Cat Food Quandary

[Kookaburra]

Please help. My kitty is losing her hair -- mostly from her butt and belly, but a little on her face too. The vet said it's an allergy (to what? don't know), and suggested giving her cortisone shots. They worked at first but not so much anymore. I feed her Eukanuba Lite chicken flavor. Is there a cat food out there that is helpful in clearing up allergic reactions/skin problems? My vet hasn't been very helpful in that arena, and the poor little sweetie looks awful.

Thanks in advance.

[Jack_Dawson]

1. Prescription Diet

Not sure about hair loss, but it's great food overall. Ask your vet.

[Kookaburra]

2. Thanks, I will.

Don't know why he didn't recommend this to begin with.

[catzies]

3. Yeah, but not that particular one. My daughter's a vet tech and she

prescribes what our pets eat, and one of my cats is on r/d (reduced diet).

Original poster: Science Diet has many different prescrptions based on need, just ask your vet.

[yellowdogintexas]

4. Hills. Prescription diet has a sensitive skin formula

now, you might want to try it. You can find it at Petco, PetSmart, many vets and also some feed stores. Best prices at Petco though. Any Hill's product is good.


my Siamese does this, and he has a flea allergy.
Cats w/flea allergy tend to be extremely meticulous in their grooming and you will not SEE fleas on them, but they are always gnawing and scratching them.

Tommy has lost all the hair at the base of his tail,up his lower back, more than once.

My vet prescribes oral Chlorpheniramine for him. He just had an infection develop in his ear, probably from the scratching, so he is on antibiotics and the allergy med.

What helped the most was Advantage on all the cats. I was late getting the most recent dose on the boys, now Tommy has all these wounds he gave himself and I have to let him heal before I give him Advantage again.

[Kookaburra]

6. Fleas was the first diagnosis

The vet thought there might be fleas, even though we could never find evidence of them, so we have her on revolution flea drops to get rid of any that might be lurking about.

I'll check into that sensitive skin diet -- thanks for the suggestion. I'm a little confused as to why our vet didn't say anything about this. He really is a very good vet.

[murphymom]

5. Don't know if this would help,

but earlier this year our cat was losing some hair on her tail and rear end. I treated her for fleas and she's back to being a big furball again.

We used to have a dog that had a fleabite allergy and she would just chew her rear end raw. We were living in California at the time (where fleas are usually a problem year round because of the mild weather) and the one time she really cleared up was during a winter when we had a hard freeze that killed off the little buggers.

[Kali]

7. Get and read this book:

Dr. Pitcairn's Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats.

Changed my views on pet food completely. Most allergies are FOOD all ergies. Try this guy's basic diet for a month and see what happens. You will be amazed. No more skin, eye, ear problems.

Here is the basic Cat recipe, but GET THE BOOK and READ IT. (lots more recipes)

2 cups water
1/2 cup of GRAIN (polenta, rice, oat, or mixed human cereal)
1 TBS oil or butter
1 egg
1 lb of fresh meat (2 cups ground turkey, lamb, chicken, beef)
2 TBS Health Powder*
scant tsp egg shell (dried, baked at 300 degrees for 10 minutes and ground)
5,000 IU vitamin A (cod liver oil - don't get it on you it stinks)
(tsp of grated fresh veg - carrot, spinach whatever)

Boil water, cook cereal - while still hot stir in egg and meat so it gets heated but not cooked to death add rest except fresh veg. This will keep in fridge for a few days - and is about 3 or 4 servings. Add the fresh veg when feeding. May take a few days for cat to eat it. The book explains about animal fasting. This does NOT hurt the pet. Predators in the wild often go days without eating. again read this book you may even change your own diet!

*Healthy Powder

2 cups nutritional (torula) yeast
1 cup lecithin granules
1/4 cup kelp powder
1/4 cup bonemeal (or 9,000 mg calcium, or 5 teaspoons ground eggshell)
1,000 mgs vit c (grind up a regular vitamin or two)

[Kookaburra]

8. Thank you

I will definitely check out this book.