One of the most frequent questions I get and judgement I receive is around medicating my resident and foster cats. This is post, we’ll break down how to treat cats struggling with environmental allergies. Just like with people, diagnosis and and developing a treatment plan are the hardest parts. Maintenance is easy.
Cat Study: Ava
Medicine: Prednisolone (as needed), Zyrtec Daily
If you have allergies, you know when they flare up, you’d do ANYTHING to get relief. When an animal is itchy, it’s VERY important to get them comfortable, otherwise, they will self-harm until they have an open wound, which leads to infection, which leads to sepsis, which leads to the Rainbow Bridge.
My former foster Ava Bear not only looks like an actual bear, but she has environmental allergies. Left untreated, she will scratch a hole in her neck. And that’s not an exaggeration: She came to me with an open, infected wound on her neck from self-harming.
Wound the first day I met Ava, which was the result of self-harming. Allergies often present as itchy patches of skin on the neck area. 
Healed neck in mid-June, after being on the Prednisolone daily for a few weeks. Redness is also gone. 
Before and after pred – the redness was gone within 4 days.
I had tried an oatmeal/baking soda spray on her at one point, and it really did not help. It may have worked in another cat or a dog, but it just didn’t help Ava. I tried various different foods, but her itchiness always returned.
The treatement that worked? Prednisolone (steroid) for about a month, long enough for her red skin to go away and her neck wound to completely heal. One we achieved those goals, I slowly tapered to a half a Prednisolone a day, then switched over to half a Zyrtec 1x a day, which she’s still on. (Although she may need the steroid again if she has a flare up.) She has since been adopted and is doing great.
My Kitty Has Allergies Shopping List
- HealthA2Z Allergy Relief, Cetirizine HCL 10mg – Generic Zyretc for environmental allergies.
- Redonyl Feline Ultra – Sprinkle this powder on your cat’s food and it will help support the skin, protecting it from allergens. Although Ava didn’t use this because I didn’t know about it at the time I had another foster, Gizmo, who it worked for.
- Royal Canin Ultamino® Dry Cat Food – Reduces impact of food-related allergies. You’ll need a prescription from your vet to buy this food.
Stay Tuned …
Up next, we’ll look at a kitty with some major aggression issues. When animals are abused and neglected at crucial times during their development, their brain can mature and have some abnormal features. Making Lucy as relax and happy as possible takes a lot of work + traditional medicine + nontraditional medicine, but we’ve got a good handle of it now.
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