Cat scratching himself until he bleeds

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Jan
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Re: Cat scratching himself until he bleeds

Post by Jan »

Hello Isabel

I am so sorry to read of your cat's scratching problem .... I know only too well how distressing it is to see a cat tearing itself to pieces with scratching.

The jacket we were sold at the clinic by a locum vet can be found on www.medicalpetshirts.com (if your vet does not stock them. I assume you can buy them direct. It was the best £17 I ever spent on our cat. The locum suggested we kept the shirt on for 10 days before returning to our own vet. She had a look at his skin underneath and told us to keep the shirt on for another week, We still laugh about Blackie trying desperately to get the jacket off and ending up with the elasticated neck round his stomach. He never tried that trick again!

The shirt worked a treat - we haven't had another repeat episode ... and long may it stay that way as we have enough to deal with having been told at 17+ years he now has kidney disease and has to have a renal diet ... which naturally he hates!

Good luck - Do please let me know how you get on.

Jan .
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fjm
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Re: Cat scratching himself until he bleeds

Post by fjm »

Hi Isabel - my cat Pippin has exactly the same reaction to spot on flea treatments, and to surgical spirit (worth bearing in mind for future vet visits - if he ever needs an injection or blood tests involving cleansing the skin ask them to wash the residue off immediately after with lots of warm water. It makes all the difference for Pip.). i found the best thing to use on the sores was Hypercal (hypericum and calendula) ointment - the ointment not the cream. I checked with a vet years ago to be sure it is safe for cats, and was assured that it is, but you may want to ask your own vet just to be certain. The herbs soothe and promote healing, while the lanolin in the ointment base keeps the wound from drying and cracking and getting itchy. Poor Hugo's problem sounds more extreme, but it may be worth trying hypercal together with the jacket. And do remember to get warm water after surgical spirit added to his vet notes, just in case!
jazzyrjw
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Re: Cat scratching himself until he bleeds

Post by jazzyrjw »

Hello all my cat lovers on this chat area.
i have read all the posts about Blackie and the other ctas who had similar problems.
Let me introduce myself.I am Richard (jazzyrjw). Yes i play piano in a band.

I have a 5yr old cat who adopted me suddenly when he was a very small adorable kitten. Three months later I was asked if I had taken in a Ginger boy cat with short legs. I had, and I told the neighbour who was asking. Apparently he had been rescued from the Heydon Cat Santuary near my home outside Cambridge, along with his much bigger brother, who, the chap said were not getting on with each other.

They were worried when he went missing until they saw him up my gravel driveway waiting for me to come home from looking after an elderly lady who had been the recipient in hospital of a liver transplant many years ago. I had a visitor staying with me from Australia and she had brought her daughter Jade with her at the time. They were surprised I had the kitten but Jade squealed with delight as he was the same colour as her tangy Twiglets she was munching furiously. She immediately called him Twiglet. He never leaves my side other than when it is the rutting season (end of summer). Then he disappears until the late evening but still comes back when I call him. God only knows how many lady cats and kittens he knows. I did see him one hot summer night with a beautiful (Calico) tortoiseshell lady cat he seemed to be very interested in.

To cut a long story short, 2 yrs ago at the end of summer he developed some scaly encrusted scabs between his shoulder blades which felt very nasty. I thought he had been in a fight but he was scratching like mad (I think from fleas) and concentrating on areas causing him discomfort. He was chewing them until on some occasions he pulled fur out and left a bald patch of skin. I immediately went and got Fipronil and dosed him straight away.

To my amazement the fleas all disappeared immediately and two or three days later, the encrustation dried up and miraculously disappeared as well. What a relief. Wherever he found flees again two months later and was scratching at them, I gave him another dose and sure enough it worked. I have just noticed this year Autumn time that he developed the identicall symptoms again. I tried the Fipronil and the fleas immediately departed. It may take a few days before the encrustation goes again. I will keep in touch with you all and let you know how he is fairing.
Suzibloom
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Re: Cat scratching himself until he bleeds

Post by Suzibloom »

