From: "Mary"

Cheeky has asthma--presented with it the day I brought her home from
the shelter. Very scary attacks which we control with shots. I wait
as long as I can i.e. until she coughs or sniffles, to take her in
because I know that steroid use can cause diabetes and a host of other
problems. She is currently having 3-4 shots per year.She is a 7-pound
grey-brown mackerel tabby, age about three, sweetest creature in the
world. :0)

Took her in for her her "depo" shot (what they call it, it is
cortisone, I think?) yesterday. I asked the doctor to check her out
because I had noticed some tiny bumps on her nose and the back of one
of her legs, along the tendon. He said it is linear granuloma, and
explained that it is a syndrome, not life threatening, controlled by
cortisone (in other words, exactly what we are doing now.) (He also
said the linear kind is rare--that he sees maybe 40 cases of the
"rodent ulcer" syndrome a year, and of those, maybe one linear
granuloma case. I guess we're just lucky--and I actually mean that
because I am so relieve this is not something life threatening.)

Then I went to Google and read all the posts I could from this and all
the other cat groups and I see that LG can really bother them, cause
them to scratch themselves raw and be very uncomfortable.

Here is what I would like to know: has anyone out there fed a cat with
asthma/Linear granuloma a diet that had really seemed to help keep the
masses/lesions to a minimum? I would like to do what I can to make
sure Cheeks doesn't suffer. Also, are there allergy tests for cats? It
seems to me that if I could keep her from the things she is allergic
to she might not get the bumps or asthma as much?

Any help is much appreciated.


Hi Mary,
Sorry to hear Cheeky has asthma. My little Meesha has it too. In my
particular case, we see a hollistic vet, and we switched her to a homemade raw
diet, as well as using natural remedies, which has been greatly beneficial.
Asthma and granulomas can indicate a weak immune system, and there are things a
person can do with the help of a vet to strengthen it. It can also be the
result of over vaccination. There is also a plant based natural cortisone that
a vet can prescribe. I'm not sure if you live in the US or not, but there is a
state by state listing of holistic vets at www.altvetmed.com. You might also
want to check out the book that Cheryl posted about regarding animals and
allergies. Best of luck and healing purrs to Cheeky

Lauren
________
See my cats: http://community.webshots.com/album/56955940rWhxAe
Raw Diet Info: http://www.holisticat.com/drjletter.html
http://www.geocities.com/rawfeeders/ForCatsOnly.html
Declawing Info: http://www.wholecat.com/articles/claws.htm