Easy Ways to Deal with Seasonal Allergies in Cats
If you have a feline friend at home, you may be quite familiar with cats having allergies. While seasonal allergies in cats are quite common, it’s also frustrating. And although skin allergies in cats are commonplace, finding out the root cause can prove to be difficult. Many cats react strongly to environmental allergens. As a result, they often develop itchy skin, but may not rub, lick, or scratch themselves. This makes it difficult for you to figure out whether your cat is suffering from allergies or not.
If you suspect that your cat has allergies but aren’t sure, consider consulting an experienced feline vet. You can also start investigating some home remedies that are known to be quite effective in curing allergies in cats.
What to Look For
Usually, cats develop some variety of skin disease along with their allergies. Be sure to keep a close watch on your cat’s back, since allergy symptoms frequently show up there. You can look for broken hairs above the tail on either side of the spinal cord. Also, look for little scabs throughout your pet’s skin, which are known as miliary dermatitis (so called because of the little bumps that result, which are like millet seeds.) Be sure to check for crusty areas around the ear and face of your cat as well. Cats often suffer from seasonal allergies, which tend to worsen during the summer and spring.
Ulcers in the mouth, a swollen nose, flaky or smelly skin, vomiting, and frequent ear infections are some additional symptoms of allergies in cats. Keep in mind that your cat might tend to be a little irritable while suffering from allergies. Some cats tend to twitch their skin or tails, as well as hide in a reclusive “comfort zone” away from people.
Since cats are secretive by nature, you may not find your feline friend scratching its body ’round the clock. Keep a keen eye on its behavior and check for slight changes in the skin condition or his behavior.
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What is My Cat Allergic to?
Once you determine that your cat is suffering from allergies, your next job is to find out potential causes. Your pet may be allergic to something in your furnishings or carpets, cleaning products, or even its own food. It may also be allergenic to pollens, dust mites, or grasses. Many many cats develop allergies with time. If not treated properly, allergies caused by insect bites may lead to itchy welts or hives.
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Does Your Pet Have Allergies or an Illness?
First Steps in Treating Cat Allergies
A wise first step is to consult an experienced feline vet, as he or she can rule out many causes. If your cat’s allergies are caused by fleas or mosquito bites, you might try to reduce your pet’s exposure to them. If your cat has a swollen nose, it’s quite possible that this is a mosquito allergy. In the case of flea allergies, the reaction will worsen during the summer and spring. These allergies usually begin around the base of the tail.
Understand that no single flea product kill fleas immediately. Comfortis, Advantage II, and Frontline Plus, which are considered some of the most effective flea products, take a certain time to kill the fleas. Even if you spot fleas on your cat, you may want to have your vet inspect your cat for fungal diseases, mites, or secondary infections, since these can complicate the allergy issues further.
Conduct a Nourishment Trial
If your cat seems to be bothered by a pollen allergy or food allergy, you should try to reduce the component that’s causing the allergy. To figure out whether your cat has been suffering from a food allergy or not, you can feed him an exclusion diet. The diet is very limited and should not contain any potential allergens for at least eight weeks.
Flea Control
Even if your cat has not been suffering from flea allergies, you should always ensure proper flea control. Since allergic pets are already quite sensitive, the situation might worsen if they are affected by fleas.
Methods to Decrease the Allergen Load
To ensure a secure and safe environment for your cat, you should follow certain steps. For instance, wash the bedding of your pet properly at least once every week, since it spends most of its time here.
During pollen season, try to keep your pet indoors as much as possible, and also consider using HEPA filters around the home. Also, consider changing the cat litter more frequently, especially if the litter is a dust-producing brand. You should try to find out if your cat is allergic to a specific food. If you find anything worth noticing, consider avoiding that food. You can try doing this even when your cat is suffering from a pollen allergy.
With all these steps, you can help your feline friend deal with seasonal allergies successfully.
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“Easy Ways to Deal with Seasonal Allergies in Cats”
Guest Blogger Bio: Craig Davis
Craig is the founder of Vet Organics, where he shares additional pet-related articles on the company’s blog. Vet Organics markets and produces their flagship product, EcoEars, along with a growing array of premium products dedicated to the health and wellness of pets.
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Does your cat have allergies? Have you found the source? How?
