When diagnosing hay allergy in your cat, it will be based primarily on clinical signs. An allergy in a cat does not present itself like a human allergy would with sneezing and coughing. Instead, it presents itself as a skin issue that may only be identified as chronic feet licking or something more obvious like hair loss all over the body.
Your veterinarian will begin by performing a full physical exam on your cat. She will make note of all his symptoms and where they are primarily affecting him on his body. She will also want to collect a verbal history from you. She will want to know any and all details as to what your cat has ingested and had contact with recently.
As a safety precaution, your veterinarian may want to take a skin scraping sample from your cat or perform a skin cytology. These tests can rule out skin issues that may be affecting your cat. For example, she will need to rule out parasitic infections, fungal skin infections, or other likely skin ailments.
There is also an available blood serum test panel you can have completed on your cat in regards to environmental allergies. The results are very reliable and can offer you insight to your cat’s condition. Your veterinarian will collect a blood sample from your cat and send it off for testing. The laboratory will run it against an environmental panel and results will show what your cat is allergic to and how severely. For example, it can indicate if your cat is allergic to pollen, dust, human dander, and more.