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Why is my cat scratching, acting strange, and caterwauling at night?
Updated on September 23rd, 2025
Pet's info: Cat | Mixed Breed | Female | 5 months and 18 days old
I think my cat has a feline miliary dermatitis and she keeps on acting weird because of it. She lays and scratches her back onto the floor. And at night, she keeps on caterwauling too. What can I do about this aside from bringing her to the vet?
4 Answers
Most Helpful Answer
Answered By Dr. Massimo Orioles, DVM, Cert AVP, MRCVS
Veterinarian
Published on December 29th, 2018
This could be due to an allergy, although it could also be infection or mites.
The treatment would depend on the underlying cause.
First of all, in order to rule out skin parasites, you will need to treat with a high quality flea treatment, then ask the vet to perform a skin scrape - this might reveal an infection or a mite infestation.
If all of those came back negative, the next step is to treat the allergy symptomatically and try to discover the cause of the allergy.
Three main type of allergies are usually affecting pets: food allergies, flea and parasite related ones and environmental type (allergens coming from trees, pollens, dust etc etc).
Some medications can be given by the vet in order to repair any possible skin lesions (like steroids and antibiotics).
Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further. If this answer was helpful please let us know, this will be used to improve our service!
1Pet Parents found this answer helpfulRelated Answers from Veterinarians
Answered By Andrea M. Brodie, DVM
Veterinarian
Published on August 16th, 2018
The only way to help your dog is to make sure there are absolutely no fleas that can bite him as that can cause the allergy.
Besides the flea medication from the vet you need to do the following:
Unfortunately fleas only hop on the body of your pet when they want to feed, then they hop off again and stay in your pet's environment. So you need to treat all pets in the household as well as the environment (which contains the fleas, their eggs and larvae).
Flea treatment:
1) Get some flea medication such as a Flea spray or a spot on from a pet shop or your veterinarian and apply monthly 2) get flea powder, put some in your vacuum cleaner bag and vacuum your house and furniture and also non-carpeted areas frequently to remove flea larvae and eggs which live off house dust., Dispose of the bag in the trash outside. Hot-wash all the pet's bedding,
If you do this diligently for a few months you will get rid of the fleas.
Flea products:
Spot-ons and/or chews
Advantage, Advantix
Advantage Multi (Advocate in the UK)
Frontline (ticks as well)
Bravecto spot on (ticks as well) - for cats, in tablet form for dogs
Simparica, Nexgard
Revolution (stronghold in the UK)
Tablets: comfortis (will only kill fleas once)
Collar: Seresto (ticks as well)
Make sure to regularly use flea preventinve according to the individual flea prevention medicine's instructions (once a month or every several months,respectively).1Pet Parents found this answer helpful
Answered By Lindsey Edwards MVB, BSc, IVCA
Veterinarian
Published on June 24th, 2017
Poor Wheezy, she looks very uncomfortable and at risk of generating significant skin injury and additional complications. I recommend skin scrapes or a biopsy if not performed so fr in order to rule out medical causes such as mites or infections. If negative, a hydrolysed diet such as royal canin anallergenic should be fed with no treats/flavored tablets etc for a minimum of 8 weeks in order to determine the contribution of food sensitivities to her discomfort. IF she does not show complete resolution of her signs you should consider prescription anti-allergy medications. Rigorous flea prevention is important in such cases also as even a single flea bite will often trigger severe itching in sensitive dogs.
2Pet Parents found this answer helpful
Answered By David Elbeze, DVM, MRCVS
Veterinarian
Published on May 12th, 2017
Scratching can be caused by various reasons such as fleas, mites ,fungal infection, bacterial infection and allergies. the first 4 needs to be ruled out before we start treating for allergies. in order to do that first de-flea Otis with a high quality flea treatment such as advantage spot on, if it doesn't help - take him to the vet in order to check for/treat the other possibilities. If everything is ruled out, then an allergy treatment can be started. Usually an hypoallergenic food is a good way to start together with anti histamines. if it doesn't help - the best solution is a medication called Apoquel which treats allergies with great success and without side effects.
3Pet Parents found this answer helpful