Re: question

[Barbara Lowe]

why is DD overgrooming? is she stressed? showing signs of allergy? hives? hot spots? house too dry?(a common problem in wintertime when heat is on)  what supplements is she on? (anything for skin or immune system?) clancy my positive develops small bumps all over and loses his fur--and the first sign is the overgrooming and scratching(we can hear him licking a room away). i read in the book Veterinarians guide to natural remedies about several things to try and used VitB 6 25 milligrams 1x day( along with his maintainence supplements of Mega C+, vit e 200 iu, A & D 1x week, and that terrible smelling fish oil supplement.) went thru a small bottle of the b6 and he's been fine for more than a month now. i guess i would be worried about any dosage of pred in case the overgrooming was a sign of stress or the immune system going out of whack...in which case the pred would be throwing gasoline on the fire, so to speak. have you changed foods lately? been using any household chemicals that might be irritating her system? is that dr. specialist that was answering questions on the list still available? (my memory is shot and i even take gingko to help when i remember to take them...) gnite barbara ----- Original Message ----- From: catatonya To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 7:46 PM Subject: question Hi all,   I'm starting to wonder if my vets are very up to date on felv........   My positive, DD, is overgrooming.  I haven't taken her in yet, but when I was in with Lovey on Saturday I asked her about it and she suggested using pred.  She said as long as the cat is asymptomatic it wouldn't hurt to give a low dose.   I've always heard this is a big NO for positives.   In fact, some of you may remember that I lost my positive CC when I took her in for the same thing and they (a different vet) gave her a small dose of pred.  She had overgroomed to the point of developing the neoplasta..whatever stuff.  She was semiferal, so I didn't take her in until I absolutely had to. She developed a URI (probably from the office, as no one here had one) and never recovered.  I think the stress of the office visit, probably getting the uri from there, and the pred. combined is what caused me to lose her.   What do you all think?  And what can I recommend for overgrooming if not pred?  She's been doing this for a while.  The last time I took her in the vet said it wasn't enough to worry about, but it's getting worse.   When I told my vet on Saturday that I didn't think pred. was a good choice for a positive she said we could always try some sort of kitty prozac.  Is there one any of you think is safe for a positive?  Do you agree with the pred. idea?   Thanks for any input!   Tonya