Dear cat owners, do you have a kitty with allergies? I need advice.

[Paper Roses]

I adopted a shelter kitty in 2010, she has been healthy except:

For the last 8 or so years, she has had itchy ears. She scratches violently all the time. She has been to the vet so many times with no problems. I'm told she has allergies. She has had multiple exams and tests. Nothing wrong with her. I've spent over $ 3000.00 with the local vet for tests, shots, exams ...everything. Today was another visit. She scratches her ears violently. No mites or parasites.
Today was another $ 300.00 after a visit in April with the same problem. At that time they did a complete health exam with blood test also(over ($500.00). No problem.

Her skin is torn under her chin from the scratching. Again...shots. Today it was Convenia and Depo-Medrol shots again. We've been thru this same RX before. There have been many shots..today I was told to come back in 10 days to see if this helped. Didn't before.
It costs me $94.00 to walk in the door plus exam and any meds. Another bill..this time $236.00.

Now they tell me that it this does not work, I'll have to put her on a special diet. Last visit I was told to buy only food without chicken. OK, did that.

Now they tell me I might have to put her on "Royal Canin Hydrolyzed Protein food.
I checked the price on Chewy and other sites. It is about $90.00 a month for each, the canned and the dry.

I'm trying my best to help my 15 year old kitty but my funds are very limited.
Do any of you have a problem like this and how do you cope?
I'd love some advice. Thanks to all pet lovers. I feel so badly for my kitty and have been trying to help for years.

[iscooterliberally]

1. I have a cat like that. She's about 5 now.

She came from a feral litter. It's some sort of genetic thing and we're not really sure what's wrong. Her mom and two brothers have a touch of it, but nothing like this poor little girl. We took her to a vet that specialized in dermatology. We paid about $500 and they couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. She scratches herself bloody sometimes and her ears are very hot too. The specialist sent us home with something called Atopica. It came in these liquid gel pills and they were too big for her to swallow. The liquid form was really expensive and it didn't really help. The only thing that seems to work is that we go in every 6-8 weeks and get an 'allergy shot' from our regular vet. I do not know what is in the shot, but it works for a while. She doesn't scratch as bad and her skin starts to heal after getting it. Her skin also cools to the touch right after getting the shot. Her two brothers have warm ears too. Our regular vet charges us about $35 or $40 to give her the shot when we come in. We have had a lot of other animals over the years and our vet used to come to our house to see them all. I know she's giving us a break on the price. She doesn't even charge us for the office visit. It's just one injection and we're done. I have to take one of her brothers in for dental work in the coming weeks, and she'll probably get another shot at the same time. I can ask my vet what it is then. I'm guessing it's some sort of antihistamine that is safe for cats, but I just can't remember what it's called. We tried the food thing too, but it didn't work out. She eats what the rest of the gang eats now. She spends most of her time outside anyway and won't tolerate being kept inside. It sucks, but she likes to eat and always purrs gleefully when I pet her. I would try and see if you can work something out with your local vet. I would also contact the local humane society and maybe some cat rescue groups. They usually know who the good vets are as opposed to the ones that are more about the money. We're in it for the long haul with our little girl. We are very fortunate to have an understanding vet. Good luck to you!

[lark]

2. My old cat had bad allergies to human touch on his ears, it was the oils on our fingers.

When we quit rubbing them, they went from beet red and little hair to pink and hairy. He really wanted to be rubbed, but we rubbed lightly underneath his ears plus the back of his neck and his back. He was also very badly allergic to fleas and loved going outside. In FL, outside = fleas for animals. We couldn't keep him in, he'd streak out with the dog. We had to rotate flea medicines every 2 weeks until he quit pulllng out all his fur and the sores went away. After thst, we were able to keep him ok with one treatment a month and limited his outside time. He hated that at first, but it really helped so much. Once he got used to being inside almost all the time, life got a lot easier.

[MyMission]

3. Many years ago I cooked for my cats

I had several so it was cost effective. Got some recipes from a natural pet care book I had.
There are a lot of things one can include, and some things one shouldn't.

I added brown rice, carrots, greens to proteins like chicken, liver, beef, fish, and oils I was a vegetarian, and rice was a staple for my diet, so it was easy and ok to add to the cats food.
Some people just make a chicken breast or open a can of tuna or sardines especially when trying to rule out allergies. Or if you have an idea on the limited ingredients you can use, it's easy to make a batch that will last for several days and can be frozen. A food processor or blender can get the consistency your cat prefers.

Another thought is including goats milk, which is very nourishing, alone or with the food. I've shared human grade with them and also gotten vet grade frozen at pet food stores.

I googled cat food recipes and found these 2 sites which offer very different recipes, just to give you an idea about options. Some add supplements, which I used to do. Some are just meats and broth, but again it depends what you are limiting for your cat. I always have a good quality kibble around too, one without food dye or certain grains.

https://allaboutcats.com/homemade-cat-food-recipes

https://cats.lovetoknow.com/Homemade_Cat_Food_Recipe

Good luck with your kitty.

