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Allergies Health

Environmental Allergies in Cats: Medicines & Treatment

Discover how to develop a treatment plan for a cat struggling with allergies.

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.

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.

Look! It’s a bear on a shelf.

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

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.

Other Cat Studies

Cat Study: Vito & GI Disease + Arthritis

Cat Study: Anxiety & Aggression

By LizsKittyBootCamp

Hi, I'm Liz, and I'm a cat behaviorist who provides advice and insights on cat behavior.

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