Cat allergies?

In My Humble Opinion
1

We have three cats: Irving, Ophelia, and Mario. Irving and Ophelia are eight years old, and they came to us as a bonded pair when they were around seven months old. The rescue that we adopted them from told us they were among twenty or so kittens, from multiple litters, “rescued from hoarders.” We were told they are siblings, but we don’t have any way of knowing for sure if that is true. But we’ve decided it is.

Irving has always had the “weepy eye” thing. He goes through phases, where it gets bad for a couple of weeks, then clears up for a few months, but never really goes away. When it gets bad, it’s accompanied by sniffles, and we have a hard time getting him to eat. I really think it’s because his nose gets stuffed up, and he can’t smell his food properly. I’ll keep putting him in front of it, I’ll put freeze-dried chicken sprinkles on it, and he keeps walking away. But then he suddenly does a double-take, like “oh, is that my food?” and starts eating.

I’ve taken him to multiple vets several times during his life over this issue, and every time they just blow me off. “Oh, some cats are like that.” “Meh, it’s nothing to worry about.” And so on. And when I present my theory that he can’t smell his food, they pshaw me.

The last three or four months have been really bad. The worst of his life. Besides the weepy eye, he’s sneezing all the time, and his nose is runny. Usually the nasal discharge is clear, but sometimes it has the color of snot. I took him to the vet again about a month ago, and got the same blow-off. “He’s fine, I’m not worried about it.”

The last couple of weeks, the food issue has gotten really bad. The cats have been on the raw diet (Darwin’s) for years. We’ve had a hell of a time getting Irving to eat. On Monday night, after trying to get him to eat for half an hour, I finally remembered we had some canned food out in the garage. I checked the expiration date, still good. I put some in front of him and he started chowing down. Ok, I thought, maybe he’s just sick of the raw food and needs a break from it.

So I’ve been giving him canned food (Weruva) all week, and everything seemed fine. Then last night he turned his nose up to his dinner. I put some chicken sprinkles on it, and he ate about half of his meal. Then this morning, he refused to eat at all, even with chicken sprinkles. I finally opened another can of a different flavor, and he ate a small amount of that before walking away.

The thing is, when he’s doing this he sits in front of the plate and looks up at me, like “where’s my food?” If I put his food up and walk away, he’ll follow me around like “are you gonna feed me or what?” If I put the plate back down for him, he’ll get excited, sniff at it, and look up at me again. “Where’s my food?” This is why I think his sniffer is on the fritz.

Anyway, I’m wondering if anyone has had any experience like this. Any idea what’s really going on? How I might get the vet (or a different vet) to take this more seriously? How should I present it, what questions should I ask?

Here’s a shot I managed to get of Irving about half an hour ago. It’s not clear in the picture, but it’s the eye on the right that’s usually worse as far as the “weeping” goes - it’s squinting more than the other. You can see the snot around his nose better if you click on the pic and zoom in.

2

Something I forgot about.

Irving has also always had anxiety issues. He used to pull his fur out. Last May, the vet prescribed Fluoxetine, which is kitty Prozac. The original dose (5 mg/day) zombified him. After three months or so I cut the dosage in half, and he returned to his old self. Some of the anxiety returned, but not on the same scale as before, so we’ve decided this is a happy medium. It was around then, in August or September, that the whole allergy issue took a turn for the worse, the sneezing and snotty nose started, and so on.

I brought this up with the vet when we went a month ago, and asked if this could be a reaction to the drug. She said no, if there was to be a bad reaction, it would have happened when we first started giving it to Irving. But now I’m wondering again.

3

If there are other vets in your area, I’d try a different vet.

4

Yeah…a second opinion might be in order.

5

Agree with @thorny_locust , get a better vet.

I’ve had 15 cats over the years. Three of them have had one “tearing” eye, which never varied symptomatically and did not seem to affect their vision. I’m not a vet, but I suspect that minor tear duct issues may be a common congenital deformity in cats.

