Cat Allergy Medication!

Question
Our cat has allergies & is on Science Diet ZD low allergen food. He has been receiving depo medrol shots on a monthly basis. How we usually know its time for the shot is he starts itching his belly & paws. Now our vet wants to switch him off of the depo medrol shots & try Amitriptyline pills. Everywhere we've been reading about Amitriptyline says these pills are anxiety type pills. So how can these work on allergies? Or is it more for the itching that he does also. Our vet also says this may help & we wont have to do these for very long. Any help would be great. Thanks.

Answer
Those shots are METHYLPREDNISOLONE, a steroid.  Steroids can reduce inflammation, but don't usually cure anything, and they can have terrible side effects when used over the long term, including compromising the skin and immune system.  At best, all they do is treat the symptoms, but don't cure anything.

What you have to do is find out what your cat is allergic to.  This could be his food, but it could be anything in the environment.  I would suggest feeding him just meat for a while, raw or cooked.  Feed him a kind of meat which he has never had before, and feed just that for several weeks.  If the skin problem goes away, then you know he was allergic to something he was eating, and you can then add different foods, one at a time, and check for reactions.

He may also be allergic to his kitty litter.  I would switch to shredded newspaper.  I assume you have made sure he does not have fleas, which can also cause this kind of skin reaction.  And I am sure the vet has made sure your pet does not have any skin parasites, such as mange.

He could also be allergic to anything else in your environment, including perfume and cosmetics, cleaning products, air spray, pollution.  I realize there's no way you can eliminate everything, and for that reason I would suggest taking steps to strengthen his immune system to help him deal with possible triggers.  You can help his immune system by adding a multi-vitamin to his food, once you have tested for allergies.  (Children's drops, in a dose proportionate to his weight, are easy.)

Amitriptyline is also used to help with pain caused by irritation to the nerves.  It has a lot of side effects, and if I were you, I'd ask the vet about those.  Most of the side effects cause discomfort more than anything else, but think about them.  Again, the medicine will treat symptoms, but not the underlying cause.

I hope you can get to the bottom of this.  Dealing with skin problems can be a difficult problem.  You might want to think about a consultation with a holistic vet.

Cordially,

Susan