing to bug you again.

[moosmom]

I treated LilEli's ears with yeast infection drops I usually use for Moo. If Peanut has a yeast infection, just take a whiff near his ear. If it has an odor to it, it's a yeast infection. The vet told me that whatever I did to LilEli before I brought him in helped. So I must've been doing something right.

I have a humidifier going in my bedroom 24/7 in case Mollie Rose wants to sleep on my bed. She'll usually sit right in front of it. It's a cool mist humidifier, which MY doctor told me is better because a warm mist humidifier can breed bacteria. It also has a permanent, metal filter so there's no chance of any mold or mildew setting in on it.

[christa]

Originally posted by catcrazylady
Thanks again Christa and I may be needing to bug you again.

You can PM me anytime you need to!

[lisalee]

Hi Lisa, I'm sorry I don't have any advice for Magoo, PB or Lucky but as for Abigail with asthma I'm sorry to hear that since she's so young. Sash was slighty asthmatic for almost three years, just brief coughing attacks daily though, no breathing problems. It was hard to watch though, we never used prednisone but I did try alot of natural remedies and vitamins. Vitamin C is sometimes helpful, any sort of antioxident may help her immune system. I do believe Sash's coughing was related to his sinus problems which were making him cough. He was given the antibiotic Zeniquin over a year ago and the coughing completely stopped, until just Tuesday would you believe he coughed again so I guess you never know with this sort of condition it can always return. Sash has also started sneezing pretty much again. Weather changes usually are always a problem.

I would also recommend an air purifier. I also invested in a hepa vacuum and always tried to keep dust at a minimum when Sash was having symptoms. There is also a yahoo group for feline asthma and you might want to read on there, there's lots of information. I wish Abigail all the best!

[DogLover9501]

Lisa,
Emma also itches back by her tail, and now has a bald spot. When she went in to be spayed, I had asked the vet to look over her skin/fur for fleas or anything else.

He said she did not have fleas, but that he wanted to talk to me about it when she came back to get the stitches out, which is Monday(Jan 3rd).

However, you have some solutions to Magoos itching problem, with a change of food being a possibility, but Emma hasn't had any food changes or anything like that.

I guess I will find out more on Monday.

I hope Magoo, Abigail, Peanut Butter & Lucky all feel better soon!

[Nomilynn]

When it rains it pours!

I don't have a lot of advice but Tilly is my zitty kitty. She has chin acne.

The vet actually gave her prednisone.. I have her one for 3days and that cleared up the worst of it.

The peroxide and hot compress idea also is good. My vet said not to use neosporin because it will get licked off and might not be good for a kitty to injest.

My vet also gave me a sample of a special acne soap (and I STILL have most of it.. a tiny dab works great) and when Tilly has a zit attack I use that if it's a bit more bad than usual. The soap has hydrogen peroxide in it.

Good luck with it!