Purring and pruritic: How to avoid a “catopy” catastrophy

On this week's episode of The Vet Blast Podcast presented by dvm360, our host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, welcomes guest Joya Griffin, DVM, DACVD, to dive into the essentials of managing pruritic cats and discuss effective treatment options for feline dermatology patients. Christman and Griffin discuss the critical role of maintaining skin barrier health and share valuable communication strategies for general practitioners to engage pet owners on topics like flea control and managing chronic skin conditions.

Tune in for insights into the diverse treatment options available for these feline patients.

Below is a partial transcript

Joya Griffin, DVM, DACVD: Dogs are fairly simple. They have allergic skin disease, they itch, they scratch, they chew at themselves, and then that leads to hair loss, secondary changes in the skin, and then eventually secondary infections in most dogs. In cats, they can present like the dogs, that's one reaction pattern, which they call self induced alopecia, or fur mowing. We used to call it that at Cornell, which is really funny. But depending on where you're trained, you'll hear those 2 different terms.

Then, outside of that, cats have the eosinophilic granuloma complex, which comprises eosinophilic plaques, the linear eosinophilic granuloma, indolent ulcers. You remember those rodent ulcers that cats get. They're really nasty, they look like they're painful. And then cats can also get a reaction pattern called miliary dermatitis, where they have multifocal, crusted papules. And usually you can feel those before you see them, because they may be underneath hair skin or underneath the hair on the skin. And then we also have the head and neck pruritus. These are cats that will rip their faces to shreds. So they often come in cones. They're bloody. You know, it's pretty terrible. They'll they'll rub their faces until their whiskers are broken off.