If your shiny, well-groomed cat’s coat shows white flakes, you’re probably looking at dandruff. While we tend to think of dandruff as dry skin, it can occur with oily skin conditions as well.
Before you schedule a veterinary visit, consider a few things:
Is your cat itchy?
Does she have bare patches or red, inflamed areas?
Does her coat feel oily?
What time of year is it?
While the first three questions may suggest real health problems, the fourth may simply be due to low environmental humidity, as may be found in heated houses during cold weather. If the latter is the case, grooming more and adding a humidifier may take care of it.
Also consider diet and metabolic disease like diabetes, says William H. Miller Jr., VMD, professor emeritus of medicine, section of dermatology at Cornell University’s College of
Veterinary Medicine.
Diet and Digestion
Most commercial high-grade diets are appropriate for healthy skin. “If the diet is one of the standardized foods (meeting AAFCO standards) and the fecal looks good, then adding a fatty acid supplement lifelong may not be needed.”
However, if you’re frustrated, you can try a coat supplement. “If extra fats, especially the omega-3s are going to help, you’ll see a response in four to six weeks,” says Dr. Miller.
Metabolic Issues
For metabolic problems, bloodwork is generally required to make a diagnosis. Most cats with metabolic problems show more signs than just dandruff, so you need to evaluate the entire cat.
For example, overweight cats may have a secondary dandruff problem because they can no longer reach certain parts of their body to groom. For these cats, an initial bath is a great start.
With or without the bath, you may need to shave badly matted areas and then start a regular grooming program. Combine that with a gradual diet modification (consult your veterinarian for advice, as a drastic decrease in caloric intake can make your cat extremely sick) and exercise program to get your cat back on the right track.
Infections
Parasites and infectious agents are behind many cases of feline dandruff. Ringworm will often cause a non-itchy dandruff, usually with characteristic round lesions with flaking skin on the circumference. A quick check with a Woods lamp for fluorescence by your veterinarian and/or a fungal culture will verify a ringworm infection.
If ringworm results are positive, treat ALL pets in the house and check humans, too. Some cats will be asymptomatic carriers. You will need to clean the environment carefully.
More commonly, mites and fleas that are behind the dandruff include:
Demodectic mites may not cause itching and are detected via a skin scraping.
Sarcoptic mange mites may cause intense itching and are identified via a skin scraping. These mites can be hard to find, so your veterinarian may recommend treatment with a topical “just in case.”
Cheyletiella mites, known as “walking dandruff,” can be suspected when what appears to be dry skin flakes move. These mites tend to originate from old piles of newspapers, straw, or other debris.
Fleas cause skin irritation and itching, leading to secondary dandruff. If you find fleas on one cat, you need to treat all your pets plus the environment.
Allergies to inhaled allergens and/or food can cause skin inflammation, itching, and skin flaking. Determining causative allergens can be complicated. To rule out food allergies, your veterinarian may recommend a diagnostic food trial, which takes a minimum of 6 to 8 weeks.
During a food trial, you usually begin feeding a food with a novel protein source (i.e., one the cat has not eaten before), since proteins are usually the culprit. You cannot feed the cat anything other than this novel protein food during the trial period. Your veterinarian may recommend a prescription food.
The radioallergosorbent test (RAST), which uses a blood sample to identify possible allergens, can identify other allergens but can return false positives.
If you’re referred to a veterinary dermatologist, your cat may have intradermal skin testing, which is the gold standard for inhalant allergen identification. Once allergens are identified, a solution for hyposensitization (i.e., “allergy shots”) can be made for your cat.
Once you find a cause for the dandruff, you need to address that. Once the underlying cause is treated or removed, the dandruff should clear up.
No Cause? No Problem?
If the cause is not found, you can try regular grooming instead. If you or your cat don’t enjoy the grooming efforts, then the question becomes why do anything if the cat isn’t itchy? “Having a lovable, flaky cat makes more sense to me than having a clean but hateful and now nasty kitty,” says Dr. Miller.
William H. Miller Jr., VMD, is professor emeritus of medicine, section of dermatology at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
