Yeah, me again... let's review: 14 year old cat, on thyroid meds for 4 or 5 months, accidentally changed his food (rather, the manufacturer changed it on us, I think?) maybe a month ago. Since, he's had a UTI (or some sort of infection - he was peeing on the floor), and been on antibiotics, the abx seem to have fixed the peeing issue. He now is itchy. I've been doing some digging and I guess it seems to be miliary dermatitis. He has a couple spots like that and has been scratching a lot.
I recently changed his food from the junk I was feeding him, over to a much higher quality food (don't ask me why I didn't consider reading labels earlier
), so i'm hoping that helps, but now I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to help him with the itching. I'm pretty sure it's not fleas. I haven't seen any evidence of fleas (I looked) and he's an indoor-only cat who has NEVER had fleas in his life, afaik, so I'll be shocked if it's fleas.
I've been doing some digging, and it looks like nutritional issues (like, on this crap food that I ended up stuck with when the manufacturer changed it) can cause both UTIs and miliary dermatitis, but so can stressing the system, which surely abx do to some extent. My guess is that it's related to this. I called the vet and they told me to look for fleas. I'm embarrassed to say we can't afford another vet visit until after christmas
With my family, when we have health issues, we pretty much go with homeopathic, herbal, essential oil or nutritional type remedies as much as possible before we resort to the standard medical model, and i'd like to be able to do that with my cat, as well, but I'm not really sure where to start. My cats have been so healthy all these years that it's really not been something that I've had to look into, I guess. So, I'd love input on how to help my kitty stop itching via non pharmaceutical means, if possible. I don't even know what herbs/EOs are safe for kitties, if any.
Oh, more information... from the time he went on the abx, he's been pretty low key. He jogs from place to place, most of the time, but hasn't been really interested in people or the other cat (they used to play together) or anything, and pretty much sits in one specific spot or gets up to eat, drink, or use the litter box (
that he uses the litter box again!). Yesterday, I saw him grooming the other cat, which I was glad to see, and today he was hanging out with us more (sitting on our laps and in different rooms than the one he was preferring), and also was "making bread" with his paws on our couch, so I assume he's feeling a bit better than he was. Maybe the itching will just go away on it's own?
Anyway, this got long. Thanks for reading and helping me out with my kitty. I just hope I can get him feeling better soon...
I recently changed his food from the junk I was feeding him, over to a much higher quality food (don't ask me why I didn't consider reading labels earlier
), so i'm hoping that helps, but now I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to help him with the itching. I'm pretty sure it's not fleas. I haven't seen any evidence of fleas (I looked) and he's an indoor-only cat who has NEVER had fleas in his life, afaik, so I'll be shocked if it's fleas.I've been doing some digging, and it looks like nutritional issues (like, on this crap food that I ended up stuck with when the manufacturer changed it) can cause both UTIs and miliary dermatitis, but so can stressing the system, which surely abx do to some extent. My guess is that it's related to this. I called the vet and they told me to look for fleas. I'm embarrassed to say we can't afford another vet visit until after christmas
With my family, when we have health issues, we pretty much go with homeopathic, herbal, essential oil or nutritional type remedies as much as possible before we resort to the standard medical model, and i'd like to be able to do that with my cat, as well, but I'm not really sure where to start. My cats have been so healthy all these years that it's really not been something that I've had to look into, I guess. So, I'd love input on how to help my kitty stop itching via non pharmaceutical means, if possible. I don't even know what herbs/EOs are safe for kitties, if any.
Oh, more information... from the time he went on the abx, he's been pretty low key. He jogs from place to place, most of the time, but hasn't been really interested in people or the other cat (they used to play together) or anything, and pretty much sits in one specific spot or gets up to eat, drink, or use the litter box (
that he uses the litter box again!). Yesterday, I saw him grooming the other cat, which I was glad to see, and today he was hanging out with us more (sitting on our laps and in different rooms than the one he was preferring), and also was "making bread" with his paws on our couch, so I assume he's feeling a bit better than he was. Maybe the itching will just go away on it's own?Anyway, this got long. Thanks for reading and helping me out with my kitty. I just hope I can get him feeling better soon...
