u/LaurenShisler — reddlx

My boy Oni has been a little bit of a medical mystery these last 6-7 weeks. 1 vet was absolutely sure he has developed feline Hyperesthesia. But after he didn’t respond what so ever to the typical FHS treatments, Oni started presenting with flaming pink skin. Head shaking, scratching at his chest fluff along with the back skin rippling/twitching. Super crusty eyes on high pollen days And newly acquired asthma!

Took him to a vet I preferred and he agreed we need to try some allergy options before going to a neurologists. Oni did improve on a round of steroids, less twitching and itching. But as soon as we start the taper down all his symptoms return.

So, my vet wants to try him out on apoquel, though it is off label use for cats can help him if this truly is allergies.

Any one else have a ragdoll with skin allergies that improved on apoquel??

Background: for the last 6 weeks my kitty Oni 4 y/o male has been having back rippling, living/chewing at his sides and flanks ( that later progressed to head shaking, chest and front leg chewing).

He had an identical episode nearly 1 year ago(2025) Problem seemed to resolve with gabapentin, prednisolone and a shot of Convenia ( 16 hours prior to his skin/allergy vet appointment my dingus tore a whole ass claw off, hence the long lasting antibiotic shot) twitching and biting seemingly resolved within 48 hours after shot and few rounds of medications.

Now nearly one year later (2026) 6 weeks ago in early April these episodes started again! Back rippling, biting at his sides. Skin on his belly and sides went hot pink. One of our vets took one look at the video and decided he has FHS ( feline Hyperesthesia). I begged him to consider allergies or secondary skin infection Because Oni had a these exact symptoms nearly 11 months ago. After several rounds of gabapentin, amitryptaline, a bloodwork panel with normal CBC he wanted to start Oni on Pheno.

I said absolutely not without trying allergy options first. Scheduled an appointment with the medical director of our vet hospital and showed same videos, nearly 1 year apart of the FHS-like symptoms. He agreed that before even thinking of adding an anti seizure med we need to rule out allergies at a minimum. Thank god.

Switching him to an hydrolyzed diet, weaning him off amitryptaline and taper off his pednisolone. Once off the steroid we are trialing apoquel.

As a Hail Mary, because something we did a year prior stopped his twitching I asked if we could do a Convenia shot again. He agreed and we are basically doing the same routine he was on a year ago that seemingly cleared it up ( gaba, low dose steroid we are currently tapering him off of and a Convenia shot)

Here we are.. 48 hours later an ive seen Onis back twitch ONCE today. Even on a lower maintenance dose of steroids that he was on at this point last year.

Is it possible allergies have resulted in a secondary skin infection? How does Convenia work? If he did have a skin infection would it show up on a CBC?

Please ask for any and all clarification as this was a big info dump. I have his Chem panel results and any number of twitching episode to hot pink skin if you need to see anything!