scabs and hair loss?

We took in a stray last week we were calling him kitty amazing now his name is Ghost. We took him to the vet last Friday and got him vaccinated and looked over. Ever since he started hanging around our yard he has had lots scabs around his neck, below his mouth and behind his ear and atop his head a little. He also has patches of hair missing, these are growing back in now.

Our vet was concerned that it could be flea which are rare here but still get brought in sometimes. She used a flea comb and brushed him very thoroughly especially around the scabs and all of the places flea like to hide. She sifted through him and his fur for like 15 minutes and checked for flea dirt and found nothing which is usually the case here. She said it was most likely allergies and said she wanted us to watch it until we come back in a few weeks.

The scabs have been crumbling off when we brush him but he scratches them and I've been noticing more, I was wondering if any of you have cats with these allergy symptoms. Were they food or environmental and how did you go about treating them? I know steroids are used and antihistamines as well as special diet for food allergies, I'm just curious what people here have dealt with and how it turned out.

Both of my Pugs have bad skin allergies since we moved to Utah but we have them under control. Actually I even have some kind of allergy since moving here, chronic hives for a year now and swell of the face, looks like it's all in the family lol. Thanks in advance for any advice!

It could very well be a food allergy.  What are you feeding him?  Did you go ahead and treat for fleas, too?
 

Being Utah - fleas would be less of a worry and since the vet thoroughly flea combed your cat and found nothing then that would make me think - allergies. OR a fungal infection. :dk: I would call the vet back and ask about Ringworm possibility, although I would think the vet would have mentioned that if it were a possibility. I, also, wonder what you are feeding? And, I would still apply a flea product that you can pick up from the vet just as a precaution.

Feralvr said:

Being Utah - fleas would be less of a worry and since the vet thoroughly flea combed your cat and found nothing then that would make me think - allergies. OR a fungal infection.

I would call the vet back and ask about Ringworm possibility, although I would think the vet would have mentioned that if it were a possibility. I, also, wonder what you are feeding? And, I would still apply a flea product that you can pick up from the vet just as a precaution.

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I called her today and she had me come pick up an ointment and also feline revolution. If the ointment doesn't help before his next appointment in 3 weeks then I'll try the flea treatment which I still think is pointless as I've been combing him for fleas daily with nothing and I'm even wetting the stuff I get off of him to look for flea dirt. My dogs have had fleas in the past and it was easy to spot even a minimal infestation on them and they have thick fur so fleas are in the back of my mind. I'm not going to use the flea medication until I see fleas or any other signs because I keep tarantulas and the flea meds can harm them being so close to the kitty or me after I apply it. If I saw evidence of fleas then I'd do it but I'd have to figure out where to put the cat or move the spiders out until it's safe.

We also have an e-collar we will put on him if he keeps scratching the scabs. Our vet will want to do a biopsy to see what it is if the cream doesn't help, he's pretty tolerant of us combing his scabs and he likes getting rubbed so putting the ointment on is a breeze but he hates the cone lol. I think when we take him back to the vet I'm also going to have her do a blood panel on him since he's an old fellow, I'm sure that will help identify what it might be.

I might also note that as far as fleas I am very sensitive to them biting me and Ghost sleeps right in my face at night skin on skin and I've noticed nothing thankfully, just the occasional wet cat tongue on my face. I also read with a night light and last time we had fleas in KS I'd get one jumping on my book to get close to the light, it freaked me out so bad and here there's been nothing.

Thanks for the advice, hopefully the ointment helps and we won't have to poke and prod him at the vets much. I'll watch for abnormal scratching in the other pets just to be safe and even comb through them with a different comb. Oh also she said it didn't look like ringworm at his last appointment.

Sorry but it sounds like good 'ol ringworm to me!!

Highly contagious and an absolute nightmare to get rid of spores in your home.

Many adult cats with just a bit of casual exposure will not get it, but if this poor kitty had a good amount of exposure then that is why he would get it so much.

All the areas you described are very common places for ringworm.

catwoman707 said:

Sorry but it sounds like good 'ol ringworm to me!!

Highly contagious and an absolute nightmare to get rid of spores in your home.

Many adult cats with just a bit of casual exposure will not get it, but if this poor kitty had a good amount of exposure then that is why he would get it so much.

All the areas you described are very common places for ringworm.

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Honestly, you'd have to have a really inept vet to miss ringworm.

Mani said:

Honestly, you'd have to have a really inept vet to miss ringworm.

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I have to agree and my vet is thorough and takes her time checking for things. We've been in contact with this kitty for well over a month now even before bringing him in. I won't put ringworm on the shelf but if Dr. Larson is strongly thinking allergies then I'm going to lean on that for now. Ghost sleeps right on me at night and I treat his scabs daily so if he has ringworm then I've been really lucky in not catching it so far and I catch things super easily. If it does turn out to be ringworm then I'll take the steps needed to treat it on all of us and in the house but for now I'll just keep doing what the vet told me.

