This page best viewed with

A Book By CM. Click To Get A Copy

OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets
Created by OnePlusYou

No Rights Reserved. Take Anything You Want, But If You Steal Any Text Link To Here.

Send Your Hate Mail To

........

Greed:High
 
Gluttony:High
 
Wrath:Low
 
Sloth:Very High
 
Envy:Low
 
Lust:High
 
Pride:High
 

Take the Seven Deadly Sins Quiz

King Gambrinus - Patron Saint of beer.

Friday, April 03, 2009

Itchy Skipper

This is going to be a Skipper intensive post.

As yoi may recall, Skipper is the newest cat to take up residence here. He also likes to get on your shoulder. Once he is on your shoulder, he just hangs out as you meander about the place. Sometimes he gets up there because he wants to be fed, sometimes he just wants to hang out.

And he is also having some sort of problem. Here is what Skipper currently loosk like.

Notice the large area devoid of fur. This is the problem. The missing fur is from excessive licking and scratching.

Or so I think. The primary vet thinks it is an allergy. It started out as little spots around his neck, which looked a lot like flea allergy. I have had to deal with that before. So I got the flea-be-gone stuff and got rid of the fleas. It is really easy to do now. That once a month flea-be-gone stuff works very well.

But the itching did not stop. It got worse.

So then the theory shifted to food allergies. I ordered some special (meaning expensive) cat food that is supposed to be free of anything that causes allergic reactions in cats. It is something like $40 a bag.

Skipper does not eat a lot, which is good. The bag lasts a long time. But the other cats still eat the same food Skipper is suspected of being allergic to. Skipper gets into it sometimes.

And it may not be a food allergy.

In fact, it may not be an allergy at all!!

Seeking a second opinion, Skipper went to see a different vet. There was some other possible cause the second vet mentioned, something about an internal organ problem. So there was a blood test.

The blood test came back good. No problems were detected.

Skipper goes back to the second vet today for a skin biopsy. The skin test will rule out any non-allergy related explanation. I think.

Screw national health care. What I need at this point is national VET care.

5 Comments:

Blogger Daisy said...

Allergic responses are so hard to deal with! We're still struggling with Harley's eosinophilic granuloma complex. Something that has helped us is chlorphineramine maleate (it's the same as Chlor-Trimeton). He gets 2 mg twice a day, along with a squirt of essential fatty acids (3V caps). The fatty acid is an oil that is mixed into his food in the morning. Somehow, the allergy medicine and the fatty acid supplement "synergize" and work better together. Maybe you could ask your vet about allergy pills. It was only about $5 for a bottle of 100 tablets.

09:23  
Blogger Unknown said...

I think Daisy's onto something with the fatty acid supplement too. I'd check with the vet but I don't foresee any reason why the same fatty acid supplements that people get in the health food store couldn't be used for a cat. Especially the fish oils. Poor Skipper. I really feel for him. P.E. was flaky, but there was never anything to this degree.

15:31  
Blogger Unknown said...

I thought of another thing--you might ask the vet to check him for a thyroid problem. I know that sounds crazy but thyroid problems can be linked to skin problems.

15:32  
Blogger The Lazy Iguana said...

Daisy - yes they are. I had a female orange cat that had a flea allergy, but that was easy to deal with. Skipper's mystery allergy is more perplexing.

Lily - the blood test did check for organ functions. That came back normal. Skipper's glands and organs seem to be functioning normally. Except for the nuts, which were removed.

01:16  
Blogger Jandi for The Fuzz said...

Mr. Bigglesworth ?

19:05  

Post a Comment

<< Home