Thanks so much for your response. I'd really like to hear more about your cat's experience. When did it appear. Did it gradually worsen? Have you tried any other therapies besides the steriods?

My guy is a little over a year old and has really bad bouts for about a week after any trip to the vet, but then he seems fine. I can't help wondering what to expect in the coming years and months.

Well... I finally looked it up and what do you know... Indy used to have that! http://www.lclarkecushingvmd.com/sh...D=178&Private=0 He's a siamese. He doesn't display any of that behavior now. I think it was the change of diet that helped him.


It went away on the raw diet. He still itches a fair amount during flea season but nothing like his rolling twitching skin used to be.

Was it mostly the itchy, twitchy skin? Caesar has that, but he also hides for days at a time. He gets really panicky and runs behind a chair or the washing machine. He hides for hours then suddenly emerges, runs around in a panic, then hides some more. This goes on literally for days and days. It is really hard to watch , especially since he is a very affectionate, lovable boy most of the time. The "self-mutilation" part really worries me, because at his worst he slaps himself with his tail over and over then attacks the tail. This all sounds funny, but it isn't.

I can readily see that an improved diet would address dry, itchy skin, but there is more going on here than just that.

Don't discount the links between psychological behavior and diet though. There is a suspected link between schizophrenia and humans and celiac disease, so I would expect that any sort of food intolerance can have a mental effect.

If you're dead set against a raw diet, how about trying a cooked home made diet? At least then you could see if changing the ingredients you use makes a difference.

It's not that I am set against the raw food diet, but when I was reading about BARF years ago, both pro and con, I saw a few horror stories about cats on raw food diets suffering terribly from parasites and deficiencies. Sort of like reading the back and forth between Atkins dieters and vegans. Both sides claim authority--both sides are adamant in their beliefs.

I picked up a frozen chub of Countrypets for Cats last weekend. It is from New Zealand and contains no grains. I think it's raw (but I could be mistaken about that). I plan to thaw it and begin giving it to Caesar later this week--I just wanted to be sure that he didn't have any lingering issues from his last vet visit before starting. I want there to be as few variables as possible to be considered if he starts vomiting. (Some cats do react badly to the raw foods, at least at first.)

I don't think it is raw, but good stuff. I've fed that to my cat too.