All About Cat Allergies with Green Valley Veterinary Care
What are the common signs and symptoms of allergies in cats?
Cats are interesting because they can present with allergies in two different forms. One could be respiratory in the form of feline asthma. So, a coughing cat can easily have environmental allergies, but they can also hold it in their skin. So when they have allergies and their skin is infected, they can have a crusting dermatitis or scabbing all over their body, especially in their ears. It's really itchy ears.
What are the most common allergens that affect cats?
When we talk about allergens in cats, we talk about flea allergies. So, cats that are allergic to flea spit, environmental allergies, meaning cats that are allergic to pollens that are in our environment, just like us, and also food allergies.
How can I determine if my cat has allergies?
Determining if your cat has allergies is really difficult because we have to figure out why your cat is itching in the first place. So, if it's flea allergies or if there's a skin infection or if there's food sensitivities, there are ways that we work out if your cat is truly having allergies. But it's more of a ruling out of other sources of itching for your cat first. And then lastly, we have blood tests. So, if we do heavily think that your cat has allergies, we can take their blood, send it to the lab to figure out what their allergens are in terms of the environment.
Can cats develop allergies to their food, and how can I identify it?
Food allergies are not very common in cats, but when they do happen, we can get gastrointestinal symptoms like vomiting and diarrhea. But a lot of cats with food allergies are interesting because they hold a lot of it in their face. So we call it facial pruritus or facial itching. They'll get scabbing along their cheeks, they get scabbing in front of their ears, and they get chronic ear infections. And that's a sign of food allergies in cats.
How are cat allergies treated?
Cat allergies, I mean, some people will refer to it as an allergy shot for cats, but sometimes we give cats an injection of steroids to get their skin more comfortable. Prednisolone or steroids for cats can be very helpful when they're really itchy. Sometimes we'll use medications like cat allergy meds like Apoquel, even though we consider it off-label use because it's used for dogs. And then the gold standard for treating cat allergies is actually testing and then immunizing or using cat shots or cat immunizations to try and desensitize your cat from what they're allergic to. So, there are various forms of treatment. The gold standard is testing and desensitization.
If you have questions, we would love to answer them for you. Please give us a call at the office at (937) 358-8142, or you can email us at [email protected]. Our staff would love to talk with you!
Don't forget to follow us on social media Facebook, Instagram.