'Rash' that won't heal

Poor Spot! He has this large red moist area on his stomach that won't heal, despite lots of meds we've tried; and putting him in a baby onesie which was suggested by my vet to try to keep it clean-- his stomach hangs down and he drags it into the litter and stuff, his skin also folds over right there and so it ends up staying moist which doesn't help things.
I felt a lump near the area and the red area had gotten bigger again, so we made a vet appointment. We went in today and it turns out the lump I felt was his lymph node. Both of the lymph nodes closest to the red area are really swollen, so my vet did bloodwork to see if there was anything else going on and his blood values weren't good. He also lost weight since his last vet visit. My vet put him on a different class of antibiotics to try(Azithromycin) and Adenosyl and she said if we can't get the area to heal they might need to remove the whole area for biopsy, and the lymph nodes as well. My vet also is ordering me a pet "medical shirt" for him to wear, because the onesies haven't been working out well, he manages to get out of them when I'm not looking.

Spot in his onesie:

I don't know too much about skin rashes, but a couple things you could do in the mean time:
1. get a different kind of litter - there are ones made especially for geriatric/overweight cats to prevent them from getting UTI's but I'm sure they could help in this situation as well. I think they usually have larger granules.
2. Put him on a diet - the less he weighs, the less his belly will hang down in lots of folds. It's better for his health anyways.

I'm not sure if I can change their litter because my cats seem to be allergic/sensitive to most litters, I've tried a lot of different types before I finally found one that worked, a walnut based litter. I use Breeze litter boxes for most of their boxes which have big pellets, but I have one big box with the walnut litter because when I tried to switch to all Breeze boxes they hate it and start going outside the boxes.

He actually has been losing weight, he used to be 14 pounds but now including his recent weight loss since his last vet visit (which was over a pound lost), he is down to 11.75 pounds. I don't think losing weight will help with his "spay sway" hanging down though because it's mostly loose skin that is hanging down, not fat, and his losing weight has not done anything to make him have less loose skin on his stomach... In fact the skin may even be looser and folding in on itself even more. The area where the 'rash' is, the skin fold over right there and folds in on itself which makes a moist environment and I think that is partly why it won't heal. We've tried topicals as well as the various meds.

The onesie does help to protect it from the litter and also keeps the skin from folding over, but it's just not really made for a cat so he can get out of them eventually, I put it on and it stays on for a while but a few hours later I will find the onesie on the floor. I am hoping the medical shirt my vet ordered for me will work better since it is made for pets, it's basically similar to a onesie design except that it is made for a cat's body shape and has a hole for their tail and for them to use the litterbox (I cut a hole in the onesie too).

Maybe he just needs a tummy tuck like Grim

Yeah I said to my vet, that if they have to remove the whole thing for a biopsy he will basically be getting a tummy tuck!

Hi Nekochan!

I don't have much time, but I'll pass along a few links/references for you.

I find the idea of removing such a huge area so radical, quite frankly, I can't believe what I'm reading!

Surely, a small sample should be sent for culture/biopsy.....that's quite normal.....but, the whole area excised???????? Crazy, in mt opinion!

The links are on MRSA, the human equivalent of MRSI.....a staph infection, resistant to most antibiotics.

Maybe I'm totally off-base, but, were I in your position, I'd certainly be raising this issue and insisting that it be ruled in or out.

I honestly don't have time to go through the references, but, if you do, you'll find references to MEDICAL HONEY....that's something I'd look for immediately.

Are you near a Vet school....or, is there a Veterinary Dermatologist nearby? THAT resource will be critical to getting to the bottom of all this.

I just went to pull the bookmarks I had from 2008 on this.....of course, most links are not working now!

But, this one does:

http://www.sfgate.com/pets/yourwhol...s-dog-Drug-resistant-staph-2484895.php#page-1

Now, the second link I had bookmarked was fro Pet Connection, a blog by Christie Keith....apparently she has "sold out"...that site is now "VetStreet" and, of course those geniuses have not archived any of the previous articles. It was the transcript from the interview with the dog "owner" referenced in that SFGate article and was much more detailed, including the results of using medicinal honey.

Here are some references to "medicinal honey":

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/09/090908-mrsa-staph-manuka-honey.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2686636/

I would ask my pharmacist if s/he could access medicinal honey for me....and, I'd be trying it.

