I am desperate for any advice at all anyone can give me......

My two year old cat, Tillie, has a kind of wet excema skin complaint. She only gets it around her head/neck area. She's had it since she was 8 weeks old and it occurs, on average, every three months. She scratches and licks herself until she bleeds. I've had her to the vets on numerous occasions (next app is tomorrow!) and each time she either has a steroid injection or tablets and cream. The only problem is i think she may becoming immune to this now as each time it takes longer for it to clear up!

The only development we've had is that she's recently been in a cattery for 5 days and whilst she was there her problem areas cleared up fantastically well! Within half an hour of been home she scratching and licking again! I'm pulling my hair out now!

She is up to date with her frontline and I do comb her regularly just to double check on the flea front. I've sprayed the whole house from top to bottom with Indorex spray to kill dust mites etc. All with no improvement.

She has the problem at the moment and its the worse its ever been. She is back at the vets tomorro as i've run out of cream but I was hoping somebody may have had something similar or know of something I can try.

Many thanks

Niki xx

find out what they were feeding her at the cattery - maybe she has a food allergy

Yeah sounds like an allergy. Hope you find out what it is. xxx

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Yep, definitely sounds like an allergy - i have a cat with a similar problem but i've never yet identified what causes it.
Food allergies typically cause itching / raw areas around the head and neck.

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I meant to add that you can get specialised testing done to determine the allergen(s), but this is expensive so you might not be able to afford it if the cat isn't insured (I can't!)

If the allergens can be identified, you can then get injections that should help a lot. The treatment is called Artuvetrin (google it for info)

I know someone who'd had this treatment for their cat and it's worked wonders.

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Same as my boy, comes and goes. we haven't found the cause of his allergy but an antihistimine settles it down.

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Thanks for all your replies.

When she was in the cattery we actually took our own food and biscuits so I dont think its a food allergy (which is good news as we've tried her on the sensitive food and she won't touch it!!).

The vets have mentioned a series of tests I can have done but she can't have those yet as she's recently had the steroid injection and apparently it can affect the results. She is insured but as she was treated for this prior to us taking the insurance out then it doesn't cover that particular illness! Typical!

I've had a look round on the net at different things and one thing I've found is 'hot spots'. The info I've found is mainly on dogs but a lot of what I've read sounds like what Tillie has. Has anybody heard of 'hot spots' or have a pet that suffers with it.

I've got home from work tonight and its worse than it was this morning - poor little thing!

You should try a more sensitive food with natural aditives. Do not give milk as this can sometimes be a problem. Any food that is coloured can sometimes be like feeding macdonalds long term

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Grandma to Jinja Dog, Mum to Tilly the cav, Tattycat, Moomy, Choo, Sonic, Lawna the rabbit and 3 guineas,17 budgies, 4 Cockatiels, 4 Goldfish.

allergies can develop at any time - my girl had no problems until she was over a year old, and I hadn't changed her food at all in that time.
Later I stopped feeding any dried food to my cats and hoped that this might help, but it didn't, although she's better at the moment than she's been for a few months. Dried food is often a cause of allergy, due to the wheat/corn content.

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what food do you use? If you are on WHiskas and generic supermarket dried she doesn't necessarily need sensitive fodd but beeter quality. Whiskas etc are packed full of stuff cats aren't able to digest properly. Try her on Hi-life (they have in in tesco's and not that much more expensive than Felix) and a better quality dry if she must have dry. I still give dry even though I don't like it a) becasue we have some left and b) my lad loves it (but it is addictive - I won't be buying any more). From what I hear about raw feeding many cats' and dogs' condition go away when fed a more naturla diet.

If you are already feeding a high quality diet then ignore my ramble and raspberry at me - lol