Anybody familiar with feline miliary skin disease and UTI

[nomaco-10]

I know it could be caused by an allergic reaction to flea bites, diet or hormone deficiency. I've ruled out flea bites and it's too soon to tell if it's diet (changed her diet about 10 days ago) and she started hormone treatment about a week ago.

My question is what kind of dietary supplement should I add to her food? I was told to prick a cap of vitamin E and put it on her moist food, but then I read to get some kind of cold water fish oil pill instead. Any suggestions?

Next inquiry; cat has had several UTIs in the last year, I have changed her diet, and that has made a huge difference, but I was wondering if there was anything I could feed her for an occasional treat. I was told no tuna, but I read chicken livers were ok. Not sure if that is a good idea or not.

She curently eats Friskies tender bites dinner and her dry food is Purina ONE Urinary Tract Health Formula (she doesn't like it much either).

Appreciate any tips and advice from anyone that's dealt with any of these problems with their cats.

[Philostopher]

1. Been through the dermatitis thing.

There's a veterinary fish oil capsule called 'Derm Caps,' but don't waste your money on it if it's more expensive than human fish oil -- it's the same, at least according to my vet, as what you get in human-grade fish oil capsules. It's the Omega-3 fatty acid that they need, and there's plenty of that in any good food grade fish oil tablet.

You just prick it with a pin and squirt it into the cat's mouth, or into the wet food. It makes the dry food greasy, my cat that we were trying to treat with it didn't like that.

[nomaco-10]

2. Appreciate the info...

Vet tried to sell me a bag of UTI food that was $21.00 for an 8 lb. bag, got this Purina UTI food for $7.00 for 8 lbs. at the grocery store. Since it's a lifelong diet for my cat, there was no way.
I'll just go to the pharmacy (I was gonna say Walmart, but I don't dare say that name around here lol) and get a bottle of the fish oil pills there. I wrote down the omega-3 fatty acid thing, so I'll be sure to remember to ask for that when I go tomorrow. THANKS

[Gogi]

3. My sister's Himalayan has scabs all over her.

She gets these periodically. Do you think fish oil would help?

[Philostopher]

7. I don't know -- generally vets recommend the fish oil

After they've diagnosed something (or, as in our case, failed to) and determined that your cat has some chronic condition that has to do with the skin.

Scabbiness can, as the original poster noted, be caused by any number of things. If you don't already know what's wrong, try the vet first. That kind of stuff is often caused by allergies, but cats can develop all kinds of allergies -- contact dermatitis, food allergies, inhalant allergies -- most of which show up as itchy skin.

Fish oil will likely improve the skin condition anyway, but if you haven't already had a diagnosis, you might want to get one. Vets often will give a steroid shot that will clear up something that only happens periodically -- if my cat gets itchy or starts picking at herself, I take her in to get one, but she hates to go to the vet and it stresses her so much it's worse, if she's not suffering, to take her.

Edit -- sorry, missed that it's your sister's cat not yours!

[scarlet_owl]

4. Our kitty gets scabby in the fall

and we bathed her with this stuff called Epi-Soothe. It seemed to work okay, but giving a cat a bath-well, you know. We finally just took her in for a cortisone shot, and that took care of it. Some years are worse than others for her skin, so I think it's something in the air. I would try the vitamin E thing. As for the UTI problems, try a low-ash food. Good luck to you!

[Gogi]

5. Thanks

I'll tell her about epi-soothe but giving Pearl a bath would be a challenge! I have a Drs. Foster and Smith catalog sells 'Itch Stop' which is .05% hydrocortisone. perhaps I'll buy that for Pearl for Christmas!

[amandae]

6. We had a cat that had FUD ...

Feline Urinary Disorder ... not sure if my info will help or not ... but we didn't find out he had it until after we had shipped him off to live with my sister-in-law**. She had to give him a different dry food and make sure he ate canned food in addition to his hard food everyday. Apparently that keeps their urinary tract healthier.

:hi:

**I realize this sounds kind of cruel, so please let me explain ... We had to give him to SIL because after we got him home from the shelter we adopted him from (and cured him of the serious illness the shelter told us he had fully recovered from) his real personality came out and we discovered he wasn't the sweet kitty we adopted ... he was cuddly and subtle because he was sick. Instead he started attacking my children, including all out attacks on their necks (drawing blood). After working with the vet to try to get his behavior to change we had to accept that he wasn't good with kids. Now he's with SIL, around two other cats that he loves and doesn't attack anyone like he used to attack my small kiddos.