Conference misery::feline_v1

    Could be allergies - cats get them, sometimes to their food.
    
    Unfortunately, could be an autoimmune disease.
    
    F

    Why not hop her off to the vet and ask?  Must be unconfortable for
    her if she's really itching all the time.
    

    
    Its not really all the time, but I could at least call the vet
    and ask him what he thinks.
    
                          Thanks
                          Donna
    

    Does she have dandruff??  Maybe a good bath will make her feel better??
     
    cin
    

Tabitha, our siamese, has cronic skin reaction to all kinds of cat food with
dye in it...this is one of her symptoms.  We changed to science diet and
give ONLY that as food and she seems much better..

You may also have a dry skin problem which can be immediately treated with
shampoo, and can be gradually corrected by diet...again we've had luck with
science diet. The shampoo was NOT fun as the instructions said "lather
animal and leave on for 15 minutes and then rinse"...now I ask you, do
you know any cat who will stand for that??  shampoo EVERYWHERE!

However, this CAN be one symptom of thyroid trouble, so if you've
not seen the vet, please do...it CAN be serious.    

    What kind of skin reaction did Tabitha have?  Itching?  Or worse?
    I ask because Sasha, who lives next door, and is a white part
    Siamese (I think), has a skin problem on her neck which was diagnosed
    as eczema from fleas.  She also has a problem on her ears
    from the sun.  It occurs to me that perhaps she has an allergy instead
    of or besides the sun problem.
    
    (Yes, I've suggested that she be an indoor cat.  No luck.)
            
    Does CD have dye in it, does anyone know?  (That's not what Sasha
    eats.)
    

re: -1

Tabby scratched all the time and showed flakes of skin..and she barfed
after eating (not all the time, but OFTEN) ..... so off to the vets.
No fleas, we checked everyone thoroughly, so after approx. $350.00 worth
of tests we learned that she was allergic to dyes used to make cat
food and cat treats look good TO THE OWNERS (kitty can't see the color,
and she operates by smell only).  The vet's recommendation was to
not buy any food that was a pleasant pink, warm brown, or red color
(dyes in the food), and to stay away from supermarket "junk food" entirely.
Our solution was to go to science diet.  

EVERYONE went on a hunger strike (that was 6 years ago and they are all
still here so the strike wasn't serious)..but I simply gave only dry
kibble and kept it available.  After all had expressed their displeasure,
they got hungry and started eating.  When Nick started getting diarrhea
from canned food, we went to only kibble.  All cats have perfect coats,
great bladders, and they are sparkly enough to get into mischief so I'm
a firm believer in Science Diet for cats.

If the cat you mentioned is outdoors, no food change is likely to help - any cat
prone to eczema type reactions is undoubtably allergy-prone and with all the
plant life out there, it will continue to be miserable.  It is sad the
owner doesn't care about the cat's comfort.  I know about allergy-prone
animals, as my Samson is allergy-prone...it means he will react at some
level to any new allergin dropped into his environment....ergo we have no
houseplants.  The only help for him is to keep his environment clean and
don't add new plants or new chemicals unless absolutely necessary.

    RE: .6
    
    I called Hill's Hotline (a toll free number listed in note 666)
    and neither C/D, Science Diet Feline Maintenance nor Science Diet Feline
    Growth contain dye.
    
    Deb