he's scratching till he's bleeding!

Hi everyone,
maybe some of you know what is wrong with my baby...
Carter started scratching his ears until they were all bloody a few weeks ago, the vet found they were inflamed and gave him antibiotics which worked fine. So far so good.
But on Friday he began scratching and hacking little bits of fur - with the skin still on - out of his left shoulder and at first I thought it was just a side effect of the ear scratching thing, like his claws slipped off or something. Every day this gaping hole where the fur is missing becomes bigger and it seems to be so very itchy that he scratches all the time, ripped-off skin and blood everywhere
We're going to see the vet this week still but in the meantime, does anybody know what might be the matter or how to ease the itching? I've tried some olive oil and tea on the wound so it shouldn't get infected to make things worse, but there wasn't anything changing...

Thank you in advance for any ideas or vibes!
Mary

Have you treated him for fleas?
One flea bite can send a cat into an allergic scratching frenzy.

Only 5 things I know that can cause an ear scratching frenzy:

1. Ear mites
2. Fleas
3. Mosquitoes (though I doubt this would be your problem)
4. Ants (see comment on point No.3 )
5. Allergies.

You need to check for ear mites. Once treated, give your cat a medicinal bath ( I use Malaseb but you may have something different there) to ensure that every single dust from fleas or earmites are gone, gone, gone!

Now about allergies...I learnt the hard way that my cats are allergic to clay litter of any sort.

Do another vet check and put your cat in an E-Collar and make sure nails are clipped.

Good luck!

Originally Posted by Abymummy

Only 5 things I know that can cause an ear scratching frenzy:

1. Ear mites
2. Fleas
3. Mosquitoes (though I doubt this would be your problem)
4. Ants (see comment on point No.3

)
5. Allergies.

You need to check for ear mites. Once treated, give your cat a medicinal bath ( I use Malaseb but you may have something different there) to ensure that every single dust from fleas or earmites are gone, gone, gone!

Now about allergies...I learnt the hard way that my cats are allergic to clay litter of any sort.

Do another vet check and put your cat in an E-Collar and make sure nails are clipped.

Good luck!

Click to expand...

That is fantastic advice

It may be some form of fungal infection.. like ringworm or something similar. Treatment for these is pretty easy, not terribly expensive overall, albeit usually a fairly long time. And, it will spread, so if it started on the ear, with scratching, it could easily get larger and spread to a shoulder or what have you.

Even if it is a fungal infection.. you might still have something underlying that caused him to start scratching in the first place, which then gave the infection a chance to catch on.

First of all, thank you everyone for your support

The vet was off for the weekend already , so i need to call her first thing tomorrow and since me and my fiancÃ[emoji]169[/emoji] are spending all day tied in lots of red tape, he won't see the vet before Tuesday Last night I dabbed his freshly scratched neck with some cool chamomile to help with the itching and though at first he was a bit reluctant, he soon pressed himself against it, so i guess it felt good.
Boy am I glad when this is over!!!!

Aww, poor guy. I hope you can get him cleared up soon, must be awful seeing him like that.

Yay, we're back from the vet!!

Turns out he has earmites *and* a fungal infection, the poor boy

Got pink pills for him to swallow, ointment for his itchy shoulder and - worst of all - drops for his ears...he HATES that!!!!!
This morning we had a real fight, with me holding him tightly, him scratching and clawing his way out thank God we'll only need to do that for 5 days if things work out ok which I hope...

Now that I'm typing he has to guard me from the desk against any evil intruders that might steal his meowmy... such a cute boy! In fact, the pic next to my name looks almost exactly like him...awwwww

Originally Posted by Minerva

Yay, we're back from the vet!!

Turns out he has earmites *and* a fungal infection, the poor boy

Got pink pills for him to swallow, ointment for his itchy shoulder and - worst of all - drops for his ears...he HATES that!!!!!
This morning we had a real fight, with me holding him tightly, him scratching and clawing his way out

thank God we'll only need to do that for 5 days if things work out ok which I hope...

Click to expand...

Are the pink pills Fluconazole? If so, watch your baby closely as sometimes they may have an adverse reaction to the pill (i.e. lethargic, loss of appetite). For the ear drops, try wrapping him in a towel (think kitty burrito) first.

:lol3:

I think the kitty burrito thing is hilarious. I have one cat that loves it, another who can it handle for about five minutes and my last kitty....if I'm even eating burritos she won't come any where near me :not:

For some cats and kittens this works very well. But I've found that feral foster kitties are very very skittish when it comes to being held in a confining manner. The younger they are when you start subduing them like this the easier and more quickly they will adapt to being held this way. :rub:

But just a little advice for anyone with ferals....don't be surprised if it's ok when they are a kitten but by time they get to be 4-5 months old they are likely to disappear across a Rosenberg bridge if you even LOOK like you are going to try and turn them into a burrito. :dash:

There are some personality traits you can't change no matter how early you get them. :hobbes:

Good luck with your baby, I have a kitty going through the same thing.

It's even more difficult when vets tell you it could be this or this or this.....
And in the end they still can't be sure so they have you try one thing, then another till you have no idea if you are up or down or this way or that way and all you want is your furry baby to be well.

BUT they're our babies so we just have to!!!!

Happy Kitty Cuddling, KJNOLAN

BITSY-BOOS, BABY'S AND FLUFFER BUGS' HUMAN. :rub: