Non itching large sores

Hello, I am new to this board. I've looked around to see if I could find anyone who'd seen anything like this before but no luck.

Fort Lauderdale has to be the North American capital of strays! My roommate and I live at the end of a street and regularly have 4 strays come around. The friendliest is Blackie, he could be on our lap doing the paw massage thing and purring, we feed them a little and apparantly so do our neihgbors.

Blackie used to be VERY healthy looking. His fur shined, and was a good size and he got lots of affection from all. Unfortunately back in December the hair disappeared between his hindquarters and then he started getting bald spots on various parts of his body. HE DOES NOT SCRATCH, DOES NOT APPEAR ITCHY IN THE LEAST. He does not either seem to be overlicking the areas. But somedays there more "SORE LIKE" than "SPOT LIKE" that's when you can tell he's been licking cuz the fur is wet around. I was hoping the problem would eventually heal on it's own but it's been just over a month and although there don't seem to be any new spots, the first ones between his hinds do not seem to be getting any better. He's a fairly big strong cat with a great personality but we don't really give him much loving anymore as we don't want to touch him too much and we wash our hands religiously after. HE DOES NOT APPEAR TO BE CONTAGIOUS as the three other regular strays have nothing of the sort and our 2 cats who frequent them are fine as well.

We've no budget to get Blackie the stray to the vet, but I'd be willing to treat him myself if I could find some home remedy. I just can't figure out what he's got (the few vets we called assumed it was ringworm, mange or fleas but they would all have itching...)

Please take a look at these pictures:

Its really hard to say what this condition could be without a skin scrape or trip to the vet. Going by what you say is hard to suggest what it could be as well. But if you say that this condition has been present for about a month and none of the other cats nor yourself have been affected then it may not be ring worm considering that ring worm is HIGHLY contagious. It could be staph infection. This cat probably does lick or scratch since you say that sometimes these bald spots seem more like sores. You just may not be around to see him lick or scratch. This condition could be a number of things, fleas, staph, allergies, etc.. If you really want to help this kitty, a trip to the vet would be in order. Because it could be a number of things, I wouldn't try a home remedy. One shampoo or cream that might help one sort of bacteria might only cause a bad reaction for another condition. Sorry I couldn't be more help but there are so many skin conditions with cats and most symptoms are similar, bald spots, redness, with or without itching.

I sometimes spend entire days around him in the backyard and never see him scratch or lick them. so although he may a little, it's certainly no urge

I've never heard of the staph thing before... He has absolutely no growling or dominant behaviour towards us or other cats or scars or war wounds so I assume he never fights, where would he get a staph infection? Our teeny gray stray is the growliest of the bunch, and when he growls, all others just leave hi hi hi

So fleas/mange/ringworm may NOT be itchy?

A little more research has revealed a couple of other options, are any of you familiar with these disorders? I've underlined my symptoms...

Feline Endocrine Alopecia: Thinning or balding of coat on insides of back legs, lower abdomen and genital area. Distribution is symmetrical (mirror image). Occurs most often in neutered males and spayed females.

Cortisone Excess: Loss of hair in symmetrical pattern over trunk with darkening of underlying skin. May indicate thyroid problem.

That would explain the longterm non contagion and non itching...

staph is a bacterial infection. Although the most common cause of staph in animals is from scratching. All animals including humans have staph that is dormant in our skin but once the skin becomes irritated, from scratching or fleas or such, the infection comes along. While his scratching or urge to itch or lick may not appear to be severe, it doesn't take much. For instance, of course fleas will irritate and cause an animal of be itchy. But it just takes one flea to bite one time and an animal to scratch a few times to have a reaction with the skin. The cat could have a flea allergy or a food allergy which causes the bald spots. This does not mean that he will be itching and scratching and licking like crazy for these problems to exist. Although they are more common symptoms, he just may not do it as severe. At least he does not seem to be uncormfortable with the situation which is good but its not to be confused with something that is not serious or could lead to something serious. Hope this helps... a lil more