Please HELP! My kitten has a strange skin problem.

I am worried sick! PLEASE help.
I have consulted 3 vets and in my part of the country (Punjab in India) none of the vets have any practical know-how related to felines. They simply apply the same treatment of dogs to the cats. (One of them even told me to feed him milk and bread all the time)

I adopted this malnourished black kitten who happened to be an orphan at an age of 3 weeks.I have named him Shadow.
Shadow was a very weak and malnourished guy,with his bones showing, but he ate a lot and quickly gained some weight.
Now he is 12 weeks old and for a long time he had these strange bald patches under his neck , hind legs and at the base of his tail.
One of the vets attributed it to weakness, the other said that it was an allergy, the third said that this was some food allergy due to heat generated in this body.
He has no parasites at all because he has been given a shot of Revolution and is a purely indoor cat.I have never seen any fleas or ticks on him. And he rarely ever scratches these areas, just licks them in a very normal way. 

As i said earlier, the bald area are---
His neck(from the chin to the chest)
top of his head and ears
base of the tail
Hind Legs
front paws

He grooms normally, doesn't scratch any area badly, is playful and happy, eats well, poops normal.


Why I am scared??

First of all, there is NO vet  here who knows a thing about cats.(One didn't even know about his vaccinations and didnt even touch the kitten)

Second,earlier the exposed skin was pink  and now it has started turning blueish black  in color. The rest of the skin(under the normal hair growth is still pink. The hind legs in the photo are black because of the blueish skin. There are hardly any hair on his hind legs.

It doesn't have any symptoms of a Ringworm and as i said, no fleas. 
I couldnt find any good cat food here. Apart from ME-O and Asian Whiskas(both of which are not very good) .
I fed him Whiskas dry and wet food and thought that this is a food allergy, but now I am feeding him chicken ONLY from past two weeks and there is NO change. 


If anybody here is a vet himself/herself or has faced this problem or has any idea about this PLEASE  let me know what should i do??What do I do to make him healthy?
And in case you are going to the vet any time soon , can you please ask him what actually this is? I will take care of the rest. 
God bless.

Oh my goodness, the poor baby!.

I've no idea what it could be, but keep checking in because someone might be able to give you some advice

Thank you for taking him in.  He still looks very thin.  Have you managed to get a safe, effective wormer for him?  If you know someone in the UK hopefully they can buy Drontal and post it to you.  You do need to get the right dose for him, so you need to know how much he weighs and compare it against the data sheet:

http://www.noahcompendium.co.uk/Bayer_plc/Drontal_Cat_Tablets/-23590.html

They can also buy Frontline and that will treat against fleas which are a common cause of this sort of problem.  I know you think there are no fleas, but it's a safe product and might help.  What is interesting is that his skin doesn't look inflamed of itchy.

I'm not sure his skin changing colour is a problem - it might simply be because he is getting light on it.

Is it raw or cooked chicken you are feeding him?  Just chicken (no bone, no innards) isn't a complete diet though raw is a bit better than cooked.  Suggest you check into the nutrition forum for people who know much more about this than I do.

The other thing is he will need neutering in 2-3 months.

Hello and thank you for caring about this little one. He does look unhappy and in a state and I hope you can find a solution. There are so many things that could be causing the problem - flea allergy, food allergy, or bad nutrition being possibles. Since he is not licking or scratching, the allergy idea is less likely. It could be a result of the malnutrition and you may find that the fur will grow back over hte coming months as he gets into better health. I would give him canned food - the best you can find, plus some raw chicken. Add a teaspoon of fish oil to his food daily f you can get it - that is very good for the coat, or olive oil as a second choice. If I can think of anything else I will post again. Good luck

Poor baby. I have no experience with such hair loss or discoloration, but found this chart that might give you or your vet some ideas:
Causes of Hair Loss

:cross::cross::cross: that it's due to something like malnutrition and will resolve itself given some time and proper nourishment. Good luck to you!

I am very familiar with this fur issue.

He is from a malnourished mom, and suffers from malnutrition as well. He is extremely nutrient difficient.

The lack of any fur on his neck is because it can be scratched or chewed off very easily since it's much weaker fur and not hearty, strong and robust as it should be.

The texture of the fur he does have is likely not bunny soft as it should be in a young kitten either I expect.

Chicken only will not work, unfortunately it's not a complete diet.

My experience in kittens like this were born to a feral mom, who was eating anything she could find, crap basically, and sadly for her to develop kittens it took away every bit of her nutrients, so you can imagine the shape she is in, and likely pregnant again. Very sad.

Anyway I don't know what is available where you are in the way of good, healthy food with all the nutrients he desperately needs to absorb and grow healthy fur and internally, which by the way, if you see he is this bad on the outside, imagine internally, he needs help asap.

I have successfully turned kittens like him around, but this needs to be done urgently, as I couldn't fix one kitten fast enough to save him, he died a week later.

I use Babycat. I wholeheartedly believe in this food for kittens. It is gold to me and has saved many, many kittens lives and health.

Babycat is expensive, yes. but is worth every penny! It's made by Royal Canin.

I bet you can order it online and it can be shipped to you.

If you are able to, please get this.

If not, reply and tell us what is available to you so we can go from there.

It sounds to me like an allergy, even though he is not actively scratching, I have seen cats overgroom in areas that are itchy for them, and the areas where he seems to be itching more i.e. base of tail as well as around the ears and neck, are classic allergy areas. The most common allergy as the other poster said, is from fleas or flea dirt. In order to make sure your kitty has no further contact with it, you need to make sure that every surface your kitty comes into contact with is free of any such debris. 

I would look at giving him anti-inflammatory holistic items along with buffered vitamin C which should respectively calm down any kind of allergic or inflammation reaction and help boost his immune system. Let me know if you need info about the holistic anti inflammatory agents that will help him- here are some holistic ingredients from the allergy pills I used for my cat: anti-inflammatory agents Turmeric, Rutin, Bromelain, and Nettle Leaf Extract. Other important ingredients include NAC, Licorice Extract, Magnesium, and Alpha-Lipoic Acid. And here is the link to the pills if you are able to use it http://www.2docspethealth.com/blue-label/allergy-defense-formula.html

@OrientalSlave
Hi, thanks for the info.
I have been feeding him raw chicken meat(just the muscles  part) soaked in boiling water for a while to kill the germs.
I will try and look for Drontal. I think i can find that somehow. 
And i plan to get him neutered once he is older and fit enough

@jennyranson
Hey.
Actually I am giving him one type of meat to rule out any allergies. I will give him raw fish and fish oil after one month. Thanks 

dpkml said:

@OrientalSlave

Hi, thanks for the info.

I have been feeding him raw chicken meat(just the muscles  part) soaked in boiling water for a while to kill the germs.

I will try and look for Drontal. I think i can find that somehow. 

And i plan to get him neutered once he is older and fit enough

Click to expand...

Hi!
I agree with Catwoman... That looks like the effects of malnutrition to me....
I do feed my cats a raw diet, and while I believe it to be the best diet available.... It has to be balanced..... Chicken muscle alone, raw or cooked, is not a good diet hun - it is not going to help nourish him. He needs a balanced diet :nod: A raw diet to be balanced needs to be fed with the correct percentage of organs and bones :nod:
Do you have good canned kitten food in there?
I do believe that fish oil/Omega three would be beneficial for him too

@jcat -- thank you so much

@Catwoman-- Thank you so much for that. I felt so relieved when you told me all that. At least someone could tell me what is wrong with him.
Please help me out with this. He is such a nice guy. He has been loving me since the very first day we met. And he purrs all the time .
I couldnt find Babycat here, and I am pretty sure that there is a vast difference between the quality of the catfood of the same brand in Asia and the rest of the world.So i dont trust them.
I have all kinds of meats and vegetables available here and a vet who can do basic vaccinations. And i can cook and chop all day. 

dpkml said:

@jcat -- thank you so much


@Catwoman-- Thank you so much for that. I felt so relieved when you told me all that. At least someone could tell me what is wrong with him.

Please help me out with this. He is such a nice guy. He has been loving me since the very first day we met. And he purrs all the time .

I couldnt find Babycat here, and I am pretty sure that there is a vast difference between the quality of the catfood of the same brand in Asia and the rest of the world.So i dont trust them.

I have all kinds of meats and vegetables available here and a vet who can do basic vaccinations. And i can cook and chop all day. 

Click to expand...

How is the quality of the raw meat you get in there? Pretty safe you would say? Do you have access to places you can get good, reliable, safe raw meat and organs?

@BarB -- Thank you so much for that. I will take this info to my vet.. I hope that he can figure out a way to find a substitute to this particular medicine.

@Carolina-- hmm.. but the thing is that he is so young. will the bones and stuff be okay for him. I was giving him just the soft stuff as of now.
And it is difficult to find a meat mincer here. Can I make that in a food processor???
We get canned Whiskas fish food.

Sorry to hear you can't get Babycat or other great food there.

Carolina will help best at this point, she is a raw feeding expert! I am not unfortunately.

Best of luck to you and your little boy.

