Symptoms and treatment of allergic skin diseases in cats

A relatively common skin disease in cats is allergic skin disease. When we see a cat constantly scratching its skin with its claws while playing with it, we should think about the possibility of the cat having a skin disease. You can lift the cat’s fur and then you will find a lot of red rashes on top of the cat’s skin, which basically diagnoses that the cat has an allergic skin disease. Flea allergy, food allergy, atopic dermatitis, pyoderma gangrenosum, and Malassezia dermatitis. Itching but not allergy is rarely possible in cats with: symmetrical hair loss, cornual dermatitis, eosinophilia, abdominal lesions; facial and skin eruptions and ulcers are more likely. Symptom 1. Flea allergy Flea allergy: the most common allergic dermatitis, similar in pathogenesis to that of dogs, immediate, delayed and basophilic hypersensitivity of the skin. There are often other concomitant allergies: food allergy, atopic dermatitis allergy. Clinical signs: manifestation of corn-like crusts with hair loss on the back, neck, abdomen or whole body, scaling, pruritus, eosinophilic granulomas (plaque granuloma lip ulcer), symmetrical hairlessness in cats, lymphadenopathy, hairballs. Diagnosis: history and clinical examination, flea or flea feces found (rare), cat removes fleas well, positive intradermal flea antigen test, good in vitro HeskaFcR- and IDT consistency of tissue and peripheral eosinophilia, response to flea control treatment. Flea control: drug use (polymyxin, furosemide, selamectin, fipronil, glucocorticoids), environmental control (irregular cleanup, control of other wildlife in the environment: possums, raccoons, hedgehogs, etc.). 2. Food allergy Food allergy: or more precisely food side effects, response to glucocorticoid and cyclosporine treatment is controversial. Many ingredients have been reported to cause food allergy in cats, including dairy products, fish, beef, pork, chicken, rabbit, horse meat, lamb, eggs, clam, chowder, cod liver oil, and benzoic acid. Clinical manifestations: scaling, crusting, epidermal peeling, abdomen in and around the head, peri-ear and ear areas. Urticaria, angioedema and otitis externa have also been reported, and in some cases gastrointestinal disorders. Diagnosis: A commercial restricted-ingredient food or hydrolyzed diet (Royal [rabbit, duck and venison], Hills dd [rabbit and potato], cat hypoallergenic dry food, Royal DR25-hydrolyzed soy, and provocation tests are optimal for diagnosis. Treatment: Adherence to commercial food with restrictive ingredients, balanced homemade diet, Elizabethan ring at the beginning, treatment of secondary pyoderma, consider short-term hormones, cyclosporine. 3. Atopic dermatitis Atopic dermatitis: (AD) is more commonly recognized in cats as “Catopy”, better history investigation, clinical Better history investigation, clinical examination and exclusion of other differential diagnoses combined with appropriate diagnostic tests are also generally more strongly recognized among specialists and veterinarians for the presence of the disease, type I IgE response plus other mechanisms. The incidence varies and has been reported in some studies to be as high as 73% of all allergic cats, or second only to flea allergy, and there may be a genetic predisposition here, as some families have a higher incidence, but no specific gene has been identified. In cats there are seasonal and non-seasonal allergies, and a study of 66 cats with atopic dermatitis found that of these: 50% had fleas, 58% were non-seasonal, 39% were both seasonal and non-seasonal, 5% were allergic to pollen only, and dust mites in the home were the most common non-seasonal reaction. Distribution: variable, localized areas may be on the head, face, ears, neck, medial forelimbs, ventral and lateral body, posterior thighs, and also all over the body. Clinical signs: pruritic papular crusting (milia), hairless-barber type hairlessness due to self-loss (symmetrical hair loss in cats), vesicular-exfoliative dermatitis due to self-loss, eosinophilic granulomatous complex lesions, asthma, combined signs. Indistinguishable from other allergic signs, although there may be seasonality, many cases have concurrent flea allergy, some have food allergy, and in cats, respiratory signs are more common. Diagnosis: Intradermal antigen testing is more difficult to perform and more difficult to interpret than in dogs, in vitro testing is helpful. Treatment: antihistamine (paracetamol 2mg BID, amitriptyline 10mg/d, cycloheximide 1-2mg BID, clindamycin (Tavist) .67mg/d, loratadine (Claritin) 5mg/d, cetirizine (Zyrtec) 5mg q12h-24h); fatty acids: oral, topical; new drops for topical use: Vick’s Elle Drops drops, LDCA’s Demex drops. 4. feline impetigo feline impetigo: a recent blinded trial showed bacteria on the cytology of cats with eosinophilic plaques, and the lack of treatment of impetigo in response to antibiotic therapy may have contributed to its poor efficacy in allergy treatment. Clinical manifestations: papules, crusts, lip ulcers, eosinophilic granulomas, deep fistulas-cellulitis and abscesses. Diagnosis: cytology, intracellular bacteria, bacterial and inflammatory cells, culture and sensitivity tests. Treatment: Cefvesin, cefpodoxime, cefadroxil, clindamycin, amoxicillin trihydrate/clavulanic acid potassium, marbofloxacin, enrofloxacin, pralidoxime. Note that skin diseases in cats are generally due to the invasion of external germs. If you can ensure that your cat is regularly groomed and bathed, and that your cat’s living environment is also cleaned and disinfected daily, you can prevent your cat from contracting allergic dermatitis disease and also ensure the health of your family’s life.