I am so grateful to you for the time, energy, and wisdom you put into answering our questions on this forum. My question is about a cat named Mocha, 11 year old, FS, DSH. She began licking herself to alopecia 4 years ago. The rDVM ruled out allergies. She particularly licks her ventrum, medial legs, underside of base of tail, and scratches pinnae. Fleas and ectoparasites have been ruled out. The only effective therapy has been shots of Depomedrol by the rDVM which last for 6 weeks. Her tongue is pink but the tip mildly red. Her pulse is wiry. When I initially saw her 11/19/19, I performed acupuncture every 1-2 weeks for four treatments and tried Qing Ying Tang. I surmised that since the licking was responsive to steroids maybe this herb would work along with relieving some liver blood stagnation. It did not help. On 1/7/2020 I was able to get more details from the owner that within the 3 cats in the household there were dominance issues with Mocha being second in line to a male 8 year old cat who had just started marking indoors and a newish 8 month old kitten (third in line but a pest no less). I advised her to use Feliway, Nurture calm collars, add litter pans, give Mocha separate time away from the other cats, and added Shen calmer. However she continues to lick. The male cat in the household is now being treated with Clompiramine which has helped him and the owner is considering it for Mocha as well. Other than this she has a III/VI Heart murmur and a slightly elevated ALT. I was thinking of XYS of an option but for some reason just haven't had great results with this herb in cats. I would be open to any thoughts or ideas on other herbs I can try with her.
Thanks so much,
Sincerely,
Nina Malik, DVM