This is not to say I wont throw my 2 cents in here and there with advice if you need it on other things, but it sounds like your best option is raw diet I am clueless I do know it's the very best you can feed your cat if you can.

dpkml said:

@BarB -- Thank you so much for that. I will take this info to my vet.. I hope that he can figure out a way to find a substitute to this particular medicine.


@Carolina-- hmm.. but the thing is that he is so young. will the bones and stuff be okay for him. I was giving him just the soft stuff as of now.

And it is difficult to find a meat mincer here. Can I make that in a food processor???

We get canned Whiskas fish food.

Click to expand...

Kitten canned food would be better as it is more nutritious..... anything for kittens?
As far as raw..... You are already kind of feeding semi-raw.....

There are recipes that you can follow to make a complete and balanced diet. You don't need to necessarily feed bones - I don't for example.... I don't have a food processor either.... I balance the calcium with eggshell powder (Calcium is absolutely essential for MANY reasons - not only for bones, but for organ health, and even for heart health....). If you are not 100% sure that the meat is safe, you can bake the meat for a few minutes in the oven, or boil it for just a few seconds so the hot water kills the bacteria on the surface of the meat (that's where the bacterial load is), but you would still have the nutrional content of the meat intact, as the meat would be mostly raw..... You really don't want to cook the meat.....

But what you can't do, is to feed him an unbalanced diet (chicken muscle alone is not balanced) - that can be quite dangerous for his health......

Carolina said:

How is the quality of the raw meat you get in there? Pretty safe you would say? Do you have access to places you can get good, reliable, safe raw meat and organs?

Click to expand...

Yeah. The meat here is pretty safe and fresh. I can get good quality organs and meat .but how do i prepare a balanced diet?

catwoman707 said:

Carolina will help best at this point, she is a raw feeding expert!

Click to expand...

Oh Gee.... Thanks for the vote of confidence! That's cute..... but not an expert here! :lol3:

catwoman707 said:

Sorry to hear you can't get Babycat or other great food there.

Carolina will help best at this point, she is a raw feeding expert! I am not unfortunately.

Best of luck to you and your little boy.

This is not to say I wont throw my 2 cents in here and there with advice if you need it on other things, but it sounds like your best option is raw diet I am clueless I do know it's the very best you can feed your cat if you can.

Click to expand...

Thanks again. Do let me know whenever you think that I going wrong at any point. I will try and make him healthy by feeding him raw balanced diet . Any other steps that i should take apart from the food? No bathing right? and any vitamins etc? 

Carolina said:

Kitten canned food would be better as it is more nutritious..... anything for kittens?
As far as raw..... You are already kind of feeding semi-raw.....
There are recipes that you can follow to make a complete and balanced diet. You don't need to necessarily feed bones - I don't for example.... I don't have a food processor either.... I balance the calcium with eggshell powder (Calcium is absolutely essential for MANY reasons - not only for bones, but for organ health, and even for heart health....). If you are not 100% sure that the meat is safe, you can bake the meat for a few minutes in the oven, or boil it for just a few seconds so the hot water kills the bacteria on the surface of the meat (that's where the bacterial load is), but you would still have the nutrional content of the meat intact, as the meat would be mostly raw..... You really don't want to cook the meat.....
But what you can't do, is to feed him an unbalanced diet (chicken muscle alone is not balanced) - that can be quite dangerous for his health......

Click to expand...

Yeah. There are a few brands providing Canned Kitten food. I was feeding him that before I switched to chicken only,when i started the food allergy trials .
I always boil it for a few seconds. but never cook the meat.
So what do i do now??
Feed him balanced diet with calcium? or canned kitten food?   And should i pause the  meat allergy trials?  confused

dpkml said:

Yeah. There are a few brands providing Canned Kitten food. I was feeding him that before I switched to chicken only,when i started the food allergy trials .

I always boil it for a few seconds. but never cook the meat.

So what do i do now??

Feed him balanced diet with calcium? or canned kitten food?   And should i pause the  meat allergy trials?  confused

Click to expand...

In all honesty, I do not think this is allergies.... I would put this baby on the best kitten cat food you can get him. I would also add to his diet some fish oil - if you can get krill oil in there, even better.
Give him as much kitten canned food as he wants to eat.

Meanwhile, learn about raw feeding, if that is the route you want to go. I would stop feeding chicken alone immeditely. IMHO the time you fed him chicken alone is ok..... but if you keep going, he will get into a nutritional imbalance.
Raw is a wonderful diet. If the quality of the food you have in there is subpar, by all means, go for it! But while you are learning, feed him canned food - the best you can find :nod: