The challenges of diagnosing cats with allergic diseases

In an interview with dvm360 at the Fetch Coastal conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Joya Griffin, DVM, DACVD, talked about the challenges involved in diagnosing and treating allergic diseases in cats, particularly when compared to dogs. One challenge, Griffin explains, is when pet owners have objections to treatments, such as diet trials and flea control.

Below is a partial transcript:

Joya Griffin, DVM, DACVD: Cats are often a challenging species to work with. Their clinical lesions are often different than what we typically would see in a dog with allergic disease, and they can be challenging to do diagnostic trials in. A lot of times, the pet parents may have objections to treatment. They may have objections to doing diet trials or putting them on consistent flea control, especially in indoor-only cats, and often cats live with multiple cats, and so doing some of our treatments and diagnostics can be a little bit more challenging when you have multiple cats in a household.