The sneezing & nasal discharge are definitely not normal. Is Irving allowed outdoors where he could have picked up a foreign body like a foxtail? It could also be a sinus infection, and with the apparent hunger but aversion to eating, I’d have his teeth & gums looked at because that could be the whole problem right there.

A proper vet workup is going to cost big $$$, I’m afraid. Poor little guy!

6

I agree with thorny, a different vet might be a good idea.

One of my boys deals with those exact same symptoms (though not as severe as what Irving is experiencing) and my vet said that it was caused by herpes. It’s quite common in cats (and not transferable to humans!). She recommends giving them lysine for immune support when they are having symptoms or when there’s anything going on that could stress them or lower their immune system. I sprinkle lysine powder on their food and they love the way it tastes. It can go on wet or dry food. My cat responds well and symptoms start to get better within a few days.

7

Over the years, three different vets have blown me off over this issue. I mean, three different vet
offices, not three vets at the same place. But yes, perhaps another new vet is in order.

We have a small backyard that we have cat-proofed. The cats are allowed out there, and they can’t escape the yard. There aren’t any plants or anything, though.

When we took Irving in last May to get him his anti-anxiety meds, the vet did say he would need work on his teeth in the next couple of years. Like, he’s ok for now, but we need to be thinking about it. However, when I took him in last month, the vet didn’t say anything about his teeth. So, again, perhaps a visit to a new vet…

We’ve decided the first thing to see is if he might be allergic to his medication. We’re going to wean him off of it, then give it a month or so to see if there’s any improvement. I think I’ll also order some lysine powder and see what happens there.

Thanks all!

8

I have not. But some googling suggests that conjunctivitis caused by the feline herpes virus is a real possibility (i.e. not an allergy), in which case topical antiviral or oral lysine would be a recommended treatment.

9

Another thought - have you thought about sitting in the bathroom with him with a hot shower running to steam the room up? I’ve never tried it with a cat, but I know for myself it’ll help clear out nasal passages and get gunk moving. Maybe that would get him some more immediate relief and allow him to smell his food?

10

I wonder whether heating the food a bit might also be helpful; it helps bring out scents. (Careful it’s not too hot, of course; cats, unlike many humans, don’t generally have their mouths accustomed to hot food.)

11

I’m betting he’s got feline herpes - it’s not contagious to humans and is nothing like what humans think of as herpes. In my herd of 16 I have one chronic herpes cat and she has exactly the same symptoms. I believe almost all cats have been exposed at some point in their lives (think of all those crusty-eyed kittens) but only some get it chronically. None of the cats who moved in after Lucy have gotten it, not even the day-old kittens I found.

My girl gets slightly weepy eyes and the snots. Sometimes she is extremely congested, poor girl, and other times she sounds just fine. It seems to wax and wane. There really is nothing that can be done about it, sadly. She really doesn’t feel bad, she’s full of life and play even at her worst. I will sometimes take her in for a round of antibiotics just to make sure there isn’t a secondary infection going on in addition to the virus if she has a particularly long run of congestion.

So yeah, it basically is nothing to worry about, mostly because there’s nothing you can do about it - there’s such thing as decongestants for cats and no approved and useful antiviral (that I know of).

12

Is there a test for that, to rule out other problems?

13

Good question. There might be now, sort of like the FeLeuk testing, but I think it was basically a rule-out-everything-else diagnosis for my girl.

14

I adopted a cat who was about 7 months, and a stray. Found him on the playground where I was doing some interpreting, back around 1995. Knew zip about his background, other than he wasn’t fixed.

Got his bits snipped ASAP; he wasn’t spraying yet, but I knew we were getting close. Also got his first series of shots after he was tested for feleuk – I don’t think there was an FIV test yet.

He was a great cat-- loved to go out, and didn’t know a stranger. Went to the vet’s on a leash with a little harness.

