Thread: Feather allergy

I thought I'd post this in case it helps anyone else.

Ever since Sidney came to live with us he has had runny eyes, on and off, and has been a sneezer. We had cat snot everywhere - as soon as I chip it off the walls he sprays it back again!
Needless to say he has been to the vet many times - at first we put the eyes down to a small "incident" with his sister (they played in the litter tray together, got dust in their eyes and tried to lick each other's eyeballs better, with predictable results) or the building dust our house was filled with soon after he arrived. (Another unavoidable thing)
Well, after 4 weeks, every kind of eye drop and full spectrum antibiotics, the vet asked if I was prepared to throw some money at the problem - he took swabs from each gunky eye, cultured them for a fortnight and discovered - nothing! No virus, no bacteria, no fungus. So, we started looking for possible allergens.
Suddenly, at about 16 weeks old, he got better. No problems for 6 weeks. Then it all flared up again. Steroid eye drops seemed to fix it, after a few days, then we had another few weeks without any issues. The it happened again...

Checking my diary, I think I have worked out what is going on. We had a warm, dry autumn, and Sidney has been going out for regular walks every evening from about 16 weeks old. This wears him out, so we don't need to play with "Da Bird". Each runny eye episode followed a few days bad weather when he hadn't gone out but had played with feather toys.

Solution: we have replaced the feathers on "Da Bird" with ribbons, and he has a waterproof jacket so we can go out whatever the weather! (I am looking forward to him getting his full coat - it looks ridiculous taking a long-haired cat out with a coat on but he genuinely gets cold and he is not keen on the hairdryer if he gets very wet.)
Eating chicken is fine, it just seems to be the actual feathers. We are looking to Sidney-proof the back garden in the spring so he can go out safely, I am going to have to work on some very efficient bird-scarers!