TanyaG
Member Since 2016
So I'm feeling really frustrated and upset that after 3 weeks of being off steroids (pred) and working SO hard to try get the skin itch under control we are right back to the beginning again with having to put her back on the pred today
My vet said she believes that the long term steroids is what caused tinkas diabetes in the first place. We have been working hard to get her values more balanced with Lantus and have her on a low carb diet for almost a month now and we weaned her off the pred 3 weeks ago. Basically every time she goes on steroids it clears her skin after a while but then when she comes off the steroids her skin is WAY worse! It's got to the point now that it's no longer intermittent steroids they have suppressed her immune system so badly that she lasted one day before the itching, licking, scratching and biting became bad again! Basically she's become dependent on them and to be on them daily has a lot of side effects like for example it's giving her breathing issues now. Long term pred can drive skin issues into asthma. Not to mention heart issues etc. I want my baby well not more sick! It obv increased her BG as well we saw that directly when we were dosing her before and obv being back in the pred is making remission unlikely. I'm just really so disappointed as I've been trying novel diets for about a year but can't do one protein for more than a month or two as she stops eating the food as she gets sick of it. So in last 3 weeks we tried canned novel then upon new vet recommendation we switched to raw (organic) too which she is really loving raw which is great but chicken I think made her even worse! So we since switched to beef but she's still really bad. She's made multiple wounds on her body even with a cone! One is the size of my hand almost now. We hv to watch her all the time and hv to take cone off when she eats and sit next to her so try let her groom a bit without going crazy but now the itching is incessant I'm cleaning wounds with Collidal silver and calendula salve and she cries when I do it I feel awful. I've been including vitamin c powder and b complex as was told that helps with skin issues as well as some cholorella and was still going to try a new probiotic and digestive enzymes. I even sourced all beef so raw homemade or premade and then beef freeze dried treats. But a protein allergy can apparently stay in blood stream for 6 wks so I hv no idea what's flaring. I rang multiple companies here and the vets to inquire about allergy testing and apparently they only do blood serum which is often false positive for food allergies and to do the food and environmental allergy tests it's crazy expensive which I can't afford. I even saw a homeopathic vet but I'm still waiting for the meds to arrive and he says it'll take along time to see change. In the mean time her wounds are getting to big and itch much worse and uncontrollable even with cone I couldn't leave her to suffer like this so iv had to resort back m to the pred. But she can't live on pred without it causing more disease so I really need to find another solution. It's just disappointing trying so hard to go the more holistic and natural route and having to resort back to the beginning again. Tired of this 7 year skin issues and related health issues. I wish that the vets had supported her immune system from the start rather than suppressing with steroids which has made her skin worse and driven the issue deeper and made her reliant on them. Anyways the search for solutions continues. For now I hope the pred doesn't do more damage till we can treat alternatively. Wasn't sure who else to chat about cat issues so thanks for listening 
My vet said she believes that the long term steroids is what caused tinkas diabetes in the first place. We have been working hard to get her values more balanced with Lantus and have her on a low carb diet for almost a month now and we weaned her off the pred 3 weeks ago. Basically every time she goes on steroids it clears her skin after a while but then when she comes off the steroids her skin is WAY worse! It's got to the point now that it's no longer intermittent steroids they have suppressed her immune system so badly that she lasted one day before the itching, licking, scratching and biting became bad again! Basically she's become dependent on them and to be on them daily has a lot of side effects like for example it's giving her breathing issues now. Long term pred can drive skin issues into asthma. Not to mention heart issues etc. I want my baby well not more sick! It obv increased her BG as well we saw that directly when we were dosing her before and obv being back in the pred is making remission unlikely. I'm just really so disappointed as I've been trying novel diets for about a year but can't do one protein for more than a month or two as she stops eating the food as she gets sick of it. So in last 3 weeks we tried canned novel then upon new vet recommendation we switched to raw (organic) too which she is really loving raw which is great but chicken I think made her even worse! So we since switched to beef but she's still really bad. She's made multiple wounds on her body even with a cone! One is the size of my hand almost now. We hv to watch her all the time and hv to take cone off when she eats and sit next to her so try let her groom a bit without going crazy but now the itching is incessant I'm cleaning wounds with Collidal silver and calendula salve and she cries when I do it I feel awful. I've been including vitamin c powder and b complex as was told that helps with skin issues as well as some cholorella and was still going to try a new probiotic and digestive enzymes. I even sourced all beef so raw homemade or premade and then beef freeze dried treats. But a protein allergy can apparently stay in blood stream for 6 wks so I hv no idea what's flaring. I rang multiple companies here and the vets to inquire about allergy testing and apparently they only do blood serum which is often false positive for food allergies and to do the food and environmental allergy tests it's crazy expensive which I can't afford. I even saw a homeopathic vet but I'm still waiting for the meds to arrive and he says it'll take along time to see change. In the mean time her wounds are getting to big and itch much worse and uncontrollable even with cone I couldn't leave her to suffer like this so iv had to resort back m to the pred. But she can't live on pred without it causing more disease so I really need to find another solution. It's just disappointing trying so hard to go the more holistic and natural route and having to resort back to the beginning again. Tired of this 7 year skin issues and related health issues. I wish that the vets had supported her immune system from the start rather than suppressing with steroids which has made her skin worse and driven the issue deeper and made her reliant on them. Anyways the search for solutions continues. For now I hope the pred doesn't do more damage till we can treat alternatively. Wasn't sure who else to chat about cat issues so thanks for listening 
