We've been working with out vet to try and figure out what's going wrong with our cat Loki, who is a spayed Siamese/tabby around 11 years old. We began noticing signs of what we thought were food allergies within the last year - small crusty scabs that would form on her neck to mid back that usually came on and resolved with food changes. We were hoping that the latest issues listed below were again signs of food allergies but are second guessing that assumption now.
About a month or two ago Loki got a larger, infected looking area on her lower back, about the size of maybe 4-5 quarters pushed together. We waited for it to resolve like the others had, but it got worse and we then noticed that she had an infected dewclaw (the sheath around the claw was red, bloody and very swollen). We took her to the vet who said he suspected she had a "hot spot" on her back, but also said we might be looking at auto-immune issues. He shaved and cleaned the hotspot and sent us home with clavamox and instructions to soak her paw in epsom salt water twice a day. She also had a bacterial culture done, which later revealed a staph infection. Her bloodwork was said to be "pristine" with no signs of any major issues occurring beyond a slight infection.
A few weeks later and the hot spot had resolved but the nailbed infection was now in multiple front nails, both paws being affected. Loki has been missing half a back leg and the other back foot since birth, so there would be no nail issues anywhere but the front paws.
About a week after that we noticed more scabs/lesions forming on her back and the nailbeds still looking worse. We also noticed what definitely looked like ringworm on one person in the house, though no other people/pets showed any symptoms (it's been almost two weeks and still no one else has any sign of ringworm). We took her back to the vet to try ringworm medication and have a fungal culture done and are still awaiting the results - but it's now been 10 days since the start of the Diflucan and Loki's symptoms are still just worsening.
We also recently attempted soaking the paws and back lesions in 4% hibiclens (chlorhexidine), diluted 20:1 per the vets advice, but after three days we noticed that she was trembling in pain on her front arms. We moved back to ebsom salt soaks only and the shaking has toned down again.
We'll be taking her back to see how we proceed from here, but I really wanted to see if this rings a bell for anyone else or how others think we should proceed. Does this sound like autoimmune at this point? I've been reading and the closest thing seems like pemphigus, but it doesn't quite fit the symptoms and she has no lesions at all on her face, ears, neck, etc. Just her nailbeds and back.
and if it matters, we've moved all cats to a homemade diet as we were simply having too many issues with throwing up/sick kitties on dry kibble, and even brands like Wellness were not showing any improvement. We are currently feeding the chicken version of homemade food by Lisa Pierson.
I'm attaching the best photos I can get of her symptoms in case it helps:
About a month or two ago Loki got a larger, infected looking area on her lower back, about the size of maybe 4-5 quarters pushed together. We waited for it to resolve like the others had, but it got worse and we then noticed that she had an infected dewclaw (the sheath around the claw was red, bloody and very swollen). We took her to the vet who said he suspected she had a "hot spot" on her back, but also said we might be looking at auto-immune issues. He shaved and cleaned the hotspot and sent us home with clavamox and instructions to soak her paw in epsom salt water twice a day. She also had a bacterial culture done, which later revealed a staph infection. Her bloodwork was said to be "pristine" with no signs of any major issues occurring beyond a slight infection.
A few weeks later and the hot spot had resolved but the nailbed infection was now in multiple front nails, both paws being affected. Loki has been missing half a back leg and the other back foot since birth, so there would be no nail issues anywhere but the front paws.
About a week after that we noticed more scabs/lesions forming on her back and the nailbeds still looking worse. We also noticed what definitely looked like ringworm on one person in the house, though no other people/pets showed any symptoms (it's been almost two weeks and still no one else has any sign of ringworm). We took her back to the vet to try ringworm medication and have a fungal culture done and are still awaiting the results - but it's now been 10 days since the start of the Diflucan and Loki's symptoms are still just worsening.
We also recently attempted soaking the paws and back lesions in 4% hibiclens (chlorhexidine), diluted 20:1 per the vets advice, but after three days we noticed that she was trembling in pain on her front arms. We moved back to ebsom salt soaks only and the shaking has toned down again.
We'll be taking her back to see how we proceed from here, but I really wanted to see if this rings a bell for anyone else or how others think we should proceed. Does this sound like autoimmune at this point? I've been reading and the closest thing seems like pemphigus, but it doesn't quite fit the symptoms and she has no lesions at all on her face, ears, neck, etc. Just her nailbeds and back.
and if it matters, we've moved all cats to a homemade diet as we were simply having too many issues with throwing up/sick kitties on dry kibble, and even brands like Wellness were not showing any improvement. We are currently feeding the chicken version of homemade food by Lisa Pierson.
I'm attaching the best photos I can get of her symptoms in case it helps: