Hi - help sought...

Hi,

I have a 15 year old neutered male cat. For the past 6 years he has had a patch of skin about 2 inches long on his right flank that he worries all the time by licking and biting so it is literally an open sore leaking blood. Every now and again I take him to the vet and he gets antibiotics and cream and it calms down but it never goes away. As he's got older it's got worse and worse. It's particularly bad at the moment and he's off to the vet this afternoon. I've tried just about every cream and ointment but nothing seems to work. He is a bad tempered old thing generally and I feel so sorry for him. Does anyone have any ideas what options are open to me so that I can make him better?

Thanks,

Andrew

Welcome to TCS!

Has the vet looked into the possibility of allergies? It could also be a stress reaction!

When you visit the vet, it might be an idea to discuss with them the possibilities that your kitty is anxious and hence pays attention to the area.

Have you tried Feliway Plug Ins and spray? It might be worth a try with these! Even if the issue isn't behavioral, it could just help to ease your kittie's grumpiness!

Good luck at your vet visit and please do let us know how it goes!

Poor kitty.
The only thing that came to mind was a dog I use to groom that would lick and chew his legs so bad that he had several open sores. It was so bad that people would ask what was wrong with her dog. The owner said it started off with a few flea bites then turned into a habbit. She was always taking him into the vet for ointments and shots. She finally got him to stop chewing and licking by using "Bitter Apple". After wearing an E collar and treating the sores with meds for several days the sores started to heal. She took the E collar off and started dabbing Bitter Apple around the outter part of the sore (not on the sore just around them) all it took was a few licks and he left them alone. To keep him occupied and break the habbit she bought him a "Kong" toy and put peanut butter and a few pieces of kibble inside. That helped keep his occupied for a few hours at a time. When she would leave for work she would hide several Kongs in the house for him to find.
I have no idea what you could use to keep your cats mind off of licking and chewing at himself.
Hopefully someone will come along soon that can be of more help.

Hugs and kisses to you kitty cat.
Susie

Hi,

Thanks very much for the quick replies. Zigzag (for that is he) spends most of his time at the neighbours sitting in the window of their conservatory and is the biggest cat in the neighbourhood so is not really stressed - we have tried Feliway in the past though and it unfortunately didn't make any difference.

Allergies may be a possibility - we could suggest that to the vet, but the amount of time (6 years) that he's had this in 3 different houses I think would indicate that it's become as much a habit as anything else.

I really like the idea of the "Bitter Apple". It's not an approach we'd thought of. I'll speak to the vet about it.

Thanks very much,

Andy

Allergies could include foods as well as pollen, mold, humans, etc (we had a dog that was allergic to EVERYTHING). Have you been feeding the same food, or food with similar ingredients?

Well we took ZZ back to the vet again. The vet said that surgery isn't an option because of the size of the ulcer and that it's not an allergy, nor does he think it's stress. He also said the we shouldn't use Bitter Apple as this would only upset the cat, stress him out and he would end with not only an unhealed ulcer on his flank, but a bad taste in his mouth as well. I tend to agree. The vet gave him a complete check over and apart from some narrowing of the rear as a result of old age he said the cat was fine.

The cat is having three antibiotic shots at fortnightly intervals, plus topical antifungal cream applied daily to make sure the wound doesn't get infected. This is exactly what we did three months ago in order to get it under control. The vet said that unfortunately, this is probably how it's going to be from now on - wait for a flare up and then come back for a course of antibiotic shots.

Thanks, for all your advice.

Andy

Thank you for the update!

I'm sorry that you weren't able to get a positive answer on how to stop it, but at least you will be able to keep it under control with regular vet visits!

I hope that it comes under control quickly and Zigzag is able to ignore the area for a while!

Sending many healing }}}VIBES{{{ his way