11/12 Chewie AMPS 394/ +4 258/ PMPS 347/ +3 271

Virginie & Chewie (GA)

Virginie & Chewie (GA)

Member Since 2022
Yesterday

394 at AMPS makes me feel like we are back to the beginning... it's very hard to be patient and give the ear medicine the 6 remaining days it need to solve the ear issue.

If once that's fixed and she is no longer getting the meds (since there's a steroid component) her numbers are still crazy, then we'll eliminate the turkey raw and try a different protein.

In the meantime, should I bump her up to 9 @Wendy&Neko ? I'm worried about such high levels doing damage :(
 
Looking at her SS, I don't think the tresaderm is hurting her numbers. When I did the first round of treatment she stayed in greens and low blues.
Her numbers started rising after I missed that shot from running out of insulin, which also coincided with my feeding the Darwin food again.

First round of tresaderm was 6 days but I think I fudged it up: 1) should have been 7 days and 2) the vet instructions on the bottle are to give once a day, but all instructions I find online are to give TWICE a day, so that's probably why her ears are itchy again. So now we have 6 days out of 7 left of doing it twice a day.

After reading @cecile & bella 's posts about Bella's ears itching as a possible symptoms of food allergy, it makes me wonder... could she have been low grade allergic to that food for years, with the only symptoms being her chin and sebum overproduction causing sebaceous cysts? Could food cause enough inflammation to drive numbers up without any GI symptoms or itching?? Seems so strange and unheard of. But who knows. For all I know she could have acromegaly and a tumor that just randomly decided to get active again.
 
I hope it's "just" allergies :bighug: I might be completely wrong about Bella too, but it seems to happen when she eats foods with fish. She's back on Tiki and raw turkey, we'll see if it gets better. I also tried raw quail last week for the first time, it might explain?
I don't know what to tell you for Chewie's glycemic levels, but I hope you will get answers soon.
 
Since it’s a topical steroid I would think it’s less likely to be driving numbers up so maybe it’s just the fact that the infection been going one awhile since it didnt fully clear? It’s frustrating when vets don’t give good dosing advice!

Food can definitely cause itchy skin and ears. But if her ears clear up from the meds usually I’m not sure if they’re related. It’s possible though that food allergies could cause skin conditions that are more hospitable to fungus. Not sure…

Biggie has a poultry allergy and it causes him to overgroom his belly and lower back fur. He also gnaws on his paws. His ears get hot and darker pink/red.

Are her cysts on her chin or different parts of her body?

I think rabbit or lamb would be a good protein to try. Something totally out of the poultry family which means no duck either. Biggie can’t even have anything with eggs in it.

So many variables, I sympathize with your frustrations!
:bighug::bighug::bighug:
 
I agree re: topical steroid.
One of my other cats is allergic to life, and will scratch the daylight off her face and ears and groom her belly naked if not on hydrolyzed food, and Chewie definitely doesn't have any of these signs.
Her cysts are all over her body, and she started developing new ones in the area where I inject insulin, too. For the pre-diabetes ones, all three vets said "well she just produces a lot of oil so pores are bound to get clogged and this is what happens". When I asked why she would produce so much sebum, they shrugged and I got the "eh, that's just a thing their skin does when they get older". Which is probably true at least in part, all my cats have gotten noticeably more greasy with age. Now that everyone is 15-16, I'm definitely going to have to bathe them a couple of times a year, they can't keep up with the grooming.
For the post-diabetes ones, I know it's a common reaction to insulin injection. Doesn't make them any less creepy!

I already know she doesn't like rabbit (or at least hasn't eaten any form of rabbit she's been exposed to so far), so I guess lamb it is...

Sorry to hear about Biggie's poultry allergy, it's a giant pain in the butt, there's chicken something or other in SO MANY foods!
 
