Cat Skin Allergy Cures

Some cats are prone to allergies that make their skin itch which, in turn, makes them lick. Excessive licking leads to bald patches and broken, bleeding skin. The obvious solution is to find out what the cat is allergic to and eliminate it, but this can prove difficult. Substances that set off a cat's allergic reaction can also change over time. Here are some remedies for typical cat skin allergies.

  1. Insects

    • A cat may have a severe reaction to flea or mosquito bites. Keeping the cat indoors and away from biting insects would cure the problem. Topical drugs such as Advantage (imidocloprid) and Frontline (fipronil) will help the cat repel insects when exposed.

    Food

    • After eating a certain food for years, cats can suddenly become allergic to the protein in it. Your vet can do skin tests on the cat for various allergens. Or you may try to isolate the offending substance yourself by eliminating certain things from the cat's diet one by one (beef, chicken, seafood) until the absence of something relieves the allergy symptoms. Doing this can take months, because you need to keep the substance out of the cat's diet for up to eight weeks to ensure it has been eliminated from the cat's system.

      Another cure for food allergies is to put the cat on a prescription allergy diet. Such foods are made with proteins not normally found in commercial cat foods, like venison, duck or rabbit, so the cat should have no reaction. If the skin clears up on this diet, you know the problem lies with the regular food, so you can avoid it completely or try the elimination test mentioned earlier.

    Inhalants

    • A cat can itch because it's allergic to inhalants like cigarette smoke. The way to find out is through a skin test. To control the itch, a veterinarian can prescribe corticosteroid injections. The cat can also go on a regimen of omega-3 and omega-5 fatty acid supplements like Derm Caps. Antihistamines are another option. Some familiar brands used on cats are Tavist (clemastine), Chlortrimeton and Zyrtec (cetirizine), but a vet must determine the appropriate dosage. Never give your cat these drugs unsupervised.

    Other Cures

    • An allergic cat can receive a series of desensitizing shots over nine to 12 months, like humans do. But, as in humans, a cat allergy can revert at any time and render the shots useless, or the cat can develop a new allergy.

      For temporary relief, or to determine if the cat has a bona fide allergy rather than an obsessive behavioral problem, the vet may want to administer prednisolone, a glucocorticoid drug. Some cats have no allergies but overgroom out of boredom or stress. In that case, allergy-relief drugs don't help, but the cat may respond to a prescription anti-anxiety or anti-depressant drug such as Elavil (amitriptyline) or Prozac (fluoxetine).