Problems with my pussy.

Oh dear, really could do with some help here.

Going back to last year, two of our four cats started loosing fur around the back and back legs area. It seemed to be a skin complaint. To save a bit of money, we just took one to the vet. The vet checked for everything, with no definite result. gave her a steroid injection and said "if that doesn't work, bring her back."

Erm no thanks, £30 for no result, so we decided to treat them ourselves. So we treated them with Thrush cream....please don't laugh ladies, but it worked.

However, Kev cat has started again so this time I was treating him with Tesco Cocoa Butter. When I say I was treating him, its cause I was the only one he would allow to put it on him.

However, it worked for a while, but now he is really scratching and licking. So his skin is definitely irritating him. No fleas before you ask and no skin worm..forget what its called. Its not catching as it hasn't affected the other 3 or the dawg.

Any ideas? Could it be hormonal, he is a neutered 8 year old male. We did notice that when he had Whiskers that seemed to encourage this hair loss, so we took him off that a few months ago.

I am at a loss.

 

My old cat had a problem for a while of loosing fur in definite patches of skin (on the ears to be precise) This was a long time ago and I don´t remember what the medicine was, but it worked. The veterinary said it was a kind of auto-immune problem (at a loss for translation here, you ahve to take it with a grain of salt). Basically her own immune system had gotten confused and started destroying her own cells. Scary, but it was solved. Not sure if it could be it. Try making some research on this perhaps?

 

HI, my cat had something similar and the vet gave me steroid cream-which didn`t work so I was told by someone to use thruch cream and like yours it worked for me. It is obviously a fungal infection which they are probably picking up from the same place every time. If she will let you apply evening primrose oil or even add it to her food that should help as a preventative measure.-I pop the capsule with my teeth and just squirt it in her meat.

I think the cats make it worse by over licking themselves and irritating the skin over and over.

I won`t make a joke about you having a well licked cat.

 

That is definitely happening. Evening Primrose..hmm, yup, sounds like a good idea anyway, won't do any harm...perhaps using the thrush cream again might work. thanks both of you for your replies.:thumb:

Fungal infection...yea, could be. Will definitely have a google with that in mind. Regarding the auto-immune system Ivory...I suppose that would be another vet visit...I would like to try home methods first...but will bear it in mind.

 

Cookies Monster's the one you want, she's a lovely lady, a Vet, I'm sure she would be glad to give you some advice. 02

 

Hi O2

How do I get intouch with her?

 

Dont worry Tweak she's never far away, I think she spends a lot of the time on a wildlife forum, but she pops in fairly often. She's the salt of the earth, very caring. 02

 

Tweaky it could be Sarcoptic Mange afraid a trip to the vets is necessary to confirm this with a skin scrape lots of foxes moving into towns are covered in it they then pass it on to dogs and cats.

 

and I know she loves pussy mroaws!!:D:D

 

Have no personal experience of cats, but I know that using thrush cream on one of my rescued piggies feet helped enormously. Certainly in g pigs, fungal infection can be very nasty - fatal in some cases, as can mites.

I once suspected mites in my pigs - one was losing hair - Ivermectin is the best mite treatment used for gpigs - I bought online, under the guidance of the dedicated guineapig rescue - and returned the drop I'd paid the vet over £20 for. Turned out to be a hormonal issue, treated with injections via the vet. Treating with ivermectin isn't harmful to pigs, and is recommended with any suspicion. This was in a girly guinea pig, and as yours is a male cat, I wouldn't make too many comparisons! :D

Have you tried the thrush cream again? I think you can buy mild hydrocortisone cream over the counter nowadays - that may help too?

As a chronic eczema sufferer, I appreciate how distressing itchy skin can be. Hope Cookie will come on soon - you could try pming her - maybe you need to try a different vet?

 

What do you feed your pussies on?

 

Going back to last year, two of our four cats started loosing fur around the back and back legs area. It seemed to be a skin complaint. To save a bit of money, we just took one to the vet. The vet checked for everything, with no definite result. gave her a steroid injection and said "if that doesn't work, bring her back."

Erm no thanks, £30 for no result, so we decided to treat them ourselves. So we treated them with Thrush cream....please don't laugh ladies, but it worked.

However, Kev cat has started again so this time I was treating him with Tesco Cocoa Butter. When I say I was treating him, its cause I was the only one he would allow to put it on him.

However, it worked for a while, but now he is really scratching and licking. So his skin is definitely irritating him. No fleas before you ask and no skin worm..forget what its called. Its not catching as it hasn't affected the other 3 or the dawg.

Any ideas? Could it be hormonal, he is a neutered 8 year old male. We did notice that when he had Whiskers that seemed to encourage this hair loss, so we took him off that a few months ago.

I am at a loss.

Hello Tweaky

Sorry to hear Kev is having some skin problems. Here is some advice – but please remember, because I cannot actually examine him, it makes the advice ‘general ‘rather than specific and your own vet who has examined him will obviously be the one to treat and chose appropriate therapy.

Firstly, to establish what is causing the hair loss you have to consider two main possibilities.

1.Is the hair falling out itself – ie: the cat is not contributing to the balding by self trauma and the entire hair is being lost from the skin... or

2.Is the hair coming out due to the trauma of the cat overgrooming and breaking off the hair leaving short stubbly hairs that are still intact at the follicle.

If you are going to Google for info, the first type is called non-pruritic feline alopecia (ie non itchy hair loss) and type 2 is called feline pruritic alopecia – (hair loss as a result of itching).

It would certainly appear from your description that Kev seems to be suffering from the pruritic form of hair loss as you say he is scratching and licking himself a lot – this helps with making a differential diagnosis and can rule out some conditions.

FLEA ALLERGY

Well, I know that the first thing I am going to say will not please you having read your post....!

By far the MOST common reason why cats get this seasonal hair loss and itching is Fleas! Argh I hear you say – but a cat that is ALLERGIC to flea bites may only require a single bite to set off this cascade of itch, scratch, hair loss cycle.

I notice you never mentioned what flea control you use, how often or when you last used it. This could be majorly important EVEN if you are not seeing fleas on the cat – many fleas are removed by a cat who is excessively grooming – and even if you haven’t seen him licking and licking – it is something a cat will commonly do at night out of the owners sight – hence the rapid hair breakage.

I am not speaking out of my bum here Tweak – I have had this problem myself with an extremely allergic cat who every summer without fail got baldy back legs and a ratty tail base!!!!

Do you notice any tiny little scabs dotted over the skin on the back, tailbase, backs of the thighs, tummy or generally? These little scabs are commonly associated with flea allergy and cause what is known as miliary dermatitis.

In a cat who is showing your symptoms, it is imperative that you use a veterinary flea control product which not only will kill any flea present on the cat but MORE importantly will deter other fleas from wanting to jump on and bite in the first place. In a multi-cat household it is also extremely important to treat EVERY cat and to also use a household flea spray on all the carpets and soft furnishing to control any environmental problem such as flea eggs hatching out in the house.

The product I recommend from my own success is FRONTLINE SPOT-ON. Very easy to apply and extremely effective. It must be used on every cat every 6 weeks but on an allergic cat every month is preferable. Flea powders and supermarket remedies just don’t work because the fleas have become resistant to these older, more obsolete preparations. Frontline also protects against Ticks, which is useful if you are in a tick populated area of the country. I agree with the vet that steroids help to break the itch scratch cycle – but if the initiating cause of the allergy is not treated, as the steroid wears off, so the scratching will return – which seems to have happened in your other cat you took to the vet if, as you say, you had no beneficial result.

FOOD ALLERGY

This can certainly happen in cats but is much less common than flea allergy. Diagnosing a food allergy is best done by feeding an EXCLUSION DIET for at least 8 weeks and by assessing the response. An exclusion diet is a hypoallergenic prescription diet which is specially prepared by excluding some of the proteins that cause allergy and by replacing them with ‘novel’ proteins which the cat may not have been exposed to so much. Difficult when you have a multi cat household – it is extremely important that the affected cat does not get access to the others food. Feeding all your cats with this special diet may be unnecessary and extremely expensive. In general rabbit, lamb and chicken diets seem to be tolerated better than fish or beef in cats. It is best to feed a prescription diet formulated by Waltham or Hills diets.

Your vet may offer intradermal skin testing for allergies but in my experience they are usually expensive and sometimes not specific enough – with food allergy, it is much better to do a 2 month diet trial. I would say it is a waste of time doing a food allergy diet if you have not aggressively treated to rule out fleas first and KEEP treating for fleas throughout the year.