He occasionally had watery eyes, and a runny nose, and was a sneezer. Champion sneezer. The bouts were very occasional when he was you, and got more frequent as he got older-- the watery eyes only started when he was 7 or 8.

The vet said that he was probably exposed to feline rhinitis when he was a stray. Cats usually get over their initial infection if they aren’t kittens when they get it, but then they have recurrences. She said not to worry about them, as they weren’t harmful, and the other cats were vaccinated, so no worries about them, but at any rate, he wasn’t contagious during a recurrence.

She said the watery eyes were because the congestion caused inflammation that narrowed his tear ducts.

She said to call her only when a bout lasted for n days (8 or 9) or if the drainage got cloudy and thick, or his eyes were bloodshot (like he had pinkeye). Or, of course, if he ever seemed really uncomfortable. He never did.

Other than this issue, he was as healthy as our other cats. He did die slightly younger than average-- 14, as opposed to 16 or 17, but the vet said that she didn’t think the virus had anything to do with his death (he had a stroke).

If he ever had appetite problems, I didn’t notice. Our cats had a community bowl of dry food, and did get canned every day, but I really didn’t notice exactly how much Joey ate.

He never appeared to lose weight.

Maybe that should be your gauge-- unless Irv is very small, or already thin, you should watch his weight, and not his daily intake. If it really is about his weight, maybe you could do what I did for my recently acquired shelter kitty, who was underweight-- try a little kitten food.

Nina took to the kitten food like crack. I don’t know if the taste is stronger, but Irv will need to eat less of it to get just as much nutrition and calories.

15

I ordered lysine powder from Amazon, and was able to get same-day delivery. It even arrived in time for dinner! I couldn’t get Irving to eat his dinner, though…

My wife showers each night after the cats eat, so we tried this - she took Irving and his dinner in the bathroom with her. She said he sat on the counter and stared at her the entire time, which was creepy. Then when she was done, she put his food outside the door, and Irving decided to eat. He ate about half his food.

I said earlier I was going to wean Irving off of his med, but we decided against that. We should see how the lysine powder goes first. If we do both at the same time and there is improvement, we wouldn’t know the cause.

16

I’ve had cats that were fascinated by the shower process. One used to sit on the edge of the tub between the clear liner and the shower curtain and would stare intently. It was weird for a bit but became normal. He was also fascinated by running water of any kind.

Glad you got some food down him! Let us know how he’s doing over the next several days.

17

Be aware that the evidence for lysine being active against herpes is mixed, at best. (https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/lysine) It can’t hurt, but don’t break the bank on a “supplement.” One vet recommended it for my cat’s tearing eye, but it had no discernable effect. IMO, the vets may feel that they are letting the clients down by admitting there’s no real way to treat the condition, so they resort to recommending woo-ish placebos (another one is chondroitin/glucosamine for arthritis) just to offer the client something. Herpes is well known to be episodic – comes & goes without treatment.

18

Yeah-- my vet said that OTC antihistamine might help Joey, and might not-- I could try and see. The particular one that was safe for cats was chlorpheniramine maleate. I had to find a pill that contained ONLY that, and cut it in half, then try to convince a cat to eat it.

It didn’t seem to help, and I asked if any OTC decongestants are safe for cats, because that really seemed to be what he needed, and she said no, unfortunately. But that was 25 years ago-- maybe there is something new on the market. Or maybe an antihistamine would help Irv. doesn’t hurt to run it by the vet.

19

Make sure he’s not getting dehydrated – squirt water down him with a (thoroughly cleaned) eyedropper if necessary.

(Anyone who doesn’t know how to check: pinch up a flap of skin between the shoulderblades. It should go right down again as soon as you let go. If it goes down only slowly, the cat’s dehydrated. It might go down a little slower in an old cat than in a young one, but it should still go down pretty fast.)

20

Update: I’m leaning more towards bad teeth being the issue at this point. Irving has an appointment with the vet on Tuesday morning.