Suggestions for a Cat with Eczema

I'm not new here, but I can't seem to remember what my original information was. I tried retrieving it...anyway, not the point.

Months back I took in a feral mom and her five babies from my backyard. (They've been adopted out and I kept one.)

The one I kept is called Nicodemus. He's roughly 7-8 months old now, got neutered last month. So about 2 months ago (when he was roughly 5 months old) he began ripping his fur out from the shoulders up. We took him to the vet, the vet went over him with a comb and couldn't find fleas/mites. He was only itching from the neck up (and he REALLY loves being scratched under the chin and stuff) which I read online is a sign of mites though my vet ruled it out.

We got an ointment and oral meds and it cleared up after about 2 weeks (though we also had to cone him for a the first bit). He was off the meds for a while with no issues, now he's itching again this past week and I found a dime size tear today on his shoulder. I plan to get more meds from the vet, but I've tried talking to them and they're really not answering my questions about treating it and what not. They don't know what the cause is still, haven't really done anything to find out, but the meds work so I'm happy for that.

Any suggestions or experience? Here are some more notes:

-When he started itching again I gave him a bath, I'm trying mite preventitive stuff just to fully rule it out.

-He ONLY itches from the shoulders, along his neck, under his chin, and around the base of his ears (not in the ears).

-He started around 5 months of age before he was neutered, continued after.

-Vet says there is no visible reason for it, but he spent maybe 30 seconds looking and did a black light test and all.

-Nicodemus responded very well to oral meds and ointment, but I'm looking for a more long term suggestion on making my kitty more comfortable.

-I have two other cats, Jack and Lily, they've no symptoms of anything hence my feeling its not mites or fleas (on top of the fact I don't see parasites).

Can my cat be allergic to himself?

Edit:

More to add!

-Nic has been tested for lots of stuff (I bought a kitten package and then some, so they did tons of tests and crap on him, all turned up negative).

-We've changed his food several times over the course of the past couple months - I hate doing this cause I know it can upset their tummies. We've tried different brands and holistic (some of the names escape me). We tried wet vs dry, etc. We stuck on Friskies wet when he cleared up and had no issues. With the new itching we're trying to slowly switch over to Royal Canin. If it is a food allergy he might be allergic to everything. :x

Welcome back!

I don't think it's possible to be allergic to yourself, no. I would say it sounds like some sort of environmental allergy. Detergent.. House cleaners.. Air freshener.. Grass.. It could be anything.
Sorry, I don't know where you would go from there..

You don't say where you are located. If you're in a colder climate and you have central heating, do you think it might be causing him to have dry skin? Dry skin would certainly be itchy for him (it certainly can be for humans). The places you describe are areas on his body he would have trouble keeping moist with his regular cleaning of himself.

The cats are kept upstairs and they never go outside, ever. (Too many roads and cars and crazy nut jobs.)

I stopped using air fresheners with the cats cause I know those can be irritating. After his original break out I started using pet safe products, that also seemed to have no effect.

The enviornment seems to be stress free...no major changes. Other than merrily ripping his fur out he seems well adjusted. Good appetite (too good sometimes, he is really food aggressive around people as in trying to take off their plates and he's not shy about it with strangers - got worse when I had to control his diet cause the vet said he was getting too chunky).

I live in the US, we do have central heating but it was not turned on during his first out break. North Eastern (Philly, PA). We had an oddly warm/cool fall so the AC and the heat were both off since about early September.

We've kept the window open with a fan in it since the AC was turned off. So he started to break out about mid October, the heat wasn't turned on til about mid November.

I noticed after his bath he's reduced his itching by a lot.

I also found him covered in dust from god knows where...I'm usually rather clean, I wonder where he found dust.

What are you feeding?  Have you tried adding anything like Wellactin Feline?  (It's an omega-3 supplement.)  How often do you feed him?  Are you sure this is not something like ringworm? 
 

Just be aware that if it's a food allergy, it takes a long time when switching foods to determine if that was the cause.  Like a month in between the food changes.  It's a very slow process trying to determine which, if any, foods he might be allergic to.  You mentioned you are trying to switch over to Royal Canin.  Wet or dry?  I would try to keep him on wet food, and preferable a good grain free.  Since he's technically still a kitten, though, I would probably stick with a grain free kitten food, though, at least for another month or so, unless your Vet says it's ok to go with an adult food since he's already getting "chunky", as you say. 

In the meantime, it's good that he gets relief from the meds.  What meds does he get? 

stephanietx said:

What are you feeding?  Have you tried adding anything like Wellactin Feline?  (It's an omega-3 supplement.)  How often do you feed him?  Are you sure this is not something like ringworm? 
 