[FONT=&quot]For the Nutritional Management of Cats with Food Allergy and Intolerance Food allergy and intolerance is an abnormal response to food that can cause a variety of uncomfortable and even painful skin and stomach problems in your cat. This condition is also known as adverse reactions to food and is typically associated with the protein in pet food. Prescription Diet* Feline d/d* is formulated with a single, novel—or new—protein source that helps manage cats with adverse reactions to food. For cats, most allergic reactions occur as a result of beef, dairy products and fish. Feline d/d8 contains none of these.[/FONT]

 

INTERNAL PARASITES

Strangely, the presence of intestinal parasites can sometimes exhibit with skin irritation too, so it is a good idea to regularly worm your cats, although this would be a rare cause of primary skindisease – however, if a grooming cat swallows a flea – the flea carries the intermediate form of the cat tapeworm, so if fleas are suspected it is advised to worm regularly too.

PSYCHOGENIC ALOPECIA

This is a form of hair loss you sometimes see in a cat that is highly stressed. Sometimes nervous cats will for some reason just sit and groom and groom to the point of self mutilation – more often seen in housecats or multi cat households. If you think your cat is stressed in some way – bullying, outside cat bullying etc it may be worth thinking about, but it is low down on the list. Treatment of this would involve changing the environmental factor causing the stress or by short term use of mood altering drugs, which are very safe, to break the cycle of behaviour.

RINGWORM

This can cause the symptoms you describe. I am curious how you know it is not Ringworm Tweak. Have you had the fur cultured or did the vet do a Wood’s Light test? This is the way to rule out Fungal infection. Also, this is important to rule out as it is a problem which can be transmitted to in-contact humans too. The Primary Fungal disease of cats is Ringworm and would not be cured by Thrush Cream – it requires systemic medication. The cream probably just acts as a local soothing agent on the skin.

I am a little concerned with you having used Thrush Cream to treat your cats. I would always advise total caution in treating any animal with a human preparation. There are drugs which are perfectly safe in people but which will, even in small amounts, kill animals. PLEASE never treat with any human preparation without checking with your vet first it is safe to do so. Had there been a toxic component to this cream and the cat had licked it off, it could have had bad consequences.

Evening Primrose Oil is very safe. It is not curative for a skin problem, but it provides Essential Fatty Acids which benefit the skin by making it more conditioned – a conditioned skin is more resistant to itching and infection than a dry scaly skin. Vets can provide prescription EFA supplementation or you can use Evening Primrose oil capsules – dose recommended for cats is 22.5mg g-linolenic acid (the active ingredient in Evening Primrose Oil) once to twice a day.

CONTACT ALLERGIES

These are possible if you use washing powders or cleaning chemicals around the house – however, skin disorders usually occur where the cat may come into contact with things such as bedding or blankets, carpets etc. To rule this out, try to use less washing detergents and make sure all cats bedding is rinsed thoroughly after washing so no chemical remnants are left on the contact materials.
Even the cocoa butter you have used may be contributing to a contact irritation if you have used it on severely irritated skin. I certainly don’t think it will have any therapeutic use here.

MITES

These are a much rarer possibility – when you consider the areas affected with your cat. A lot of mite infestations materialize around the head and ears or in odd patches on the body as opposed to your bilateral flank and thigh hair loss. However, a skin scraping done by your vet would rule out mites.
Feline scabies (notoedric mange) lesions are usually concentrated on the ears, head and neck and is very rare. Other mite species may produce ear scratching or dandruff reactions – Personally I don’t think your cat sounds as if it has mites but your vet could rule them out with a skin scrape or by using adhesive tape samples from the skin and examining them under a microscope.

AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE

This is a serious cause of skin disease but in comparison to allergies is MUCH MUCH MORE RARE. The diseases are Pemphigus vulgaris and Lupus Erythematosus. Often the cat will show other systemic signs of being unwell, such as being depressed, having a fever or anorexia. Blood tests and skin biopsies help to diagnose this but I would say that it is a very unlikely reason Kev is scratching and should really only ever be considered when all the really common causes have been totally ruled out.

HORMONAL ALOPECIA

This can certainly occur, especially in male neutered cats, but the thing that makes me sceptical in your case is that hormonal hair loss is usually accompanied by little or no irritation and scratching – and the entire hair falls out, leaving the skin relatively unchanged and non irritant. It is not advised to treat with hormones unless you are certain the hair loss is hormonal in origin. Thyroid, adrenal or sex hormone problems can sometimes be the cause – but again, I would say that this is much less likely than allergy.

If you want a sure fire way of determining if the hair is falling out or is being broken off by excessive grooming – you can keep the cat indoors and use an Elizabethan collar to prevent overgrooming. Hair will have a chance to start growing back and any irritation caused by excessive licking will be eliminated. Whatever causes the itch can then be addressed having broken the itch scratch/lick vicious cycle.

