Recognizing the signs of cat allergies

Transcript:

Andrew Rosenberg, DVM, DACVD: So, my name is Andrew Rosenberg. I am a veterinary dermatologist. I work with Animal Dermatology Group, both as a clinical dermatologist in the Wayne, New Jersey, and the White Plains, New York offices. I'm also the director of medical operations for the entire group, which is the largest dermatology group in the world. I'm also the president of the American College of Veterinary Dermatology, so I'm involved with the association that board certifies all veterinary dermatologists.

So, cats with allergies can exhibit one or a combination of all four of these skin reaction patterns. None of them are pathognomonic for one particular type of allergy versus another. The first one is called miliary dermatitis, and miliary dermatitis consists of these crusted papules that you can see on the back—I mean, you can see them anywhere—but they're very often infected with bacteria; they're these crusted papules.

The second reaction pattern is called eosinophilic dermatoses. These include things like indolent ulcers or eosinophilic plaques or granulomas that cats develop, and they can present in a variety of situations. They're frequently seen on the ventral abdomen, with indolent ulcers obviously on the lip. Those are also known as rodent ulcers. If you do a cytology, you'll typically see a lot of eosinophils under the microscope.

The third reaction pattern is called self-induced alopecia, also known as self-barbering. So that's when these cats literally will just pull their hair out, and the underlying skin actually isn't even inflamed, but they'll pull their hair out. This is most commonly seen on the ventral abdomen.

And then the fourth reaction pattern is exactly what it sounds like: face and neck pruritus. So this is when you have cats scratching at their face and neck. Sometimes it can be so severe that they really excoriate themselves and end up with large wounds on their face and neck because they're so itchy.