Hi everyone,
i'm new here. i have a two year old bengal girl named ruby. i have taken her to the vet in the past for excessively scratching her ears, head and neck. the vet said that it may be food allergies and so i tried the test diet. i've used chicken, lamb, and whitefish foods. she has continued to scratch. sometimes it gets so bad that she causes herself to bleed. i would like to know if anyone else has this issue. i am going to call the vet again, but i just wandered if anyone had any suggestions. Is this typical of the bengal breed.

thanks
Jodi

Hi Jodi, and welcome to the forum, Im sure someone hear will be able to help
they really are such a friendly lot, and give fantastic advise and support when you need it, they have helped and supported me in the past, and its always
nice to have someone else to talk to, who compleatly understand the bengal breed,

all the best
Nikki

nikki,
thanks for the warm welcome. i appreciate it. Ruby is sitting here with me watching me type. she loves the computer.

Jodi.

if anyone has any ideas as to what may be wrong with my Ruby please let me know.

Hi Jodi and Welcome,

This type of allergy is not just restricted to the bengal breed, all cats can suffer from this.

As well as my bengals, I adopted an 18 month old moggie girl from my local Cat Protection. Having had really bad fleas when they found her she had a number of tiny sores on her face and under her chin which they said was an allergy to flea saliva. Anyway to cut a long story short within three weeks of her being home she was scratching her face, chin and ears excessively (until they bled and became really sore) so off we went to the vet.

Having treated her for ear mites and god knows what else, 6 weeks later we were told she had an allergy and they put her on steroid injections. Her face was so sore by that point, it was starting to scar over, she was clawing the same bits again and it ended up infected.

Its fair to say that 4 week cycles of steroid injection have stopped her from scratching however it has impacted her health generally - she put on loads of weight, there have been behavioural changes and generally she is not in great health. About 3 months ago, having done a bit of research, I went back to the vet told him I was not happy re purely treating the allergy by steroids and wanted to look into what was causing it. In general, cats can either be allergic to food or they can be allergic to something in their environment (products being used in the home, carpets and of course grass, plants and other things in the great outdoors).

For us, it was not possible to restrict her from going outside. She had always been an outdoor cat and to be honest would have been absolutely miserable being kept in. We have started her on a prescription food diet and this does seem to be improving her allergy. She's been on it about 2 months and this time we got 6 weeks out of the steroid injection instead of the usual bare min of 4. We are hopeful that next time this will be even longer.

Like you all itching and scratching is restricted around the neck, chin and face area. We also notice that when its really building up, her skin goes incredibly hot all over.

If you put 'cat skin allergies' into google it will bring up lots of articles - from types of allergy to treatments. I think its a really difficult one for vets to sort out to be honest - there are so many possible causes.

Definitely go back to your vet, ask about prescription diet, his view on possible causes. I would only use steroids as a last resort though as they do cause other problems and in my opinion are not for long term use.

Hope this helps. Let me know how you get on.

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www.supernova-bengals.co.uk

linda,
thanks for the advice. i will do a search on google and see what i can find. i'm definitely sure that whatever ails my poor girl is not from the outdoors as she has never been outside. I have read a little about steroids and i agree with you that they should be used as a last resort, and i'm terrified that they will cause my Ruby more problems. We have an appointment with the vet on the 6th of september (earliest we could get in), so i'm hoping that the vet and i can figure this out. Ruby has been in there several times before for the same problem, but it seems to be getting progressively worse. anyway i'm glad to hear i'm not the only one dealing with this issue. Ruby says to tell you "thank you" as well.
thanks so much
Jodi

_________________
www.supernova-bengals.co.uk

well ruby and i went to the vet's office. i showed the vet some pictures that i had taken of where ruby scratched. After looking at the photos the vet said she didn't think it was a food allergy. she told me a really long name for this kind of thing, which i can't begin to pronounce. but anyway, ruby has a topical steroid that has been working wonders so far. she seems much more comfortable and hasn't been scratching the way she used to. thank goodness!!
i also took my other girl lizzie to the vet this week for a booster shot which she absolutely hated. we move to alaska on the 1st of november so if anyone has any travel tips please feel free to let me know. we are flying if that helps