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Managing allergies in a barn cat

I really know how to pick ‘em, lol!

Making her a house cat is not an option. So far, our vet gives dexamethazome shots every couple of months, but has anyone found a daily treatment that works? This is a young kitty and she is tame, but shoving a pill down her throat isn’t a viable option. This is a barn cat that we cannot afford to do a full allergy panel for either. I would need to give an allergy med in a treat

Check with vet on dosage but my allergy guy got 1/4 to a half tablet of Zyrtec once a day.

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That might be possible with a pill pocket or something. I’ll check with the vet. The farm vet is semi-retired so I asked here before bugging him. Thank you!

Claritin 1/2 to 1/4th tablet.

I would probably do allergy shots even if they are expensive. Really good flea control on all animals on the property.

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If you don’t know what the allergies are to, it’s very hard to treat allergies successfully. If it is fleas, the best thing you can do is either Bravecto, Revolution Plus and/or Seresto flea collar. My barn cat is allergic to fleas (never seen one on her, but she’s gone to a dermatologist and both times it came back as flea allergies and I was told she can have a single flea that causes this). The Seresto collar has been a godsend for us so far and then in the heat of summer she gets selamectin (Frontline or Frontline Plus). Frontline Plus or Bravecto are the best flea/tick treatments and can be used in combination with the Seresto collar per the dermatologist. And it does make a difference over the cheaper over the counter spot ons and flea collars I was trying to use.

I know you said pills aren’t an option, but that’s the only other way to treat allergies (generally) - 1/2 Benadryl or 1/2 to 1/2 Cetirizine (Zyrtec) daily are the options and Cetirizine is easier on them (Benadryl can make them gag and foam for awhile).

Good luck to you and your cat.

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We use Revolution Plus. The allergies get worse in the spring and summer. Our vet thinks it’s seasonal type allergies, which, since we’re in Florida, don’t give her much of a break. She could also be allergic to the hay she sleeps in. She has other beds to choose from, but, she prefers the hay.

Do you know what she is allergic too? If it is possibly a food allergy, then a food trial using a novel protein would be a good thing to try (we used Raine Rabbit for our guy). Our guy ended up not having a food allergy, but rather a seasonal allergy that went away in the winter, but like your girl he is a farm cat.

Using Avon Skin so Soft during mosquito season really helped. We just dab a bit on his forehead every couple days and it does the trick. Mosquito allergies are fairly common in cats and mostly present in their face.

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Thanks for all the tips! I’ll bug our vet about it again. It sounds like there are other options besides dex that aren’t that expensive.

This is a sweet kitty and if we have an opening for housecat, she’s first on the list. A friend from church asked me to take her. The cat, Delilah, was an apartment cat. Everyone in the complex knew her, but she lived in the carport area, mostly. Then, her long hair began to fall out in patches, she was itchy, scratching herself constantly, swollen paws and face that turned scabby. After a neighbor threatened to “stomp on her head” my friend hid her in her bathroom (she had inside cats already) and asked me for help. Suspecting something contagious, we set her up in a crate in the barn until her appointment. She had both scabies and hookworm! We handled her with gloves and quarantined her in the barn for 30 days during her treatment (we had no other outdoor cats but needed a barn kitty). After she got the all clear from the vet, we let her out. The neatest thing was being able to pet her for the first time without gloves on. She crawled right on my lap and curled up.

1/2 a Zyrtec pill helps my allergy cat. She has both food allergies and environmental allergies. The Zyrtec doesn’t make all of her symptoms go away, but it definitely helps and it’s not expensive.

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Has your vet ever talked about sending bloods to an allergy lab? My cat Dylan has bad asthma and is on an inhaler but my vet sent blood off so we could get a breakdown of exactly what he’s allergic to. The lab then put together a vaccine based on his allergies that he has once a month. Apparently he has so many allergies that he has to have two injections, which is unusual.

I have attached part of his report. Anything 2 or above is a bad allergy so I was just feeding him rabbit and venison. We had to stop feeding venison because he caught TB but he still has Purrform raw rabbit and Benyfit Natural rabbit dog food (raw) that I add a Taurine supplement to. He has tuna occasionally if we are eating it ourselves but just a small amount as a treat.

At certain times of year he has his inhaler as well as the vaccinations as recommended by Pet Pharmacy.

The storage mites mentioned on his report are mites that are commonly found on dry cat food.

I hope this helps.

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Dylan is a lucky cat.

I have two kitties that see a vet dermatologist that we are fortunate to have locally. We did a food trial, but neither have food allergies (food trial was to put them on a Raine Rabbit based diet for 6 weeks). They are both allergic to mosquitos: Regular skin so soft dabbed on their noggins every two days helps with that. The one also likely has some seasonal allergies, but we help him cope by using a skin moisturizer (Vaseline). If his allergies get worse we will do the blood work/allergy vaccine, but it is quite expensive, so as long as he is comfortable, we will stick to just managing his symptoms.

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This is timely as a friend has a barn cat that is with 2 others they are considering putting down due to severe itching and I threw out all of these things mentioned here out to her.