As some of you know, I've been using Prednisolone for my cat's licky
granuloma, and the latest round hasn't been working, so I'm going to try
Derm Caps vitamins and 4 mg of Chlortrimeton. Does anyone know if the
over the counter name brand is the same compound as the generic sold by
1800petmeds.com? The descriptions are below as follows:


Generic:

http://www.1800petmeds.com/pdetail.asp?SK=10471

Chlorpheniramine 4 Mg Tabs


Brand name:

http://www.walgreens.com/store/product.jsp?CATID=100094
&navAction=jump&navCount=0&id=prod1357

Active Ingredients
Chlorpheniramine Maleate 4 mg


Inactive ingredients:

Ingredients
D&C Yellow No. 10 Aluminum Lake, Lactose , Magnesium Stearate

I was planning to administer 2mg/2x a day (perhaps just 2 mg a day at
the
start).

Are the same inactive ingredients in the vet prescription?

I've been told by my vet that they're the same. I tried the same
combination for Shamrock, but it didn't help, much like oral
steroids don't help him.

I take it that the diet change you or your mom was trying didn't
help? So frustrating!! The only thing helping Shamrock now is
Cyclosporine. We had to play with the dose, but 10mg seems to be
what his tummy can handle. He'd been off of it until I could get
10mg, and he was off for long enough that the lesions came back,
but he's been on 10mg daily now for a few weeks and the lesions are
calming down and he doesn't have his leg in the air all the time
any more (licking and biting his tail and back of one leg). When
the scabs are dry, I'm going to try him on every other day 10mg.
I've read articles (not from vets because this is an off-label use)
but from other cat slaves who use this that it's tricky to get the
dose right, and that at certain times of the year he may have to go
back on daily, but that at other times of the year he might be able
to benefit from every 3rd day. It's very expensive, and there are
so many reasons NOT to use it, but when nothing else works, and
this does, to me it's worth it to keep him comfortable.

Best wishes and good luck!

--
Cheryl

Yes. I have used both for my cat's EGC and general itchiness. They work
well,
but they make her even sleepier than usual. Same dosage as your vet
recommended,
2 mgs twice a day.

Has your vet prescribed any valium for the cat? My moms cat has this and
the one time that it got really severe that she just wouldn't stop licking
it the vet prescribed valium for about a month. She was just so stressed
out and it was the only way to calm her down. We never did figure out what
triggered it that time but finally the valium worked.

Celeste

I spoke to my vet about Cyclosporine and he also said it was off label, but
a possibility. However, when he mentioned that he would need to monitor
her closely with blood tests before and during the treatment, I told him
that perhaps we should hold off until we try other things.

I sincerely hope Shamrock's lesions disappear. I think we're all looking
for great news from somewhere so we can pass it on to our respective vets.

Cheryl -

Sorry it took a few days to write back. I've been having problems with
just about everything you can think of (apartment, jobs or lack thereof,
etc.)

The 5 mg of Prednisolone haven't cleared up her licking (which must be
from an allergic itch of some sort), causing the granuloma. She now has
scabs on both hind legs, on also on her bottom right leg near the nails
and some hair is missing on her front paw.

She's been on Prednisolone off and on for about a year. For the last six
months, we gave her about 5 mg/day for a month, stopped for about a
month, then continued and lowered it to 2.5 mg every other day. After
about 2 weeks of 5 mg/day, the vet is now trying Triamcinalone (1 mg each
night).
I'm also applying Gentaved to the scabs.

As you can see, I'm trying to hold off on the Depo Medrol for as long as
possible. You're correct about the diet change. The Hills Prescription
rabbit dry food seems to have done nothing. The problem is somewhat
worse although my mom continued with her Fancy Feast turkey and chicken
varieties. Perhaps the Fancy Feast is the problem as they all seem to
mix egg, liver, and other stuff with the main ingredient. I'd like to
try other wet food, but the cat won't seem to eat it. At least we
elimintated corn and wheat gluten as the cause because that was removed
from her diet and she still licked her hair off.


Tonight I went over to give her the crushed pill in rolled low salt
turkey breast and noticed another alarming thing. She seems to have a
hardish, half of a walnut sized, fatty growth in the anal region. I'm
not sure what it is and I'm praying it's nothing serious (perhaps anal
sac impaction - although my mom tells me she hasn't been constipated and
isnt' scooting). I'm probably going to take her back in to the vet today
(I was just there last week). The poor thing gets so stressed out when I
come over to put her in her carry case.

I'm not sure if anyone's reading this, but thankfully it was just matted
hair! Was I relieved! She's a longhair, and the hair in that area can
clump and become quite hard.