Pet Exchange Corner

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Welcome to our regular “Ask the cat Doc With Dr. Lynn Bahr” segment! once a month, Dr. Bahr answers as many of your questions as she can, and you can leave new questions for her in a comment.

Dr. Bahr is a 1991 graduate of the university of Georgia’s college of Veterinary medicine and founder of Dezi & Roo, a company that designs, manufactures, and sells solution-based products that enhance the lives of cats and their owners. She volunteers at numerous animal-related charities and causes and serves on the fear free Advisory Board, the Parliamentarian of the society of Veterinary medical Ethics, the cat committee of the Pet professional Guild, and the alley cat Allies’ Feline forward task Force.

Dr. Bahr is co-author of the upcoming book Indoor Cat: how to Enrich Their Lives and expand Their World, due out in April of 2022 and available for pre-order now.

For more information about Dezi & Roo and their unique and innovative cat toys, please visit Dezi and Roo on Etsy.

Do you have a question for Dr. Bahr?
Leave it in a comment and she’ll answer it in next month’s column!

Itchy skin and hot spots

Dr. Bahr,

Thank you for sharing the news about Coco. You may have given me a clue to Rosie’s skin problems. She is 10 and has been with me since she was 2. (She started life feral and was brought in to the shelter as a TNR when a volunteer was feeding her colony.) She has always had itchy itchy skin. She’s seen 3 vets in the local clinic where we go. The first was sure it was a food allergy. We tried single protein food for cats with allergies. Was not helpful. Vet #2, who is really good and considerate and gave Rosie plenty of time, was convinced it’s a flea bite allergy. I put a Rx topical anti-flea treatment on Rosie monthly. and have also given Captstar if she’s scratching a lot anyway. This summer nothing stopped her scratching. She has a large hotspot from under her chin down her neck front and side. Friday she went to the newest vet in the practice who is especially interested in skin problems.

She got an injection of antibiotic and Rx’s of prednisolone, chews and liquid (because I can’t be sure which she will accept I need choices). Every night I put a mixture of ResQ cream with manuka honey and a liquid prednisolone onto the hotspot. The hotspot is looking better, tho it’s not cleared.

I was given a liquid Atopica, p.o., for her once, but it tastes terrible and she will NOT take it. Does it come in injectable form?

The hardest part of treating and caring for her is that she wants to be outdoors. She sits at the cat flap (locked closed now) and begs me to open it, calling and calling for hours. I don’t expect this to change. I will have to let her out again when the hotspot has healed. I hope and pray she will decide it’s ok again to come in to sleep and eat, as she used to do. but it would be so useful to have an injection I could give her when I do get hold of her. if not Atopica, what else? – Cheri Collins

Hi Cheri,

You have certainly been trying your hardest to help Coco with her skin problem and I commend you for your efforts. Coco is lucky to have you advocating for her.

While I cannot give out medical advice without seeing her, I can make the following suggestions:

If Coco has a flea allergy, then preventing even one flea bite is the best way to control it. That may include applying a prescription flea preventative more frequently (some are safe to apply every 2-3 weeks) than the labeled direction of every 30 days. Ask your veterinarian for the proper recommendation. Treating your yard for fleas will also help. There are beneficial nematodes that you can use as a safe and effective alternative to harsh pesticides.

If fleas are not the root cause of Coco’s scratching, then I would make sure that she has had a full skin workup that would include some basic diagnostics like skin scrapes to look for mites and tests to rule out ringworm. have any of these diagnostics been performed on Coco? If not, I would recommend they be done.

A veterinary dermatologist can perform allergy testing, and this is something you may want to purse if all else fails. knowing what she is specifically allergic to will help with a proper treatment plan and will go a long way in successfully reducing her itchiness.

Unfortunately, Atopica does not come in an injectable form. However, steroids do, and I was wondering how Coco is responding to the ones you are currently giving her. how would you rate her response to therapy? I am a bit confused about the liquid prednisolone she was prescribed. Are you applying it topically or giving it orally?

If her skin condition recurs or fails to completely heal, then I would recommend you get her seen by a veterinary dermatologist. Skin problems are what they are best at solving.  good luck!

Nasal congestion

I have a male cat who is 10 years old and genullnull