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It's
springtime! Love is in the air, and so is pollen.
That's
right, it's allergy season. Have you started sneezing
yet? If not, don't worry, it's coming. It's coming for
our pets, too, in the form of itching. This does not
mean all itchy pets in the spring have inhaled
allergies.
Inhaled
allergies most often do manifest with pruritis or
itchiness, especially in dogs. Cats do not usually show
pruritis with inhaled allergies, which then begs the
question, why is Tortuga scratching?
Tortuga
is a 4-year-old male house cat who has recently been
scratching and biting himself. When Cassandra pets
Tortuga, she can feel scablike lesions along his back.
Cassandra believes some kind of allergy is causing the
lesions and points to the pollen in the trees in her
yard.
Tortuga
has miliary dermatitis, which most often is associated
with an allergy to fleas. Cats will actually chew and
scratch themselves to the point of traumatizing the skin
and causing scablike lesions.
We often
do not see fleas on these cats because even one bite can
set off a reaction. The saliva from the flea bite gets
into the bloodstream and starts a chain reaction that
leads to extreme pruritis. This can occur anywhere on
the body regardless of the location of the bite because
the reaction is within the body and not just at the
local bite zone. The second reason we seldom find fleas
on these cats is because of their incessant grooming
habits.
Cats with
flea allergies need fastidious flea control. Many of
these cases can be managed with topical flea prevention,
such as
Frontline
, but some need to be given an oral product as well. I
like to use Capstar, which when given orally, kills all
the fleas on the cat with no residual effect.
The
pruritis these cats deal with is very uncomfortable and
needs to be relieved while the underlying problem, the
fleas, are controlled. A corticosteroid, either a
long-acting injection or one given orally over time,
will relieve the severe pruritis while the flea control
program kicks in.
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