But, my advice would also include on access to a Vet dermatologist, or, that your Vet consult with one.

Gotta go.

wf

Thanks, my vet does consult with a dermatologist, I'm not sure if she did about this particular issue but I'll ask her (she did for my other cat's allergies). We will definitely try everything else first and I will ask about a smaller biopsy. I can't remember if she did a culture before of this rash, I think she may have, it's been going on so long now though and I have several cats with health problems so I am not sure if it was for this issue so I will ask.

I am a little worried because I am going out of town for 2 weeks, my parents are watching my pets but I also have a cat sitter coming in every other day because my parents aren't good with the stairs and some of the litter boxes are upstairs so the petsitter is taking care of that and going to keep an eye on their health for me, she's a vet tech. I might be having my dad take Spot in for a recheck while I am gone, I am waiting to hear when my vet wanted me to bring him back in... I'm also supposed to start giving Baytril in 1 week so hopefully they won't have too hard a time with giving his meds while I am gone...

We went back in today for a recheck. The spot/rash thing has not gotten any better with the medications we tried this time either... My vet says if it doesn't clear up this month she wants to remove it. I asked about doing a biopsy of a small area and she said she'd be worried that it may not heal properly if she did that, she would rather remove the whole thing so that there would be healthy skin left for the edges to heal, and she is worried whether there could something else going on causing it so she'd rather remove it and then we can send it for biopsy.  He has a large amount of loose/hanging skin there. One lymph node near it is still swollen so he is staying on the Baytril and she is having me try putting diaper cream on it, she said I could also try calamine, to to try dry it out. I can only use the cream if the area is fully covered though to be sure he doesn't lick it off because of the zinc. But she wants me to make an appointment for surgery for the end of the month in case it doesn't improve...
 

Hopefully it starts to clear up. If not hopefully the surgery and biopsy will get to the bottom of things. I have a dog that keeps getting a reoccurring belly rash so I know how frustrated you must be.

If he gets a tummy tuck, he'll be more comfortable And more handsome. ;D


For real though, I hope this gets solved in one way or another. *hug*

So I haven't seen any improvement in the "rash".

Here is a photo I took last week:
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8494/8390358345_b43a9070ba.jpg

Oh.. that looks so bad..

I vote for the tummy tuck. Just getting rid of that might be the best option..

I agree with Minka, tummy tuck an be rid of it for good. Imagine how much better your baby is going to feel with that gone. Goodluck.

Not what I think a rash looks like - more like a burn.  Poor cat.

He's adorable. I don't have any advice but my thoughts and prayers are coming his way!

My vet wants me to bring him in Thursday for surgery, otherwise it would have to wait a long time because Feb. is spay/neuter month so she is going to booked up...

OrientalSlave said:

Not what I think a rash looks like - more like a burn.  Poor cat.

Click to expand...

Couldn't be a burn. It's been like that and growing for more than 3 weeks.

I said it looked like a burn... 

It's been occurring a lot longer than that actually, I'm not even sure how long it's been now but a long time, or course it started as a much smaller spot, we've been trying different medications and sprays and things since it started. We think it probably started either due to conditions from his skin folding in on itself, as the exact area that is now affected is skin that folds over when he stands up so it is all inside a big skin fold/flap; or possibly due to the issue of the loose skin in that area because it also hangs down and he drags his stomach flap into the litterbox when he squats down which could have started an infection, or a combination of those factors (the folded skin making a warm and moist area for bacteria to grow). That plus these guys seem to have messed up immune systems, several of his littermates have allergies and immune issues... Now since he's been having this issue I have been cleaning the area off all the time because litter will stick to it since the spot is moist and also when he lies down anywhere he exposes it to the ground (unless he has the clothes on protecting it.)

My vet just emailed me, they got the biopsy results back. She said the diagnosis was: "Severe eosinophilic granuloma complex/granuloma" and they said they didn't find anything infectious.
Eosinophilic granuloma complex is something we had suspected he might have because he had some lip ulcers and paw pad sores before, and his brother Mr Grey has it too (we're pretty sure, he's got classic symptoms) and two of his other littermates have been showing similar but less severe symptoms to Mr Grey's...so I don't know if it's a genetic allergy issue or what.
I am wondering if he is allergic to the litter since it was on his stomach and before he had paw pad sores but I have changed litters so I don't know.