Hey all...my 7 year old cat has been scratching her neck raw apart since December..started in each side , that healed and fur grew back , she then started on the back of her head..I’ve paid £100’s to the vet for antibiotics and pain killers..the vet told me it was a nerve problem and is very rare..he said there’s nothing more he can do and more or less suggested she will need to be put down..how can I make that decision? Other than this severe itch she’s a health cat..she doesn’t scratch anywhere else..
She’s had the same food, bowls, flea stuff, collar all her life ..I’ve 2 more cats and a dog and they are all perfectly fine..
I’m up the walls with this problem..she’s living with a cone round her neck 24/7 and hasn’t been out since this all started..
It’s a horrible problem...I’ve had cats all my life and I’ve never come across this...
As it stands her sore has scabbed over but when I had the cone off to feed her she had another go at it and has caused part of her head to break open Again...
Awful awful awful...
Seems it’s common enough .. it’s just getting to the route of the problem...
Vets are so expensive which adds to my worry..
Of course I want to sort my wee cat out but it’s getting out of hand ..
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Sandra b
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Re: Cat scratching himself until he bleeds

Post by Sandra b »

Hi there, Just been reading through the post and my boy Murphy who is 18 has the same issue ( under control now). He was pulling fur, scratching til bleeding and had various bald patches. I tried everything from my vet also tried cbd oil, I did not try steroids as I feel they cause too many side effects.Nothing helped. I eventually went to see a dermatologist who advised that most of these issues are caused by an allergic reaction and only a small percentage stress related. We felt it was too much to go down the route of testing for allergies as it can take months plus the treatment to desensitize can take a year. We felt at 18 it wasn’t the right choice for my boy. He prescribed a drug called Apoquel which isn’t licensed for cats but has been very successful in treating these conditions. Within a day it started working and Murphy completely stopped pulling his fur out. It is an immunosuppressant drug and works by stopping them feeling itchy and needs monitoring with regular blood tests. If Murphy was younger I would definitely have went down the allergy testing route but at 18yo it was definitely not the way to go for us. He has been on Apoquel for 6 months now and is doing great. Hope this helps.
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voliviavv24
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Re: Cat scratching himself until he bleeds

Post by voliviavv24 »

Could you not even just phone up your vets?
LReed
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Re: Cat scratching himself until he bleeds

Post by LReed »

Hello! I found this thread while searching about my cat Myles' recent neck scratching issue. We applied frontline last weekend as usual and 5 days later I noticed he had scratched a dime sized, bald, raw patch on the side of his neck (the frontline had dripped sideways a bit as he HATES it and ran from me when I applied). I managed to get a shirt on him last night and trim the remaining hair around the irritation as much as possible. I also have been applying a wound care product I picked up from the pet store yesterday. It looks a bit better today. The shirt doesn't exactly cover the patch, but he seems to think he can't scratch with it on... whatever works!

Has anyone had this unusual reaction to frontline after using it with no problems in the past? We are waiting a few days to see if it continues to get better before taking him in to the vet. Other than the frontline there is nothing that I can think it would be.
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fjm
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Re: Cat scratching himself until he bleeds

Post by fjm »

My cat Pippin had a similar reaction, after many years without a problem. He now also reacts to surgical spirit, used to clean the skin before blood tests. I solved the flea treatment problem by using a injectable instead, and the surgical spirit by asking the vet to avoid using it, or to rinse it off with plenty of warm water if it had to be used. Hypercal ointment worked well to heal the wounds.
lucegoose
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Re: Cat scratching himself until he bleeds

Post by lucegoose »

Hey there everyone! I’m relieved to see that my cat isn’t the only one doing this to herself. I’m so frustrated and at my wits end with this situation. She’s had a wound on her neck since September that she will not let heal. We’ve taken her to the vet several times; they’ve done testing on her, given her a dose of steroids, given us cleansing solutions, ointments, drying solutions, we’ve changed her diet, put caps on her nails (which she tore off leaving her nails bloody), and we’ve kept a cone on her to attempt to prevent her front scratching. She has managed to get the cone off and now (as of this morning) she figured out how to push the cone up enough to scratch herself bloody again. She is also a full time indoor cat and has no other cat around her. Her name is Lucy and she is 5! She’s done this before here and there but it has never been this bad or persistent and has usually gone away with a few weeks. Has anyone here taken their cat to the dermatologist to get the expensive allergy testing done?
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