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PET VET: Gordo is scratching to distraction

By DR. JEFF KAHLER
McClatchy Newspapers

It is official. We are having a banner year for itchy pets.

I conduct an exhaustive study every year at this time (by counting up the letters I receive that have to do with itchy pets). This year has surpassed all the rest.

Gordo is an example. The 9-year-old feline's itchiness appears to be confined to one area of his body: his head. He has scratched the area in front of both ears to the point of removing all hair and some skin. The top of this indoor cat's head is all scabbed from his scratching and his chin and the underside of his neck are also involved. This condition, according to Tance, has come on fairly rapidly and is driving Gordo and Tance crazy. Tance did share that she practices good flea control and has not found any evidence of the little bloodsuckers anywhere on Gordo.

This is a frustrating case, mostly for the patient. It seems logical that Gordo must be suffering an allergic reaction. There is simply nothing else I can come up with that would cause him to mutilate himself or at least his head area so severely.

I guess I would have to list parasitic mange as a possible cause, but it would be low on my guess list. As veterinarians dealing with feline patients, we have all seen cases such as the one involving Gordo, but unfortunately, the patients do not all have the same problem.

The ultimate key to solving allergy-related disease is to discover exactly to what the patient is allergic. This is a lofty goal and not always possible. In fact, I would guess that more times than not we do not isolate a single cause for an allergic case.

Often, a patient may be allergic to multiple allergens in his environment. These can be inhaled particles such as pollen, molds and dust or food allergies associated with components within the diet. There are even cases where the patient has both a food allergy and an inhaled allergy. Needless to say, these can be very challenging.

Some of these cases offer clues as to what type of allergy might be the culprit and Gordo's case may be one of these.

One of the clues we sometimes can use is the distribution of the pruritic areas. For example, flea allergic patients will often intensely chew and bite at the tail base area. Patients with inhaled allergies might be licking and chewing their feet. With Gordo, his pruritis seems to be entirely facial and in cats this can often be associated with a contact allergy or food allergy.

Cats and dogs, for that matter, can have allergic responses to their food and water bowls. This occurs almost exclusively with bowls made of plastic. Curing these cases can be as simple as switching to bowls made of ceramic or stainless steel. Food allergies are not so simple.

Food allergies are actually somewhat prevalent in our pets. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to isolate what exactly within the food is causing the allergy. These patients do not always manifest with pruritis, but instead can show gastrointestinal signs such as vomiting and/or diarrhea. Sometimes they show all these things.

In cases of suspected food allergies, we place these patients on special diets that do not contain anything that the patient has been exposed to, therefore eliminating the possibility of an allergic response. One of the more difficult components to this diagnostic step - this diet change, if you will - is that we need to commit to six to eight weeks of a single diet - nothing else - until we can say if it is working.

It's easy to understand how tough some of these cases can be. I can tell you without reservation that Gordo is unlikely to improve without help from his veterinarian.

Jeff Kahler is a veterinarian in Modesto. Questions can be submitted to Your Pet in care of LifeStyles, The Modesto Bee, P.O. Box 5256, Modesto 95352.