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Life’s An Itch (Part 6)

Well (sigh) I’ve put aside this update long enough. I kept waiting thinking I’d have better news for you… But… Alas… Our itchy problem continues to plague us.

Post-dip cuddles

Since we saw Dr. Mundrell (the awesome veterinary dermatologist), we have gone through 10 weekly lime sulfur dips. (I’m learning a lot of tactics to speed up cat bathing and to make it less stressful for them. I’ll share those with you in a future blog post.) Each dip is accompanied by every cat getting sedatives, a long day of each cat wearing Elizabethan collars, and a thorough cleaning of all surfaces the cats touch during the week. (Yeah, it IS a lot of effort.)

About a month into these lime sulfur dips, I noticed that Rumi did well when he was on an antibiotic at the same time as getting the dips. As soon as that round of antibiotics was over, Rumi got itchier and started licking fur off again. Armed with this info, Dr. Mundell and our usual veterinarian huddled and came up with another plan. Now all three cats are on another antibiotic for a three-week period (and I continue giving them lime sulfur dips).

If this doesn’t work, Dr. Mundell suggests we do traditional allergy tests. Bummer. We were all hoping to avoid this. My gut instinct is that allergy tests won’t reveal the underlying cause. I mean, how likely is it that Andy, Emma, and Rumi all suddenly showed allergies at the exact same time? Especially since early on in this ordeal I addressed potential allergens.

Rumi continues to show the most severe symptoms, although he isn’t as uncomfortable now as he has been at other times in the past year. (Yeah, it IS terrible to watch him in this perpetual state of discomfort.) Emma continues to show very few symptoms. Andy continues to just take it as it comes.

And me? I continue to have high hopes (and low expectations) each time we hatch a new plan. And I’ll continue to post updates as we try new things.

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