When my cat was seven years old, his hair fell out.
It wasn’t a gradual thing- being a black cat, hair loss was a pretty apparent affliction. He went from sleek black jaguar to patchy mangy mess within the span of about a week. I watched him licking himself bald, aghast as to the cause.
He was an indoor cat, so a parasite infestation seemed unlikely. I treated him anyway. Nothing.
We had lived in the same temperate environment for years, but I wondered if perhaps an environmental allergy trigger was bothering him, so I tried a dose of steroids. It didn’t do a thing.
I biopsied his skin, wondering if he had some odd dermatologic lesion of which I was unaware. It came back as a generic allergic sort of inflammatory manifestation, consistent with allergies. So then I put him on an elimination diet.
It seemed an odd affliction for a seven year old cat who had been eating the very same food he had been on for most of his life, but I was running out of options. And within six weeks, all his hair grew back.
I know more now about food allergies than I did back then, such as the fact that it very commonly happens in pets who have been eating the same food for years. And despite diagnosing it in a pet as young as six months, it can certainly happen in older pets as well. The immune system is a strange and complex thing.
I started Apollo on a limited ingredient diet then and there, one with a single protein source (venison) and a single carbohydrate (peas). He does very well on it. When he sneaks a bite of dog food, something that happens more often than I would like, it’s clear within a day or do as first he starts gnawing on his leg like a hungry kid at a Ren Faire, then he goes bald. Every time.
It’s World Allergy Week, so it seems as good a time as any to point out the rather alarming fact that according to a recent study, 44% of pet owners were unaware that allergies were a big problem in pets. While environmental allergies far outweigh food allergies in both dogs and cats, the signs can be very similar and difficult to diagnose without the guidance of a veterinarian.
As an allergy sufferer myself, I can attest to the rotten signs of hay fever, from the runny nose to the congested sinuses. I don’t know if dogs and cats get headaches. I hope for their sake they do not. But what I do know, based on plenty of evidence from the dermatology community, is that unlike us humans, the main allergy organ for domestic pets is the skin. Where we get a runny nose, they get an itchy belly or ears. We scratch our nares; they rub their faces.
This itchy skin is seen in all three forms of the most common causes of allergy: the environment, food, and fleas. The parts of the body most itchy vary depending on the cause of the allergy, but not consistently enough to be definitively diagnostic. Allergies are diagnosed based on clinical suspicion, history, and response to treatment.
Which leads me to Apollo: even as a veterinarian who had been practicing for half a decade by the time my cat came down with symptoms, it still took me several months of trial and error to pinpoint the cause of his itchy skin. That is the nature of this ugly beast and a huge source of frustration for owners who haven’t had it explained to them that yes indeed, allergies in pets are a pain in the rear to figure out.
Despite the hassle, a thorough and methodical approach is absolutely vital to reaching the right diagnosis, because without it, there’s no solution. I consider myself fortunate that Apollo can be managed with something so simple as food; others have to wrangle with immunosuppressive therapy, allergy shots, or religiously applied flea medications.
If your pet is itchy this spring, don’t miss this early sign that maybe he or she has an allergy. While you’re reaching for the Kleenex, they’re praying for a back scratcher. Your veterinarian can help, but only if you reach out.