I think she would have warned me of ringworm if she thought that's what it was since she knows how many kitties I have plus she knew he'd be in our room with us.

I'm curious what the ointment is called she gave you. Is it a steroid cream of some sort?

Also what food he eats.

There are basically 3 main reasons for this, fleas, food allergy, ringworm.

The most common at least.

Glad you told us more about your vet, that she is thorough, etc.

Just imo, not trying to upset you feeling like I am underestimating her, but did she have you change his food diet to a limited ingredient one?

Did she do a scab scraping?

The ointment might allow some relief depending on the cause, but if it were infact a food allergy, it will be like putting a bandaid on an infected wound, it won't deal with the root of the problem.

Your vet sounds very good and I would trust her in that this is probably not ringworm. I am now thinking a flea allergy and/or food allergy at this point. Since you say your dogs have had fleas in the past it is possible that even just one or two bites could cause flea allergy dermatitis (inflamed, red, itchy skin.) I may not want to wait for applying the Revolution. Keep us posted! Best of luck :cross:

catwoman707 said:

I'm curious what the ointment is called she gave you. Is it a steroid cream of some sort?

Also what food he eats.

There are basically 3 main reasons for this, fleas, food allergy, ringworm.

The most common at least.

Glad you told us more about your vet, that she is thorough, etc.

Just imo, not trying to upset you feeling like I am underestimating her, but did she have you change his food diet to a limited ingredient one?

Did she do a scab scraping?

The ointment might allow some relief depending on the cause, but if it were infact a food allergy, it will be like putting a bandaid on an infected wound, it won't deal with the root of the problem.

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I'm sorry if I came across as upset I was more half a sleep than anything . We're using Panalog if I spelled it correctly. Also my husband and I took turns brushing the scabs with a flea comb and today 90% are gone. I am wondering if they were just seeming worse because they were detaching but now there are very few which makes me happy. He's only been in our house since last Friday so it could be that I've been worrying over nothing. I forget that sometimes it takes time for healing to take place, it also seems like so much longer than a week. I will keep on the ointment and daily brushings. It's just a wait and see game now, I will use the revolution but not until I know if the Panalog is working. I went through all of the scabs and fur and inspected him again today and still no signs of fleas including scratching or biting at himself.

The vet did scrape the scabs and found nothing alarming. She does want us to change his diet to a better quality food but we are trying to get everyone else on it as well. I am living with my parents at the moment and they free feed Purina indoor hard food and I'm trying to talk them into a grain free hard/soft food diet but it's going to take some time to get the cats to start eating new food and be on schedule. It's going to be fun lol. I'm still looking at new foods to go with.

Feralvr said:

Your vet sounds very good and I would trust her in that this is probably not ringworm. I am now thinking a flea allergy and/or food allergy at this point. Since you say your dogs have had fleas in the past it is possible that even just one or two bites could cause flea allergy dermatitis (inflamed, red, itchy skin.) I may not want to wait for applying the Revolution. Keep us posted! Best of luck

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I'm still not convinced it's fleas but I am going to use the revolution as a precaution. As for our dogs having fleas, this was years ago and has since been treated and we've moved to an area that fleas are rare beyond people bringing them from other places. I am checking any fur removed daily along with looking through his fur and running him over with the flea comb.

Today after brushing him I'd say 90% of the scabs are gone, I was really surprised. He's only been inside around a week so it could have been that I just expected his scabs to heal faster as it feels like it's been way longer than that lol. I'm going to keep using the ointment the vet gave us and running the flea comb over him everyday until his next appointment in a few weeks. We are also going to get him and all of the other kitties on a grain free diet soon but it is going to take some time as they've all been free feeding (not my idea but I'm staying with my parents). I'll keep you all posted but after today I'm hoping that the last 10% of the scabs come off like the rest and no others appear. Maybe he was allergic to something outside and is finally getting over what ever caused it.

It sounds like things are on track

It's so easy to become very concerned.. I really do understand, and you're doing the best for your boy.

I hope the new diet isn't too difficult to put in place.

Lots of for a good outcome!

This is just an update on Ghosts neck scabs. . . When we took him back to our vet his scabs had gotten bad again so she took another look under the microscope and she made sure to get samples from different areas. She couldn't find anything just like last time. She did have us use revolution flea medicine on him and it did nothing, as we all suspected there are no fleas. She rechecked him for ear mites and nothing there as well.

She wants us to bath him in a skin soothing shampoo for a few weeks to see if it at least helps, other wise the new diet will start this coming Friday to see if it is food allergies. She doesn't want to have to go the prednisone route which I don't blame her as there are other things she wants us to try after the food swap. I have to take prednisone a few times a year and it sucks for me so I can't imagine how Ghost would feel.

