Third Time's A Charm

The third time's the charm. At least we hope so.  Two weeks ago Saturday I took Moggy back to the Vet for the third time.

The first time I thought Moggy had pushed his nose someplace he shouldn't and got it scrubbed up. But then the scabs spread to his ears. So I took him to see the Vet.  She thought it was actually a hypersensitivity to bug bites. Specifically fleas.  I could get behind generic bugs; however,  I really didn't think they were fleas--I haven't found a flea on him since the first time I bathed him as a kitten when Bandit and I rescued him almost three years ago. But I conceded, fleas could be the culprits since he goes outside during the day. That visit he received a flea treatment and a steroid injection. He initially responded, but then started to get worse. Back to the Vet we went.

The practice I take the FurBoys to has three Vets and they rotate Saturdays--which are the only days I can make it without taking time off from work. So the second Vet tried a different flea med, gave another steroid injection, and prescribed an antibiotic ointment.  This regimine produced very minimal results initially. We gave it another  month.  There were no further improvements, but it didn't seem to be worsening.

Until the day the scabs started encroaching on his face--getting far too close to his eyes for my comfort.  It was also the day I saw visiable evidence that it was bothering him--his ears were bloody from scratching. This was a drastic change. So off to the Vet we went.

The third Vet saw Moggy this time. He diagnosed it as Pemphigus Foliacaeus, an autoimmune disease, and put Moggy on oral steroids three times a day until it starts to clear, then twice a day for 30 days.  Moggy will eventually require a maintance dose of one pill every other day.

The bad thing about this isn't the fact that Moggy licks his food before he eats. I voiced my concern about him licking the pill and then refusing to take it if he didn't like the taste.
The Vet gave me a really long syringe with a flexible rubbery end to hold the pull--it worked beautifully at the Vets office, but was much more cumbersome when it was just me and Moggy at home.

No, the worst part of this is the fact that excessive sunlight exacerbates the condition. Moggy LOVES being outside. He cries when he can't be outside. 

It's been 2 weeks since we started the prednisone.   He's looking better. I'm keeping him on three times a day because of going outside.  When I see a little more improvement I'll drop back to twice a day. 

On a brighter note, we seem to have hit on the correct diagnosis.

Oh, and Moggy no longer fights me when I give him his medicine. I'm not sure if he realizes it's helping him, if he's resigned to the fact he's getting it, or if it's because I'm becoming extremely competent at pill administration. I prefer to believe it's a combination of all three.