Question:
I received a pair of domestic longhaired cats for my anniversary seven years ago. Within a year, we noticed, after the two of them were finished playing, that one cat, Sam, was bleeding and missing pieces of skin around his neck. Sam was eventually diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Other than this, he is healthy. Since that time, we have had to separate the cats. One stays in my office, while the other roams the house. They are swapped regularly: We have cats in shifts.Treatment consists mainly of suturing the numerous lacerations incurred over the years. Within a short period of time, I realized that Sam inflicted additional wounds on himself through grooming. Sam is now declawed, and I started putting dog shirts and sweaters on him to buffer his delicate skin from his own grooming. Sam seems to groom himself, including his sweater, excessively and sometimes aggressively, biting and chewing at his fur. Is this normal? He seems to have little feeling in his skin.After a couple of years of taking Sam to
R.Y., Woodlawn, Md Feb 26, 2006
Answer:
Your cat's genetic disorder (which also occurs in dogs and humans) results in a deficiency of collagen in the skin, which becomes hyperelastic and tears easily. You have done a remarkable job caring for poor Sam over the years, and you will know best, treatment costs notwithstanding, when it is time to euthanize and free him from his defective body. In the wild, he would have been long gone.Supplementing his diet with multivitamins and minerals, plus 600 milligrams twice daily of vitamin C, may help. Also, provided you can keep torn areas covered, anointing cuts with a few drops of myrrh, lavender, helichrysum and frankincense diluted in a little almond or coconut oil twice daily for no more than two days, applied every four weeks, may help accelerate healing, control infection and reduce inflammation. But extreme caution is needed using these oils on cats. They should never be used long term. As a point of interest, frankincense has recently been found effective in treating melanomas in horses.
Subscribe