Looking for help with cat problem...

... and I thought I'd ask the knowledgable minds here.

first, I *do* have a vet appointment set up - but unfortunately it's for NEXT Monday, since my vet has only two nights a week that they stay open until 7pm and hubby has the car all day. But enough backstory...

Mitchell - brown tabby, about four years old, short-haired. No health problems to date; stays inside all the time. Nervous little mama's boy.

suddenly about a week or so ago I notice that he's actually got a few thinning patches of fur on his back. Examination shows that yes, he's actually bitten/nibbled bits out and now the scabs are growing back with more itching due to the new skin. Center of back, up near neck and down near base of tail.

I checked him over for fleas; no evidence of same. Combings show plenty of skin flakes, but no flea poop. Not to mention that my *other* cat, the white long-haired monster named Jazz, has no indications of fleas at all - and I'd like to think that she'd be showing them pretty easily, being white-haired and all.

vet assistant recommended Frontline treatment, which we'll do today when hubby arrives home from work with said flea meds - but I'm not thinking this is a flea problem. Other than the few areas he's not scratching under his chin or anyplace else; and he's a nervous sort to start with. They both eat Iams dry and wet food, with mineral oil and lactulose added to wet food (primarily for white old cat) and are indoors cats totally.

suggestions, comments, help?

thanks in advance!!!

I hadn't thought about the bath - I'd probably be too scared to use any sort of shampoo, but certainly a warm bath couldn't hurt the wee one.

(as in, twenty pounds of sucky mama's boy.)

my vet's one of those who won't do anything until they see the cat, so Benedryl's out for the week unfortunately... but I'll keep it in mind when we make it there!

the odd thing is that he doesn't seem that uncomfortable - he'll come and lie on my lap for hours and then wander off... then get twitchy, nibble a bit on his back and then sneak off to his hiding place to sleep more. He's such a LOUD groomer (think snoring elephant) that I hear whenever he's cleaning himself.

he tends to concentrate heavily on his toes, so I'm not sure if this is just a mental problem. He's quite the high-strung personality.

MidnightMuse said:

Does the other kitty have itches or hair loss? Do you see any red circular patches in the bald areas? Do you have children ?

When you pet the area, does kitty go wild?

Click to expand...

nope - Jazz, the longhaired white old one, has nothing at all - I've checked her fur. She's actually quite lazy at her grooming, so if she had fleas it'd be obvious. I figure.

the balding spots (there's actually fur there) don't really have anything obvious other than skin literally flaking off. I did a brushing today (as gentle as I could) and he sat with me on the floor and seemed to enjoy it - got a lot of fur off his entire body plus enough hair flakes to do a Head n'Shoulder's commercial.

afterwards I *did* see some reddish areas that were a bit "weepy", as in no blood but moist to the touch, but other than that he's sleeping as usual and sucky as usual. He does start twitching when you check out the afflicted areas, but I figure that's to be expected.

we're going to Frontline them both tonight, just to be sure. But neither cat has been outside literally for years and we keep the front door closed - no screens at all. And I've checked our bed as well as the combings I got from him this morning and found nothing flea-related. Just lots of dandruff.

quick update: Monday night the wee one woke me up about 2 am with crying and fussing; I stayed up all night with him until we got an appointment for 9am with my vet - hubby took the day off and we went on in.

he's on antibiotics for his skin irritation for two weeks - we have to shampoo him once a week (!) with a special shampoo that we have to get to stay on his skin for 5-10 minutes. Argh.

he also managed to have a small ear infection so we're doing the ear drops thing as well. He's thrilled, of course, to have so much attention focused on him. Not.

one thing we did discover during the examination is a slight irritation on his footpads - some of them are actually getting rather "bony" and hard. The vet thinks it may be the cat litter, but we've pretty well stuck to Arm & Hammer with a trip to Tidy Cat when it's on sale - she suggested it may be an allergic reaction to the chemicals. Personally I think that he's standing too much in the litter box (he can literally scratch for FIVE minutes; we've timed it!) atop the rather odorous pile of urine-soaked litter that tends to pile up in one corner thanks to both cats prefering a single spot.

unfortunately we've been so wrapped up with our older cat being diagnosed with a thyroid condition and dealing with the meds that Mitchell slipped under the radar. He's now under the bed, quite annoyed at us and we'll probably have to do a lot of chasing to get him for pills twice a day and ear drops. Hubby already got a nice gash across his hand this morning, so it's burrito-time tonight with a towel.

argh.

thanks all for your suggestions and support. I really appreciate it and will definitely remember all of them in the future.



(HOW can 17.9 pounds of cat be so flexible when he doesn't want to take a pill? HOW?)

that's what I'm thinking - just cleaned out the litter box; we are using the A&H scoopable type but keep it clean - just going to have to keep it CLEANER, I guess. That and keep him from standing there for five minutes scratching the walls of the box.

he's an odd sort.