EOSINOPHILIC GRANULOMA COMPLEX

This is a condition seen in cats – but often manifests as plaques of weeping, open sores anywhere on the body giving rise to moist, intensively itchy lesions. Doesn’t sound like this, although this disease is based in allergy triggers.

IDIOPATHIC FELINE SYMMETRICAL ALOPECIA

This is a term used for when all other possible causes have been ruled out. Personally I think this is incredibly rare and that usually the underlying cause has just not been diagnosed yet or that the history you are being given by the owner may not be entirely what is going on!!!

DRUG ERUPTION

Sometimes certain drugs can cause the skin to flare up – as you have not mentioned him being on any medication, I do not think this is a consideration.

In all cases of extreme irritation – steroids do have a major influence in helping stop the itch scratch cycle – but are useless unless the underlying cause can be eliminated in the meantime. A long acting injection may give relief for a month but if the trigger is not removed the irritation will return. Sometimes cats respond well to low dose steroid given on an alternative day system by tablet over a longer period of time – cats seem less prone to side effects than other species and this can be tailed off as the skin starts to respond to treatment.

I cannot overstress the importance of ANY flea contact in an allergic animal. People may protest, but if the cat just gets one flea bite from somewhere then this whole thing can flare up very quickly.

My advice would be...

1.Get an Elizabethan Collar to rule out any self trauma or excessive grooming – it is not safe to let a cat outdoors with a collar – this may be a consideration if keeping him in would prove difficult.

2.Treat every cat with Frontline Spot on, once a month for 3 months, then every 6 weeks thereafter.

3.Entirely spray the house with a household flea spray every 12 months

4.Go to the vet and get steroids if the skin is extremely irritated whilst employing these other control measures. Vet can also take hair pluck and check under Woods Lamp or culture it to rule out Ringworm. Microscope examination for mites may be performed or your cat booked in for a skin scrape.

5.If after 2 months the skin / hair growth is not responding to aggressive flea treatment then initiate a prescription, exclusion hypoallergenic diet for minimum 8 weeks on the affected cat. Eg hills feline d/d diet

6.If there is an obvious stress factor with this affected cat, either change the causative factor (eg bullying cat) or get mood altering calming drugs from your vet. The Elizabethan collar should help prevent stressed overgrooming in the meantime.

7.Worm your cat with a comprehensive veterinary prescription wormer.

8. If the cat is appearing generally unwell , losing weight, depressed etc the vet should check with blood tests and skin biopsies to rule out systemic illness.

Your vet can prescribe soothing shampoos in the meantime such as oatmeal based preparations. Insecticidal shampoos can be used for lice and mites.
Some vets have tried the use of steroids combined with antihistamines for allergy control but I have not found antihistamines to be that useful where the irritation is very severe.

Ivermectin shouldn’t be used in cats. There are much safer alternatives for ectoparasite control and it is not licensed in the UK for use in cats.

Skin disorders are very difficult for the vet to diagnose on first visit unless the cause is utterly obvious – ie: fleas running around in a massive infestation! There are so many causes of hair loss and irritation and sometimes things are complicated by there being more than one cause at a time!

 

I am afraid I have no experience of homeopathic remedies for skin treatments. Unfortunately , my only experience of seeing cases is for a second opinion in the event of a homeopathic treatment having not worked, so I am loath to suggest a route. There are vets out there who are strong advocates of it, but I would imagine they would suggest ruling out the common causes first before embarking on a homeopathic course of therapy. Aloe vera may well have some calming effect on the skin and tea-tree oil also but I AM NOT ADVISING YOU USE THESE EXCEPT UNDER THE STRICT MANAGEMENT OF A HOMEOPATHIC VET.


Good luck with sorting out Kev and I hope this has helped a bit?

Kath
PS For tweaky and anyone else with a pet problem - I am currently not registered as a fully practising vet at the moment as I have been suffering with a long term illness - I AM still registered with the RCVS as a non-practicing member - but any advice given is purely for no financial return and currently I am unable to physically treat an animal until I pay the subs to register as practising again - which I cannot do being ill!
Having never examined the animals I am asked about, all advice given is solely for extra information for the owner and would never override any opinion or diagnosis made by your own vet who has, or should, examine your animal first hand.

I hope all my advice is taken in the spirit it is given and I have informed my liaison at the Veterinary Benevolent Fund that I am occasionally giving advice . This has been sanctioned as not contravening the RCVS rules on non-practising members.
Cheers.

 

PS 02! The cheque is in the post for all your lovely comments!