We are going to have a full blood panel done on him next month so maybe that will show something. Other than the scabs he is doing amazing, he's such a good boy. We bathed him last week and he just sat there, he was unhappy but wasn't fussing over it. He sleeps between my husband and I every night. Hopefully we can get this figured out in the next couple months so he doesn't itch so much. Maybe he has an overactive immune system like me . I have had chronic hives for a year now so I know how he feels with the scratching lol.

I agree with trying a limited ingredient novel protein wet food diet to try to eliminate food allergies. Although cats do handle cortico-steroids pretty well, if the underlying cause is not found then prednisolone will just provide some relief of the symptoms. Which is not a bad thing in and of itself, just not a cure.

Ghost's scabs are getting worse and he is itching like crazy so our vet did have me come pick up some prednisone today to take the edge off. Poor old boy, sometimes I wonder if he had this problem with his last people and they ditched him because it seemed like a nasty issue.

It's okay, Ghost can be my skin problem buddy as I have some issues as well lol. Hopefully we can both get over our problems or at least figure out what is causing them!

I'm just now getting on board with this thread. As I was reading through the last several posts, I saw that you said you are going to get him on a hypoallergenic diet soon. Have you done this yet? If it is, in fact, a food allergy, the scabs and itching could get rectified with a hypoallergenic diet. You wouldn't want to hide the real issue with prolonged use of prednisone, which has side effects of its own.
 

GoHolistic said:

I'm just now getting on board with this thread. As I was reading through the last several posts, I saw that you said you are going to get him on a hypoallergenic diet soon. Have you done this yet? If it is, in fact, a food allergy, the scabs and itching could get rectified with a hypoallergenic diet. You wouldn't want to hide the real issue with prolonged use of prednisone, which has side effects of its own.
 

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The diet change is about to begin, we were eliminating other causes first and nothing has helped. The prednisone is only to calm down the issue for now as he started getting bad this week with the scabs and he is scratching a lot more. I would never want to put him on the steroid for a long period unless nothing else worked. I have to take prednisone a few times a year and I hate it but my Dr. can't figure out what is wrong with me.

The vet is doing what my Dr. is doing with me, my Dr. is trying other meds and life changes with me to see if my chronic hives and facial swelling will resolve. Sometimes it just gets so bad that I need the prednisone to calm it down while still working with the other things. Hopefully the steroid will help control it for a little while so his body can adjust to the food.

My vet believes in trying to resolve things with natural remedies when possible and doesn't want him on the prednisone anymore than I do so I'm hoping that this food will make a difference. I suffer enough from my problem and I don't want him to spend the rest of his years itching with scabs.

I'll keep updating this thread with his progress, let keep our fingers crossed!   At least he isn't a picky eater, that might make this a little easier

Yes, please keep us posted! And good luck! Glad to hear Ghost isn't a picky eater....that is certainly very helpful.
 

I have a male cat he's had allergy problems for the past 4 years. He has black crusting on chin, in ears, around eyes and mouth now as well. Top of head will lose hair. It is an ongoing battle for him. He also has a chronic nose problem with nasal discharge with several times a year he getting upper respiratory infection. He has now been put on a medication for the allergies its an oral liquid and within a day all the black crusting vanished. I have to not go more than every other day on it since I will see the black stuff. He also has an antihistimine as well and now on antibiotic for the nasal infection. I found the medication on a message board on some site by chance and it has proven to be a miracle for my guy. Not sure if we can post medication by name on here I am new but will gladly share the info for you to ask your vet. I was a t my wits end and it was a daily ordeal just to get him cleaned up everyday. Around his eyes. chin and mouth were starting to bleed from the irritation. He had no fleas, no mites and was tested for numerous fungus and bacteria. It was allergies and in cats they said shows up like this. Before this medication I really felt my guy was suffering really bad.

Please investigate the food allergy possibility.  My cat Garfield will scratch and groom himself to a raw and bloody state if he gets the wrong cat food.  He has developed food allergies to many of the common proteins in cat food.  If you've got the money, a blood panel for food allergies can identify them for you; the results given to me included a list of catfood brands that would avoid his allergies.  He also takes weekly injections for common environmental allergens, but I did not get him specifically tested for that. 

When his skin was still raw and needed protection from the scratching, I used the foot portion of extra large cotton socks to make caps for him.  I cut a small hole in each corner of the heel reinforcement for his ears.  Then I could figure out where a couple of arm holes needed to be.  As he gained weight, I needed to add a slit on the top of his back in order to be sure it wasn't too tight across his chest.  If you try this, let me forewarn you to change the cap often if he's got bleeding areas.