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Old May 5th, 2006, 01:33 PM
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Coopersmum Coopersmum is offline
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Cat scratching till she bleeds!

Hi there,
I have three rescue kitties. Momma, is about 6, a turkish angora who came to the shelter pregnent. I fostered her and she had her babies and all was fine. Since then, (three years) every now and then she decieds she's wayyyy to pretty and picks an area or two and scratches it untill it is scabby and bloody. A few years ago it was her whole left side of her torso, now, it's her face...eyes/chin/ears. The vet put her on prednezone or whatever, a few years ago, and it helped, but was not a long term solution. She was great for a while there, and then now she's at it again. It seemd to be triggered by our going away for the weekend.
Prednizone makes her fat. Very fat. I would rather not just keep popping her pills, but find out what is really wrong with her. She's still very affectionate and chatty, playful etc.
Has anyone else dealt with this?

Thanks!
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Old May 5th, 2006, 02:00 PM
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jessi76 jessi76 is offline
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What did your vet say? what do they think is the causing the scratching?
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  #3  
Old May 5th, 2006, 04:26 PM
Lucky Rescue Lucky Rescue is offline
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Yes, I have dealt with this. My cat had allergies of unknown cause perhaps combined with immune system problems.

For him, it was either euthanization or prednisone, since I had to choose quality of life vs. quantity. The prednisone killed him, but gave him 3 good years.

What has your vet done to try and find the cause of the itching? My cat had scrapings, biopsies, blood tests etc.
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Old May 5th, 2006, 04:56 PM
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Lise Lise is offline
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Could it maybe be a behavioral problem.One of my old cats used to stop using his litter box and would lick the fur off his tummy when something changed in his life,so we put him on antideppressants before any major changes and he stopped.
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Old May 5th, 2006, 06:10 PM
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cpietra16 cpietra16 is offline
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I am not sure where I read it, but Luba wrote about a change of diet and how it strengthened the immune system. I remember something about sardines??? I'll try to find the thread.
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Old May 11th, 2006, 11:46 AM
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Coopersmum Coopersmum is offline
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Hi there,
Yes, I have heard many bad things about prednizone, and how it can destroy the liver etc. I am hpoinh to find an alternative, as she really hates being pilled as well, and I have to think the stress of that aggrevates the problem. I don't know that boarding her would be be any less upsetting either. The vet did a bunch of tests the first time this came up, and seemd to think it was all psychological, rather than an allergy or something.

I was at the vet last week with a different pet and mentioned it. He said that if she doesn't ease up on it in a week to come in again, as it may have just been the fact that we were away for a couple days. So, she HAS eased up, and is healing, but it seems the scabs are itchy still and I catch her sometimes scratching at them. I hate to think that everytime we leave for a day or two she's that upset! I have been making sure to give her extra cuddles and playtime in the hopes that this may help.

Does this seem to make sense to anyone? Is it a self-destructive way of showing how upset she is when we leave? Her and my one male cat are good friends and groom eachoterh and play and cuddle etc, whereas my older female is more of the loner, but she seems to like it that way. So in our "kitty world" here, she's got lots of lovin too. DO you think it's related to her difficult past? Being booted out pregnant onto the street and so on? Or maybe was always an issue and that's why someone booted her out in the first place? When she came to me she had some marks of this type on her as well.

Any suggestions?
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Old May 11th, 2006, 12:10 PM
Elaine H Elaine H is offline
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Allergies/yeast????

I want everyone to know that this sounds so familar. My two dogs are feeling better, now and I feel it is because of the new way I am feeding them. It is also, I feel because of these products. There is alot of information on what may be going on with your cats.

www.nzymes.com

It is helping my dogs!!! I wish i would have found this site when I had my Akita, who chewed his fur off and had some really nasty sores all over his body. My poor Fugi, after $3000.00 in vet bills we had to have him put down. He was not fixed and we wanted to breed him, but we didn't want te pups to go through this. I should have seen this when we veiwed the mother, but at that time in our lives, had no idea what to look for. The breeder should never have breed his female Akita knowing that she had problems like this. But then it is all about the money to some people.

This was 20 years ago. All the vet could do was give him predisone Shots, he would get better and then it would just come back again and again with no real solution to the problem.
Elaine

Last edited by Elaine H; May 11th, 2006 at 01:05 PM.
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  #8  
Old May 11th, 2006, 12:45 PM
Lucky Rescue Lucky Rescue is offline
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Quote:
The vet did a bunch of tests the first time this came up, and seemd to think it was all psychological, rather than an allergy or something.
From everything you've been saying, it does like it could be a stress related habit, just as some people bite their nails or twirl their hair.

If so, you really might want to try Rescue Remedy. It does seem to help take "the edge off" nervous kitties.
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  #9  
Old May 11th, 2006, 04:03 PM
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chico2 chico2 is offline
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My Chico was really stressed out when we got Vinnie,he chewed all the hair off his tummy.
The vet gave me Variton creme to put on his bare spots and also to keep him from chewing,he never had any sores however,just a bald tummy.
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Old May 11th, 2006, 04:11 PM
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Coopersmum Coopersmum is offline
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Rescue Remedy...yep, got that. Didn't do much for her, although after trying to give it to her directly, she avoided and hated me, so I started putting in thier water...so maybe that's why it didn't work so well,,,it was being spread out over all three cats? Hmmm. I will maybe try putting more in ad see if she continues to improve.
(I started buying the stuff for a foster dog who was/is al little....nibbly shall we say. Didn't do much for him, but seeing as he's newly blind an d just booted from his home of six years, I can't imagine a simple medication would heal his emotional wounds...:sad: )

Thanks for all who have offerd advice!
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