? Pink, itchy skin

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Georgiana & Perlutz

Georgiana & Perlutz

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On September 7th we had a routine vet appointment for Perlutz. The previous week I noticed him grooming more than usual and scratching himself and I saw a little pink spot on his back and brought this up during the appointment. The vet said it must be due to fleas and recommended Advantage spot on treatment. I've had a look for fleas before, couldn't see any but of course, they could be hard to spot so I'm not completely running it out. Later that day I saw his belly was pink and noticed a tiny, tiny bit of hair loss on the belly.

I did the fleas spot on treatment a couple of days later and he seemed to groom and scratch himself less but the pinkness hasn't gone and there was considerably more hair loss on the belly. I called the vet who said it could be flea allergy and it should get better in few days.

Two days before I noticed the pinkness, I introduced him to 2 new flavours from the same brand of food he normally eats (he's been on this food for 2 months with no issues) so to rule out a food allergy, I stopped feeding him the new flavours.

Now it's been 10 days and his belly is still pink and he has a bald spot on the side of his belly (I'll add some pictures of it). He's had a similar bald spot in the same area 2 years ago after we were away for a week and someone came in to feed him only. The vet gave him a steroids injection back then, said it could be sue to stress but there's no way they could know for sure what caused it. The hair slowly grew back afterwards.

He is grooming a bit less than before the flea treatment, but definitely more than his usual routine. There's a little spot of dry skin on the inside of his leg, close to his tummy (half centimetre or less). I plan to give the call another call and see what they advice, whether they can recommend something or want to see him but I am searching for a new vet as our current one is not up to par to treat his diabetes and I'm starting to doubt them in general... I'm usually getting much more help here and I thought maybe someone has had something similar with their kitties?
 

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The bad thing about symptoms like this is that there could be so many different things triggering them. If there is an allergy/sensitivity to something, it can present in ways like you have mentioned. I know how crazy this kind of stuff can drive you because I live it with Willow! If the symptoms started after the new foods, you did the right thing stopping those foods. If it was the food, and you stopped it 10 days ago, I would think you would be seeing some improvement (less over-grooming, pinkness getting lighter), but it can take longer than that for things to get completely better. Is he losing clumps of hair or is the hair loss strictly from the over-grooming? If he is uncomfortable, you may want to consider giving him an antihistamine. That will not solve the mystery of what is causing it, but it would provide some relief, if this is allergy-related.
 
FurBabiesMama said:
The bad thing about symptoms like this is that there could be so many different things triggering them. If there is an allergy/sensitivity to something, it can present in ways like you have mentioned. I know how crazy this kind of stuff can drive you because I live it with Willow! If the symptoms started after the new foods, you did the right thing stopping those foods. If it was the food, and you stopped it 10 days ago, I would think you would be seeing some improvement (less over-grooming, pinkness getting lighter), but it can take longer than that for things to get completely better. Is he losing clumps of hair or is the hair loss strictly from the over-grooming? If he is uncomfortable, you may want to consider giving him an antihistamine. That will not solve the mystery of what is causing it, but it would provide some relief, if this is allergy-related.
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I need to catch up on your thread looking for food for Willow! Perlutz also has early CKD and I'm trying to find a good quality, low carb with low phosp. as well and blimey, they don't come often! It's hard as it is without food allergies so I'm hoping it's a flea allergy or mild dermatitis, they sound better than food allergy.

I didn't find more hair around the house than I would normally so I'm guessing the hair loss on his belly must be from over grooming. But the one on the side, I think that's a different cause. It's round-ish whereas on his belly it's just less hair than normal and 2 years ago when he had another bald patch on his side, it was the exact same round-ish shape.

The new food is from the same brand, just a different range, and it doesn't have any ingredients that would ring alarm bells. It wouldn't make sense to cause him a reaction like this, but you never know! I'm thinking to reintroduce it for a couple of days to see if it would make things worse I'm just not sure if that would be a good idea. I definitely don't want to cause him more discomfort but it would be good to find the cause or rule something out. What do you think?
 
I can't think of anything to add to what's already been said, but I do lean towards an allergic reaction and I'm sure you've already gone through all the possible culprits. Surely if it was food causing this, there would be more widespread areas of itchiness?

I too wouldn't put money on it being the food but I think you're right about ruling things out so yes, why not try introducing the food you thought might be to blame, just in small quantities perhaps... see what if anything happens, and if that does seem to generate more symptoms, obviously stop the food and apply whatever topical medication you've been using to the area to help calm it down.

Many of us are on the hunt for the "perfect" food and although I've been feeding NM and CH for a couple of years now, I'd like to mix things up a bit really. I'm always on the look-out for new foods that seem to offer the kind of quality we want to give our kitties... I may have mentioned some to you but I don't think I've sent this:

https://www.trueinstinct.co.uk/ticcf-free-range-chicken

May or may not be worth taking a look and seeing if it suits.

I don't remember you saying that Perlutz has a particularly sensitive tummy, but you could do worse than try the Miamor sensitive (from Zooplus) and add some Felini to increase vitamin/taurine levels etc.

If I think of anything else I'll let you know!
 
make sure it is not demodex mites -- hard to see and they cause intense itching -- cats hate baths, but might be worthwhile to bite the bullet, use blue Dawn hand dishwashing soap, rinse very well
 
Thank you, Diana. I'll check out True Instinct - the name rings a bell, I might have already but will look again.

As for Miamor Sensitive, Perlutz looked offended when I offered it :D Had few tries and then gave up. I think I put it with the other food for June.
 
CandyH & Catcat said:
make sure it is not demodex mites -- hard to see and they cause intense itching -- cats hate baths, but might be worthwhile to bite the bullet, use blue Dawn hand dishwashing soap, rinse very well
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Oh gosh, that looks horrible! I've read a bit about it and it doesn't sound like that could be it (hope so!). As for a bath, he's never had one in his life and I might need to go to A&E after :blackeye:
 
Georgiana & Perlutz said:
Thank you, Diana. I'll check out True Instinct - the name rings a bell, I might have already but will look again.

As for Miamor Sensitive, Perlutz looked offended when I offered it :D Had few tries and then gave up. I think I put it with the other food for June.
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Oh dear! Sorry about that! I did give it to Saff for a while and she liked it until she got bored with it...
Have a good look around the Zooplus site though and also look at Elizabeth's UK food list in case there's something there you haven't tried?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1J5JpMe6TDXrHq_aTl9hUtHy6Gs9oRBqlz4nPGKxtySA/pubhtml
 
This is just my two cents, so feel free to ignore it, but I would not re-introduce the new foods. You just stopped them 10 days ago, and you cannot really be sure yet if they were the problem or not, so why bring them back into the equation? It can take awhile for allergy (or probably more accurately 'sensitivity') symptoms to appear and to disappear. I know that a vet had my sister change foods (proteins) for a period of at least a month, it might have been two, before evaluating whether it addressed the issues her cat had been having.

As far as whether the symptoms would be more wide-spread if it was food-related - not necessarily. For example, years ago, Willow's hair started thinning out on just her back legs and tail. It was somewhat gradual, so it was not obvious at first, but it became clear something was up. Turns out that she had an issue with turkey. Once I stopped feeding her turkey, the hair began to fill back in (then I realized just how thin it had actually gotten in those areas and felt bad for not realizing the issue sooner).

Can you think of ANYTHING else you have introduced or changed in the last couple of months.. cleaners, laundry detergent, hand lotion, anything? The really fun part about this is (said with complete sarcasm), it does not necessarily have to be something new. They can always develop sensitivities to things that never bothered them before. o_O
 
FurBabiesMama said:
This is just my two cents, so feel free to ignore it, but I would not re-introduce the new foods. You just stopped them 10 days ago, and you cannot really be sure yet if they were the problem or not, so why bring them back into the equation? It can take awhile for allergy (or probably more accurately 'sensitivity') symptoms to appear and to disappear. I know that a vet had my sister change foods (proteins) for a period of at least a month, it might have been two, before evaluating whether it addressed the issues her cat had been having.

As far as whether the symptoms would be more wide-spread if it was food-related - not necessarily. For example, years ago, Willow's hair started thinning out on just her back legs and tail. It was somewhat gradual, so it was not obvious at first, but it became clear something was up. Turns out that she had an issue with turkey. Once I stopped feeding her turkey, the hair began to fill back in (then I realized just how thin it had actually gotten in those areas and felt bad for not realizing the issue sooner).

Can you think of ANYTHING else you have introduced or changed in the last couple of months.. cleaners, laundry detergent, hand lotion, anything? The really fun part about this is (said with complete sarcasm), it does not necessarily have to be something new. They can always develop sensitivities to things that never bothered them before. o_O
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I will actually have to change his diet a little bit :facepalm: Out food delivery has been delayed for some reason until next Tuesday (Nature’s Menu doesn’t give you an option to pay for next day delivery for example, they give out certain dates when delivery is available so I can’t do anything about that) and we are running low on sachets I can give him so I will run to the pet store tomorrow and get him some Applaws (which he is well accustomed to, it’s not a new food).

