My 7month male cat has taken to scratching at his neck at what I'm guessing is an itchy 'hotspot'-definatly not fleas, mange or anything contagious, my other cat is fine. Hes recently been neutered and the vet saw the area then (twopence sized shiny 'wet' part, fur around all scratched off) and just said not to cover it and gave him a week antibiotic course - am not sure if this was just for the neutering though, she didn't say or comment on the cause. If its uncovered, he scratches until hair is gone and its bleeding - this doesn;t seem to hurt or bother him, is clean and uninfected and I bathe it with a weak disinfectant solution to make sure its clean - the bleeding stops as soon as he does and appears to be just surface scratching, it has no deep wound and isn't inflamed, just 'wet' in that part. I've put an inadine dressing (and a hated cone so he couldn't get it off) and that definatly helped it heal up enough for me to uncover it - now I'm using a cortisone cream and have constructed an underleg/back neck cover with stiffened cotton so it stops him getting to it but doesn't touch the neck so it can air as much as I can get it - I can;t leave it off altogether or he'll scratch it again. The fur is growing back all round it literally instantly but theres still that twopence sized 'wet' area. Will this also heal up and regrow so I can take the neck thing off? Will it just take time to heal (human impatience!) and should I keep using the cream until the fur fully grows in around the original 'hotspot' and that area heals up too? Its not red, its a pink and white and a grey/black in the areas wheres theres fur stubble coming in - it doesn't look pretty, but so long as its okay and healing thats what concerns me, the way a surface skinned elbow or knee looks bad but is actually healing. Otherwise hes picture of health, eating and drinking normally and his coat, eyes and nose are all shiny and healthy. Its just this darn neck 'hotspot'. And when it is healed will it come back and what can I do to help/prevent it? I havn't taken him back to the vet as they didnt seem concerned and didn;t say anything other than trying not to cover it? Hes fine with me touching it, am bathing the area in a weak cool water disinfectant solution and then the cream once a day as don;t want to overdo the cream? Its cortisone so anti-itch and has steriod. Do I just need to be patient, am I just overworrying and these things take time? The cream I've been using for a week and literally instantly looked much better and hair starting growing back in.
Hi
That's a long and detailed history, and appreciate it was a month ago.
I'll try to deal with it point by point
1) Initial antibiotics, yes I expect this was a hot spot treatment, a course of antibiotics will help tremendously
2) The wetness is skin ooze, a sign the surface dermis of the skin is damaged. when this goes infection can start
3) Covering will help as trauma will open the skin up again
4) Cortisone takes the itch away, a sign hat there may be an allergic underlying cause and yes this could be flea saliva
5) Classically these take at least 3 weeks to heal
6) To prevent re-occur acne you need to find the underlying cause. As he's so young fleas, ear mites, ringworm are by far the most likely, simply too young for allergies such as dust to have a effect quite yet.
I'd get it checked by the vet, I'd say that ear mites are likely especially near the head. Advocate used monthly acts as a treatment and a rule out
Thank you super much - its still there but healing - we're keeping the cone on now till it sufficient hair grows back in again as each time its came off, scratching has taken us back to ground zero SIGH! We're going to get back to the vet again for what will hopefully be a final checkover and are def doing the Advocate, it sounds really good! We used medihoney wound gel in the end up and colliazed (BAD spelling!) silver+aloe vera gel when it healed up enough for bandage to come off!
Vet answer
Hi
That's a long and detailed history, and appreciate it was a month ago.
I'll try to deal with it point by point
1) Initial antibiotics, yes I expect this was a hot spot treatment, a course of antibiotics will help tremendously
2) The wetness is skin ooze, a sign the surface dermis of the skin is damaged. when this goes infection can start
3) Covering will help as trauma will open the skin up again
4) Cortisone takes the itch away, a sign hat there may be an allergic underlying cause and yes this could be flea saliva
5) Classically these take at least 3 weeks to heal
6) To prevent re-occur acne you need to find the underlying cause. As he's so young fleas, ear mites, ringworm are by far the most likely, simply too young for allergies such as dust to have a effect quite yet.
I'd get it checked by the vet, I'd say that ear mites are likely especially near the head. Advocate used monthly acts as a treatment and a rule out
good luck
Neil
Thank you super much - its still there but healing - we're keeping the cone on now till it sufficient hair grows back in again as each time its came off, scratching has taken us back to ground zero SIGH! We're going to get back to the vet again for what will hopefully be a final checkover and are def doing the Advocate, it sounds really good! We used medihoney wound gel in the end up and colliazed (BAD spelling!) silver+aloe vera gel when it healed up enough for bandage to come off!