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Why can’t they make cat/dog meds available OTC? Why isn’t there an antihistamine for animals on the shelves at our local pet stores? Critters can effectively be treated with Benadryl, so why not make a critter version?
wow! great read. thanks for clearing it up! glad u shared it 😉
Great article and thanks for sharing!
I had no idea Cats can have allergies.. Here’s me thinking it’s just humans that get them!
Got some great tips and advice and as a Cat parent this is a great help for me and I’m sure other Cat parents too
Hey Jeanne!
Thanks for sharing this article. I had absolute no idea about allergies in cats. I own one persian cat.
good day!
Thank you for visiting Animal Bliss, Brian. All the best.
I have never had a pet that has allergies (that I’ve known about) until this past summer when my rescue cat of 8+ years started to have bumps all over her back. I was at first convinced it was just fleas and dirt. But bath after bath, and flea treatment later – still there! I did end up taking her to a vet who said she was allergic to the fleas. Severely allergic! Who knew! She was a strictly indoor cat until a few years ago so I honestly had no idea! It was so awful to see her be in such bad shape and I had no idea why. I tried a few of the things you said as well, seeing if it was in her diet, changing and washing her bedding, switching detergents even. I was so at a loss until I got a vet’s opinion on it and figured out what it really was.
Thanks for this post, it’s really educational.
Hi Jaimee. I’m glad you figured out what was going on with your cat’s skin. There can be so many perplexing things going on in a body – pets’ and ours too! Hey, I visited your site with the intention of following you on social media but don’t see any options. You might want to add some. Thanks so much for taking the time to visit us here at Animal Bliss.
Hey Craig
Nice tips and thanks for sharing. My cat is often suffering from seasonal allergies. Is there any permanent solution ?
You would be better off asking your Vet, Alison. I am not qualified to give you an answer. Thanks for stopping by, though! All the best.
This is such a great idea. Thanks so much for sharing this
Brilliant article, thank you very much for this info. My cat has had allergies for a while now and the vets couldn’t seem to fix it. However, I will try your suggestions. Thank you so much!
Thanks for visiting Animal Bliss, Greg. I hope you figure things out for your cat. They can be such a mystery sometimes.
I’m glad for the way the trade winds in Hawaii blow easterly direction in east Big Island, preventing the “vog” (volcanic fog) from our nearby volcano from blowing particulates that affect my cats (well also with me as well). The only time cat is allergic is when the wind direction switches!
Yes, you are fortunate to have trade winds blowing in another direction. I can’t imagine what vog might do to a being. Is it like smog?
Interesting….it makes sense that cats would get allergies. I suppose I was so use to thinking that they help create our allergies, that I didn’t see it the other way.
Thanks for sharing:)
Melissa
Oh yes, cats can get a lot of the same diseases we humans get. I remember meeting 2 cats that had diabetes years ago and I was so surprised. Thanks for stopping by, Melissa.
I love that “Saddest Cat in the World” post on your website. I shared it on Facebook. Thanks for visiting my blog too! Awesome.
My cat James had a really bad reaction to something last week and had a lot of scabs all over him from scratching himself. Once we discovered that, we took him into the animal hospital to be treated. He’s better now, but we still don’t know what exactly he is allergic to. All that we know is that he was outside and that it may have been some type of plant or insect. Do you think that there is something that we can spray on his fur to help insects stay away from him?
My cat Tom is very allergic. He s nose is blocked and his eye is running all the time .he developed a polyp in his nose which had to be removed.so we had his blood tested to see what he is allergic to, turns out he is allergic to the world. So wee are desensitizing him wit a serum that was made for him ,hope it works don’t like to see the little guy suffer
corline?
Aww, I’m sorry to hear that your cat suffers so much from allergies. He must be miserable. 🙁 I hope the serum works too. All the very best to you. Thanks for your visit and comment. Peace.
So, I took my passion for cats and made a fun and easy site with funny and cute cat pictures. Check it out if you all want at http://www.cutecatmemes.com
I’ll check it out, RJ. Thanks for visiting my blog today! 🙂
Francene, those departed pet’s memories do live on, don’t they? Thank goodness for that! I still remember my cat, Patches, from when I was four years old. 🙂 Thanks for your visit. Come back soon.