Fiberglass Dermatitis

This is "Patches", a 3-years old kitty who is a total house-cat, unless she escapes (which happens rarely).

Three weeks ago, the owners had some kitchen vent-hood problems. An opening was created, allowing the cat access (via a series of jumps) to the attic crawlspace. The space is unfinished, with exposed joists and fiberglass bat insulation between the ceiling joists.

When recovered from the attic, she became intensely itchy, excoriating herself and losing hair. Over a couple of weeks, she recovered about 90% and was doing much better. Five days ago she gained access to the attic again. The itching exploded.  She has some mild spots of hair loss and scabbing (from self-trauma) on top of her neck and rump, also the lower hind legs. Those areas are similar to the facial area in the picture.

Take a look at her belly, though.  If that doesn't make you hurt, you just have no empathy at all.  Her tail is even worse.  She's been biting holes in it.

I believe that fiberglass is the likely culprit. I know that I get really itchy if I just handle the stuff a little bit.  In searching Veterinary Information Network, I could only find a few cases mentioned.  They suggested that you might be able to find the glass fibers by doing a skin scraping (like you would for mange mites) or by using clear tape to lift little thingies from the skin.  I tried a skin scraping and found nothing. A scotch-tape preparation yielded some debris that might be fiberglass and might be anything, really.

I went up to the clinic attic and gathered the little glob of fiberglass in the picture.  My fingers itched for an hour afterward.  I cut off a little to look at under the microscope. My eyepiece cam is low resolution, so this won't show up well. The heavy dark line at lower left is one of my own human hairs. 

The salient information is that the fibers were of dramatically different shapes and sizes. Some looked straight and stiff, others coiled up. Some were three times as thick as others. Some had little globules, like nits, along their length, others did not.

In short, you could take virtually any linear debris from the cat's skin and find a fiberglass fiber that resembled it.  So did I get fiberglass from the cat?  Is fiberglass the problem?

One of the dermatologists I consulted with says that her own cat gets in the attic and plays with the insulation and has no problems at all.  On the other hand, there were other case reports of fiberglass-associated dermatitis available... and my own hand itching for an hour after barely touching the stuff.

Treatment-wise, the only suggestions I found in my research were topical cortisone and tincture of time (three weeks to grow a new layer of skin?).  I gave her a little dexamethasone injection and sent home DermaCool HC for topical use several times daily. She is to come in for a recheck after two days. I may have to bandage the tail, get an e-collar and add antibiotics.  I've sure got to do something.  She looks tough.

Comments

[Elizabeth Mozo]

What do you do for a german shephard with Fiberglass Dermatitis?