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Switching from wet friskies to wet Royal Canin. Haven't tried adding supplements. Fed three times a day (before I go to work, after work, and before bed). Vet said he was clear of ringworm.

mrsgreenjeens said:

Just be aware that if it's a food allergy, it takes a long time when switching foods to determine if that was the cause.  Like a month in between the food changes.  It's a very slow process trying to determine which, if any, foods he might be allergic to.  You mentioned you are trying to switch over to Royal Canin.  Wet or dry?  I would try to keep him on wet food, and preferable a good grain free.  Since he's technically still a kitten, though, I would probably stick with a grain free kitten food, though, at least for another month or so, unless your Vet says it's ok to go with an adult food since he's already getting "chunky", as you say. 

In the meantime, it's good that he gets relief from the meds.  What meds does he get? 

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That's why I changed slowly and only changed it about 3 times since he started showing symptons, he stopped showing them on wet friskies so I stopped switching briefly. I am a firm believer in wet food over dry after we had a cat with a UT problem and went over all that literature and how cats are sometimes finicky about drinking so you need to get your moisture in via food. My vet really hasn't talked to me much despite my inquiries, hence why I'm on here. I didn't change the 3 times a day feeding, just started feeding him a little less so he'd slim up a bit.

He gets oral meds called Prednisolone and some kind of antibiotic ointment (sorry, the name escapes me and I threw out the tube because it was empty and I have to pick up more after the holidays anyway).

The thing about food allergies is, the itching almost Always presents itself on the belly, legs, and sometimes tail, Not from the shoulders up. That's why I didn't mention food allergies, because of the location of the itching.

Minka said:

The thing about food allergies is, the itching almost Always presents itself on the belly, legs, and sometimes tail, Not from the shoulders up. That's why I didn't mention food allergies, because of the location of the itching.

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I never knew that.

I'm starting to assume I can rule out food because since his bath he's drastically stopped itching and his wounds are actually closing up. With holidays and all he's not been on his meds for a while, so this is a good sign that there is something I can stop from irritating him.

I found out where he got dusted from, he somehow managed to get behind/under the TV and I've not cleaned there in a while...well, it's clean now that he used his fur to dust it. Kind of curious how long he's been doing that and if that could be the cause of his irritation.

What about litter?  What do you use?  Wondering if that's the culprit.  However, a systematic elimination works best. 
 

stephanietx said:

What about litter?  What do you use?  Wondering if that's the culprit.  However, a systematic elimination works best. 
 

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I was using Fresh Step, moved to Tidy Cats, and for a small period of time I was letting the cats use the Ferrets' Yesterday's News litter.

But for the most part, he's been using Tidy Cats since forever...I gave up on Yesterday's News cause he likes to pick the pellets out and play with them. He's also a crap player...despite all his toys he plays with pieces of poop on occasion. It's disgusting. I clean the litter boxes every couple of days.

You should clean the box at least once a day, twice would be better.  Do you like to use a dirty potty??  (That's what motivates me to clean my gang's boxes.) 

Did you notice the dry spots when you changed litter?
 

stephanietx said:

You should clean the box at least once a day, twice would be better.  Do you like to use a dirty potty??  (That's what motivates me to clean my gang's boxes.) 

Did you notice the dry spots when you changed litter?
 

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They have too many litter boxes to clean daily, so I do them once every three days (4 boxes/3 cats). Everything gets scrubbed down, the boxes never smell, each cat has their particular box they enjoy using. They never "look" or "smell" very dirty when I clean them, a faint smell at best. I don't want to go back to one box cleaned several times a day because the kitten is bad and attacks the other cats while they use the litter box and he stopped when we got more and he couldn't watch them all to annoy the other two cats (he sits on the top of the litter box and waits for a cat to enter then begins repeatedly whacking them while they're trying to use the box...now the cats will use a box he isn't sitting on).

By "cleaned", we mean scoop out the poop and pee, not actually empty and scour out.  Are you at least scooping out the poop once or twice a day?  I would say that is a must, although it doesn't sound like you are using the clumping type litter, and I honestly can't remember how the other type of litter works, it's been so long since I've used it .  Surely you still need to scoop out the poop at least, don't you?  And maybe just stir the rest up?   I just googled non-clumping and that's what I found...scoop up the solid waste a couple of times a day and stir the rest to distribute it to make the litter lat a little longer.

Oh yes, I use: http://www.tidycats.com/Products/Scoop/InstantAction

I scoop it several times a day...I don't consider that cleaning though, that's why it confused me. I consider cleaning actually dumping and replacing the litter.

Do you put flea treatment on him at the shoulders?  Do you use anything like Feliway in your home?  I'm wondering if it's anxiety or stress-induced.

stephanietx said:

Do you put flea treatment on him at the shoulders?  Do you use anything like Feliway in your home?  I'm wondering if it's anxiety or stress-induced.

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I've not put any treatment on him since the vet said he's clear of mites, fleas, and other parasites...I didn't want to try anything yet just in case it irritated him. There's nothing stressful or new. Even for X-mas holidays we didn't decorate or do anything out of laziness, and no family or friends came to the house so it was a rather quiet holiday.

I got Revolution for prevention but I haven't used it. The most stressful thing that's happened has been his bath, that occured after he started ripping his hair out again, and since the bath he's stopped most of his itching and his patches are starting to heal.