Bella licks her belly raw too. The hair regrows and then she does it again. Our vet put that on stress (she did it for the first time in 2020, when the kids were home, but I'm not sure they were stressing her) or allergies, since it's always in the spring/summer that she does it. I bought some homeopathic drops for cats, for allergies, not sure if that helps but who knows. She also had a seborrheic cyst on her flanc, that grew that same summer of 2020, and that's because of that that she hates going to the vet now, I had to drop her off in the parking lot, somebody grabbed her box and took her inside, and brought her back when they were done. She was so stressed. I think she thought I was abandonning her. We adopted her from the humane society when she was 5 years old, I'm sure she remembers.
 
cecile & bella said:
… parking lot, somebody grabbed her box and took her inside, and brought her back when they were done. She was so stressed. I think she thought I was abandonning her. We adopted her from the humane society when she was 5 years old, I'm sure she remembers.
Click to expand...
I hated to have to leave my cats and not go in with them. Poor Bella! Hopefully those days are over though the trauma remains. She is so lucky to have such a loving mama.
Virginie said:
I agree re: topical steroid.
One of my other cats is allergic to life, and will scratch the daylight off her face and ears and groom her belly naked if not on hydrolyzed food, and Chewie definitely doesn't have any of these signs.
Her cysts are all over her body, and she started developing new ones in the area where I inject insulin, too. For the pre-diabetes ones, all three vets said "well she just produces a lot of oil so pores are bound to get clogged and this is what happens". When I asked why she would produce so much sebum, they shrugged and I got the "eh, that's just a thing their skin does when they get older". Which is probably true at least in part, all my cats have gotten noticeably more greasy with age. Now that everyone is 15-16, I'm definitely going to have to bathe them a couple of times a year, they can't keep up with the grooming.
For the post-diabetes ones, I know it's a common reaction to insulin injection. Doesn't make them any less creepy!

I already know she doesn't like rabbit (or at least hasn't eaten any form of rabbit she's been exposed to so far), so I guess lamb it is...

Sorry to hear about Biggie's poultry allergy, it's a giant pain in the butt, there's chicken something or other in SO MANY foods!
Click to expand...
I suspect he also has a fish allergy but it’s not as bad as the chicken allergy. It’s good you got a few opinions about the cysts - that would be scary to see!
 
cecile & bella said:
Bella licks her belly raw too. The hair regrows and then she does it again. Our vet put that on stress (she did it for the first time in 2020, when the kids were home, but I'm not sure they were stressing her) or allergies, since it's always in the spring/summer that she does it. I bought some homeopathic drops for cats, for allergies, not sure if that helps but who knows. She also had a seborrheic cyst on her flanc, that grew that same summer of 2020, and that's because of that that she hates going to the vet now, I had to drop her off in the parking lot, somebody grabbed her box and took her inside, and brought her back when they were done. She was so stressed. I think she thought I was abandonning her. We adopted her from the humane society when she was 5 years old, I'm sure she remembers.
Click to expand...
Poor Bella - our vet did curbside service only from 2020 to mid-2022, it was so awful. Chewie became much more vet-averse during that time as well :(
 
Lando demando said:
Poor chewie :( it sounds like you and your cats have had a rough time lately. Im so sorry for this. Dont feel like you are starting over. The knowledge, routine and good days are all things that you didnt have before. Keep your spirits up! Chewie will be back in the zone before you know it!
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Thank you Chelsea :bighug: everything seemed to go so well after the big move, they lulled us into a false sense of security… they were just delaying all the drama for extra impact. I joke about it when sanity allows, and cry sometimes when I just can’t take it anymore. I’m sure everyone here is familiar with the feeling… part of what makes this community so precious :bighug:
 
Yeah! Chewie was SAILING through the move! Bodies ( both feline and human) can be so amazingly resilient one moment and fragile the next). Its always tough ( for me at least) to remember that and remember we can only control so much. The crying helps! ;) but be kind to yourself also. Hugs to chewie and your other cat companion!
 
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