Expert: Dr. Louis N. Gotthelf - 2/28/2010

Question
My black and white 10-yr-old kitty has been licking all of the hair from her stomach and hind legs for years.  We made changes in her litter, food, etc., she has had 3 or 4 shots of DepoMedrol, and recently she had a shot and we tried amitriptyline at the same time for 1 mo.  Once the shot wore off, the excessive grooming resumed as it always does.  You mentioned chlorpheniramine as a possibility in another post.  Can we try benadryl or some other over the counter antihistamine?  If so, how much?  Thank you.

Answer
Chlorpheniramine works best of all of the antihistamines in cats.  The dose is 2 mg twice daily.  Some vets are also using Atopica (cyclosporine) in cats twice a week (10 mg capsule) rather than DepoMedrol because of the problem with diabetes from Depo shots.