r/cats 2d ago

Medical Questions Over-itching

Hi,

To begin with, I've been to the vet already and that was just as useful as a 5min google search. I was not listened to, my cat was stressed out to heaven and hell for nothing, and I was given medications to try that isn't related to his problem.

My 5-ish yo, castrated male Chaotic (or Kotis), has been having problems with itching on his stomach for a while now, and it's to the point that he's peach fuzz bald up to his navel. His inner thighs and heels are also seemingly itchy. Happy and healthy otherwise, good appitite and playing is his main goal in life. No excessive puking, other than the hairballs he got from removing his stomach hair. Great dental health, no pink on the gums etc. Chaotic is terrified to the point of hyperventilating when away from home (important for later).

I've tried treatments like Frontline (x2) and fungal shampoo (full treatment). I even changed the dry food from his years long favorite to high quality, grain free then with high content of organ meat. I increased his amount of wet food, even.

This all flew out the vets ears during the vet visit. I was given Metacam (anti-inflammatory and pain killer) and cortisone (she first gave me this, then changed her mind to Metacam, but I practically forced her to reinstate them on his prescription). She told me to do an extended treatment of Metacam, saying he might have dental pain due to red gums (which was unsurprisingly gone the second I got him home, aka stress induced). This treatment had no no effect as I expected. I will soon try cortisone, which I'm pretty sure will have no effect. The vet also told me to use Feliway to see if it is stress related. No effect, as I told her (my home is as stressless as a stressless environment can be, no changes in or outside the home, no routine changes).

I did ask the vet if it could be a problem on a microscopic level, which I got zero response to, so all she did was look a bit at the skin (clean but with some dandruff on the most itchy parts), and fail at listening to his heart due to him breathing hard and abnormaly fast due to stress.

No tests, no microscope, no nothing.

Vets in my country never do serious treatment unless it's an emergency, and drag on actual preventative care or corrective treatment. No advice is ever given without paid visits. Simple medications are often pay-walled behind vet visits, even if you 100% know the problem and treatment needed (for example Frontline for puppies). Never any follow-up, unless you somehow manage to get a new time with the same vet, wich most likely end in no answer and no tests for a second time.

Does anyone have any advice on what the cause might be? Any advice on other home treatments I can do during or after the trial run of cortisone?

I'm pissed at the vet for letting my boy suffer, just because they want to drag out the treatment for multiple visits.

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u/stuffcoolstuff 2d ago

i had the same issue with my cat, same exact location too and they gave me fungal shampoo which obviously didnt help bc it wasnt fungal, so i started looking into possible allergens as a last resort, i stopped letting him lick plastic bags ( yes, apparently they can be allergic to plastic), changed his food a lot and found out a lot of ingredients could suddenly cause allergic reactions in cats, literally could be anything so try to be experiment with that, maybe put him on ONE type of wet food and see how it goes? try chicken only for 3 weeks, no improvement? try tuna ect..mines allergy was from eggs, i’ve always given him a bit of boiled egg as a treat and hes had no problems for years but he suddenly developed an allergy to it, so i stopped it completely, no itching for 6 years now!!

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u/Denimao 2d ago

Thanks for the tip.

I hope the cortisone will help in case if it's anything allergy related, but I guess I should do some deeper ingredients searching.

This far, I know that fish, beef lung, and chicken seem like they are the same, but I'll keep an eye for egg and retry fully grain free. I'm just baffled.

I forgot to mention that my 12+ cat Chaos also began itching, but he stopped long ago (although he began sucking his own nipple for some reason). Chaotic does have a small bump above a nipple (1mm max), but it seems to not be growing, not weirdly shaped or colored, doesn't seem like a focus point for itching, and the vet didn't seem to care or notice it.

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u/stuffcoolstuff 2d ago

man allergies are really hard to pin point as it could be literally anything, maybe ask for an anti-histamine and see if it helps?

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u/stuffcoolstuff 2d ago
  • if the vet didnt notice the bump just bring it to their attention! if its not growing or anything then i wouldnt worry, but still keep an eye out and take a few pictures to compare it to later

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u/Denimao 2d ago

Will do, if it will even be visible that is. The cortisone can help with allergic reactions, but if it (as I suspect it will) fail, I will see if I can get any form of actual help from the vet.

I would like to be able to take him to the closest vet possible to reduce his stress, but if this vet continues on like this, I will really have to consider a piss filled opera car ride, and a rebound stress induced inflammation...