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anne_marie_alb

Convenia for Cat with skin/iching issues

Anne_Marie_Alb
13 years ago

One of our cats (~ 4 years old) has had skin issues since we adopted her-2 years ago. Bad itching all around the head (face, under chin, in and behind ears). No ear mites, no fleas although she was infested when going to the shelter (where she stayed for 8 months). Sometimes she scratches so hard that she creates scabs. We have been trying to get to the source of the problem since we adopted her. It gets a little better for a while, then it comes back.

Also she has a bald area on her belly by the tail since we've had her. As soon as her hair seems to grow back, she licks again!

At the end of December, a self-inflicted wound developed on the inside of her hind leg. The vet cleaned it up, gave her an injection of vetalog and antibiotics for a week. It got better for a while, but reappeared again.

We now have a new vet who has given her 3 injections of convenia (one every 2 weeks). Things are pretty much the same, although no new lesions on the face. We have another follow up visit this Monday.

Questions:

Is it safe to have that many injections of convenia?

Our cat has not had any signs of side effects, but .. considering there is no MARKED improvement, do we need to continue? (our vet says it can take up to 8 weeks to clear..)

What else could it be?

She has had several skin crapes, but nothing.

Food allergy? we tried to switch her diet, but she never went for it--plus not easy with 3 other cats.

On our last visit, new vet took some skin/hair sample to test for fungal problem. We should get the results soon.

By the way, besides this skin issue, she is perfectly happy & healthy!!!

Thanks for any input,

Anne-Marie

Comments (3)

  • mazer415
    13 years ago

    You might try and alternative medicine worker and see what they come up with. Sometimes they can figure out things western medicine misses. She may benefit from acpunture. See if you have a holistic healer in your area who works with cats. Good luck.

  • Meghane
    13 years ago

    Cats can be allergic to many things besides fleas and food. She may be allergic to pollens, molds, fungi, dust mites, or pretty much anything in the environment over which you have little or no control.

    It can take several weeks to heal a deep skin infection. But the problem is that your kitty is still itching, which is making healing at all very difficult. Scratched skin doesn't heal well, and it easily gets reinfected.

    Some things I might try are switching to a non-prescription novel protein diet that all the cats can eat. I personally like Natural Balance foods which are available in most pet stores. Choose a protein source your cat has never had before.

    Keep all the cats on monthly flea control. For allergic cats, you only need 1 flea bite and they end up itching all over with secondary infections again.

    Change all food and water bowls to stainless steel and wash them every day with soap and hot water. Ceramic and especially plastic bowls collect bacteria and molds, creating contact allergies.

    Ask your vet about Allederm Spot On to help rebuild her injured skin. Use according to label directions
    (prescription only).

    Try a skin biopsy to make sure there aren't any other causes for her problem. I've had negative skin scrapes on pets and done a biopsy and the lab has found mites in a couple of cases.

    While immunotherapy seems to work less in cats than in dogs, if all else fails it may be worth going through allergy testing and shots. It worked very well for one of my dogs, but he still needed occasional short term steroids to keep under control, in addition to diet change, ripping all carpet out of the house, and dust mite fabric on his bedding. He was VERY allergic to dust mites.

    Hope this helps, and good luck.

  • Anne_Marie_Alb
    Original Author
    13 years ago

    I am sorry it has taken me so long to thank you Mazer and Meghane for your input--that was almost 2 weeks ago! I apologize.. I was waiting for the results of the fungal culture test.
    A quick update.
    1. Vet agreed that a 4th convenia injection was probably not going to make any difference. She gave me some tresaderm to apply to the hind leg lesion for a week, twice a day. The lesion is 'dry' right now. No hair yet, of course. In the past, when it looked it had healed (hair grown back) she would start picking at it again, re-opening it, so I won't cry 'victory'.. yet.

    2. I mentioned Allerderm (thank you, Meghane) to the vet-at her last visit a week ago, and she did not know anything about it, but said it was worth trying, so she ordered some. It just came in. Might wait to see if leg improvement persists first before applying.

    3. Fungal test just came in.. and it is NEGATIVE.. Great!

    So I am not sure where we'll go from there. The scratching around face is not as bad right now. So I guess it will be wait and see. It's very hard to get her to play these days, so I would not mind a couple of weeks without meds... I still think the scratching around the face (for 2 years now) and the hind leg lesion (6 months ago) are not connected. I think this might have been a spider bite (or flea? all our cats are indoors..yes, I know, that does not mean anything, but we have never seen any signs of fleas on any of them) that she keeps biting on..

    Meghane, all our cats'bowls are either china or glass. After your message, I started rinsing them all with boiling water.. One of our cats always puts his paw in the water bowl so .. I am cleaning these twice a day now..

    Carpet? yes, I have thought about that, too (a big change from the shelter), but we only added some areas rugs 6 months after adoption because their running around was destroying our hard wood floors.. We 've always known her with this issue. That's of course might be our next step..

    Mazer, we do have a holistic vet an hour away (who did treat one of my 'angels'). However, this cat is traumatised by a car ride, so ... Really wished we had a holistic vet here!! All our vets are very, very "conventional" and more tuned in to dogs than cats.. but I like our current one.

    Things are not too bad right now, so hopefully.. they'll stay that way, although I have no great illusions..

    Meghane, thanks for taking the time to answer. Your input is always so appreciated!
    Thanks again,
    Anne-Marie