[Beatlelvr]

4. I have two and one has special diet and ear mites

She's doing okay. You may have already thought of this but, have you considered a second opinion? Different vet?

I hope you can resolve this; we hate to see our pets in distress.

[wnylib]

5. I was also going to suggest a second opinion,

same as I would do for myself if a doctor was not able to get results. Sometimes one vet knows solutions or is better at diagnosis than another.

Many years ago I had a cat who was allergic to pollen in the fall. He was an indoor cat, but having the window open or carrying pollen in on clothes would set off a reaction. His reaction was in the chest. His purr and meow would get raspy and he would get lethargic. So, in late summer/early fall, he got a shot that cleared up or prevented the allergic reaction each year.

[TexasBushwhacker]

6. Does she go outside?

We had a cat that was allergic to mosquito bites. We had a repellant ointment that we put on the tips of his ears that helped a bit.

[LisaL]

7. My cat had bad allergies.

He would also scratch his neck to the point of skin bleeding. At some points I had him wear cat pajamas with baby socks sawn into feet of pajamas, so he couldn't scratch his neck with his nails. He had allergies to many things in the environment, so special food wasn't going to help him (since he was allergic to various things in the environment and not specifically to things in his food). I had an allergy panel done on him, to see what he was allergic to. But it's going to cost a lot of money, and in case of my cat, because he was allergic to so many things as the panel showed, I couldn't eliminate what he was allergic to anyway. Vet suggested oral medication, but it was super expensive and cat would have to take it for a long time before showing any results, so I didn't do it. He had antibiotic and steroid injections periodically.

[Bayard]

8. That's what I'm thinking as well

Until you figure out the problem, I'd put something on your cat's feet so he can't tear himself up. Will he also let you trim his claws?

We have a mini-doxie with allergies. He'd scratch, chew his paws, and cry miserably. He gets an allergy shot about once a month now, that helps a lot. But we also sent a saliva specimen off to a lab for allergy testing ($100). They came back with several allergens--mold and chicken being the biggies. We know our log cabin has some mold issues in the roof, can't do much about it at the moment. But we did cut chicken out of his diet. We cook for our dogs, and the mainstay is boiled chicken. So now, everybody else gets chicken, and the little guy gets ground beef. He's small enough that we can get a package that's been reduced in price to a few bucks, and its 3 meals for him. Its helped him a lot.

[femmedem]

9. I don't have experience with this, but here's an article about a variety of brands' versions.

https://www.veterinarians.org/hydrolyzed-protein-cat-food/

Purina Pro has a much less expensive option, according to that article. It would need your vet's approval. If your vet says no, I'd emphasize your budget restrictions and ask again.

[CountAllVotes]

10. My cats love this food

They love the dry food and eat a lot of it.

I just got some more of it for them recently from chewy.com.

It was about $15 for a 7 lb. bag of it.

Purina ONE Indoor Advantage Senior 7+ High Protein Natural Dry Cat Food, 7-lb bag

Certainly cheaper than the $100/bag options out there!

It might be worth a try!

I just found this one here as well (about $40 for a 4-lb. bag):

Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets HA Hydrolyzed Dry Cat Food
By Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets
Rated 4.4225 out of 5 stars
Veterinary Diet Item
Slide 1 of 10
Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets HA Hydrolyzed Dry Cat Food, 4-lb bag
Size
4-lb bag
$36.99

[CountAllVotes]

11. Maybe it is not the food

Last edited Sun Jul 31, 2022, 03:18 PM - Edit history (2)

What type of cat litter are you using?

One of my cats started scratching away like crazy and it was from using clumping cat litter.

I changed to Tidy Cats unscented non clumping cat litter and the problem went away.

Also another idea is this, maybe it is in the air.

I have a mini-air purifier that I run when it is hot and uncomfortable in the house. It circulates and cleans the air.

When I have it on I tend to find ALL of my cats lounging around in front of it. It obviously makes them very comfortable. You might consider getting one of these. It helps me a lot too btw!

It was an inexpensive and they sure like it and it is a lot cheaper than having to run an air-conditioner.

In other words, this allergy may be to something other than food.

What else does your cat have contact with that could cause this?

Anything lavender scented?

Here is a list of things that cats are allergic to:

Can I diffuse peppermint oil around my cat?
Many essential oils, such as eucalyptus oil, tea tree oil, cinnamon, citrus, pennyroyal, peppermint, pine, sweet birch, wintergreen, and ylang ylang are toxic to pets. These are toxic whether they are applied to the skin OR used in diffusers.

It may be something you had not considered.

Look around you.

What do you see that has a scent to it?

Also, more info. here:

https://www.pethealthnetwork.com/cat-health/cat-diseases-conditions-a-z/what-bothering-your-cat-it-could-be-feline-allergies



Again, best of luck!