I can’t think of anything that’s been changed in terms of household cleaning stuff, I use the same things for years. I’m very particular with what creams, lotions etc. I use for myself and no changes there either and I’m rarely ever using hand cream at home as I’m very conscious about touching him with anything he might lick off his fur. I even stopped using diffusers, plug in room perfumes and even candles are a rarity since I found out all of them can be harmful for cats (waaaay before the skin issue).His litter is always silica, 90% of the times from the same brand, unscented, but his bum is still as fluffy as ever so I don’t suspect the litter to be an issue ;)

The biggest change in the last 2 months was the food. End of June/beginning of July I started feeding him Country Hunter by Nature’s Menu. I changed it because it’s better quality, lower in phosphorus and most importantly, he was getting fed up with most of the other foods (he loves something for weeks/months then looses interest). He loved the food, all 4 flavours and then recently I got 2 new ones from a different range. I thought if it’s food, it will be from the new ones as he’s been doing just fine on the others for 2 months. But now that you’ve mentioned Willow’s sensitivity to turkey, it just made me think. Last 2 months he’s been eating turkey and rabbit, chicken and goose, duck and pheasant and free range chicken. Apart from the chicken, the others are not flavours he’s had regularly before. What if it’s one of these having a delayed effect? :banghead::banghead: With a fussy cat in need of a good food with certain requirements and a month’s supply on the way, if that’s the case, I’m screwed! And I don’t even know how to find out for sure!

@Diana&Tom remember you praised me for my positive post the other day? Well I’ve changed my mind, I might start yanking my hair out in the end :D
 
Ref the delayed food, Georgiana - sounds like you order direct from NM? - I use Fetch and I have to say they're very good, they offer next-day courier delivery for free if you spend £29. They stock all the varieties of NM, CH, Applaws and loads more. So you could order tomorrow and get some food by Fri if you wanted to... www.fetch.co.uk

You mention the different varieties of CH and it could be that there's something in one of them that's causing the problem I guess. I too bought the variety packs of CH for a short while but some of them disagreed with Saff so I decided to stick with just the free range chicken ones, plus chicken/turkey NM and fish NM. All seem fine. I've never fed beef or lamb as I kind of think these aren't what cats would eat naturally.

If you decide not to feed the more unusual varieties, you could always ask NM to exchange them. Fetch does so happily.

Anyways - you'll get there. Just another little challenge as part of the Feline Diabetes degree programme to get your head around :)
 
Still on the topic of food... what about trying a non-commercial diet for a while and see how he goes on that? It's easy enough to store and poach small chicken breasts, cut them into pieces or shred them and add some of the cooking broth. You would need to add some Felini though to make it a complete food.

https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/supplements_specialty_cat_food/vitamins/155860

I think we have mentioned this before and you may or may not have considered it, but maybe not in the context of feeding to avoid possible allergies?
 
Morning Diana :) I didn't get a notification for these messages... Thank you for letting me know about Fetch, I haven't used them before. I won't place an order for now. My sister will try some pet shops in the area for some CH. If not, I will give him some Appllaws, I think he'll be delighted, and then Saturday morning I can go further in the area for CH until Tuesday.

I thought about getting some free range organic chicken for him and I have Fellini as well, just no idea how to dose it yet (instructions came in German, gotta get Google translate up for that one:p)

I should have the book tomorrow, my evening lecture sorted!
 
Sure.... Fetch is a good back-up though if you do need to order another time, and they sell other stuff like certain meds and litter as well.

Can't help with the Felini I'm afraid but the instructions might be on the Zooplus website, if not just ask Mr Google.

Have you really ordered the book... ? Will be interested to see what you think of it :)
 
Georgiana & Perlutz said:
If only! Our W’se doesn’t stock NM :(
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That's a shame aa I don't think any of the other supermarkets stock it. I wish there was a better choice of cat food in our supermarkets - relying on online is fine except when we forget to order and there's only two pouches left in the cupboard!
Fetch is pretty good though and cheaper I think than the NM site itself.
 
Diana&Tom said:
That's a shame aa I don't think any of the other supermarkets stock it. I wish there was a better choice of cat food in our supermarkets - relying on online is fine except when we forget to order and there's only two pouches left in the cupboard!
Fetch is pretty good though and cheaper I think than the NM site itself.
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I don’t think there’s anything I could feed Perlutz from the supermarkets in our area, even Applaws is only stocked at the pet store.

Funny thing I noticed about NM is that every other website seems to sell their food cheaper than themselves :confused: I bought it cheaper from VetUK, PetsAtHome and saw VioVet has it cheaper too. But I had 20% off from NM so went with them.

Do you know which courier company delivers orders from Fetch?
 
Yes, supermarkets mainly sell the cheaper stuff which I suppose is what most of their customers want. You can find CH in bigger Waitrose, and some other stores sell little tins of Encore (same company as Applaws) which are basically shredded chicken in broth so only a complementary food. I do add some of this to Saff's food though to improve hydration and because it's a different texture to the NM/CH.

The best supermarket food I've found is Sainsbury's Delicious - really not bad at all, you might like to give it a go sometime!

https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/shop/gb/groceries/sainsburys-tdc-chicken-collection-6x85g

Otherwise yes, it's online shopping and prices do vary. Fetch seems to have permanent offers on some things (most recent purchase was 2 x NM boxes of 12 and 3 x CH boxes of 6) which was almost exactly £29. I think the courier is DPD which I like because they give you one-hour delivery slots and you can track your package online so you see within a minute when it's going to arrive!
 
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