Rapid Fur Loss With Tiny Scabs Underneath

[thunderseed]

Please help, I need to try everything, I do not want to lose my cat Sage and I don't want her to be uncomfortable!

This started 2 weeks ago, she had a tiny bald spot on her back and ever since it's been getting progressively worse, now it's all across her lower back, a little clump of fur missing on the back of her neck, some on the bottom of her tail and a long bald spot along her butt only on one side.

I went to the Vet two days ago and she said it seemed like an allergic reaction because my cat also has really bad dandruff. But she didn't find any fleas or presence of mange or any other parasites. She wanted to test to see if it was fleas because she said even one flea bite might cause a reaction, so I've put her and my other cat on flea medication 2 days ago, but the fur loss has spread since then, plus she is licking herself way more than usual.

The Vet also put my cat on a new hypoallergenic food and says it can take up to 6 months to work, but I just don't think it was her food that's causing it.

Yesterday I tried putting some coconut oil on her skin because I read it might soothe itchy skin in cats, it didn't make any difference.

She's been hissing and growling sometimes when I touch her which is very out of character, which makes me think she might be in pain.

I am bringing her into the vet tomorrow to get blood tests done, but I really want any tips and advice I can get. Anyone else go through something similar with their cats?

I read that cats sometimes pick out their fur when they are stressed, but I only ever see her licking and sometimes scratching and the spot on her behind and on the back of her neck right around her collar tells me that's not something she could have done herself, she can't reach those two spots! She might be able to reach the spots on her back, but I still don't think it's something she's doing to herself.

The bald patches spread very quickly, so I haven't had the chance to see how they are happening (I haven't seen the hair fall out by itself and the rest of her fur stays in when I brush her) and I can see a couple very tiny scabs along the skin.

 

[haleyds]

Can you post some pictures of the spots? This might help other members to diagnose what's happening to your poor girl

 

[MoonRockyMistyMuffin]

Can you post a picture of it? My 2 new kittens seems to be having some skin issues too, Misty above her eyes (where eyebrows would be) and Muffin on her ankle areas.

 

[thunderseed]

 

[thunderseed]

Sry for some reason the pics repeated. Can't see it very well in the photos, but I described it really well...

 

[MoonRockyMistyMuffin]

It doesn't look like ringworm, since that is circular. For the dandruff, you could give her a bath. The little red dots could be flea bites. Could she have fleas? She could also have an allergy to something in her food or possibly litter (if you use corn litter). She could have a flea allergy. The vet should be able to figure it out. Hope she is alright! Keep me updated on what happens!

 

[kashmir64]

That to me looks parasite caused. Did your vet to a skin biopsy? Just a small scraping should be able to tell.

 

[haleyds]

Definitely parasite caused, whether it be fleas or mange or something of that nature. I'm leaning towards a flea allergy, your cat is black so it's extremely hard to find fleas sometimes. On my solid white cat it took the vet fifteen minutes to find a single flea but we knew there were more because she has a severe allergy. Hers is more prominent around her neck but it looks similar to this. Our old dog also has a flea allergy and before it was diagnosed her hair on her bum fell out and she had extremely danger just like the photo. So that's what I'm leaning towards.
You'll probably have to get internal flea medication like NexGuard that works from the inside out.

 

[kashmir64]

Ask your vet about lice. I know it can cause irritation.

 

[thunderseed]

That to me looks parasite caused. Did your vet to a skin biopsy? Just a small scraping should be able to tell.

Yeah she did but she didn't find anything, which is why she said it might be an allergic reaction to food or something like one flea bite.

 

[thunderseed]

Definitely parasite caused, whether it be fleas or mange or something of that nature. I'm leaning towards a flea allergy, your cat is black so it's extremely hard to find fleas sometimes. On my solid white cat it took the vet fifteen minutes to find a single flea but we knew there were more because she has a severe allergy. Hers is more prominent around her neck but it looks similar to this. Our old dog also has a flea allergy and before it was diagnosed her hair on her bum fell out and she had extremely danger just like the photo. So that's what I'm leaning towards.
You'll probably have to get internal flea medication like NexGuard that works from the inside out.

Well I hope it's something not serious like that, because my vet said it could also be thyroid cancer, but she wanted to rule out everything else first.
My vet only looked for fleas for a minute or so and didn't find anything but gave us flea medication anyway to rule it out and it isn't working. If it were fleas wouldn't the medication be working already or does it take time?

 

[thunderseed]

Ask your vet about lice. I know it can cause irritation.

Apparently she scraped the skin and took some dandruff samples to check for things like lice and parasites and didn't find anything.

 

[kashmir64]

Could it be something as simple as dry skin. I noticed an awful lot of dandruff in those pictures. Maybe she just needs some omega-3 fatty acids or oil in her food.

 

[thunderseed]

It doesn't look like ringworm, since that is circular. For the dandruff, you could give her a bath. The little red dots could be flea bites. Could she have fleas? She could also have an allergy to something in her food or possibly litter (if you use corn litter). She could have a flea allergy. The vet should be able to figure it out. Hope she is alright! Keep me updated on what happens!

Do they look like bites? I wouldn't know, it just looks like tiny scabs to me.

Could it be something as simple as dry skin. I noticed an awful lot of dandruff in those pictures. Maybe she just needs some omega-3 fatty acids or oil in her food.

I'll try more omega 3's.

The coconut oil I massaged into her skin didn't make much of a difference so I don't think it's just dry skin, plus she's never had this issue before in her entire life. I think I will try giving her a bath soon.

I googled this and wonder if it might be a yeast infection, apparently yeast/fungal infections can happen in cats and they cause hairloss and are often misdiagnosed as skin allergies, so I'll ask the vet to test for that too. But I wonder if an infection would cause those tiny scabs too.

 

[MoonRockyMistyMuffin]

What type of litter are you using? If it's corn litter, a lot of cats are allergic to that. If she is over-licking herself she could have a skin problem making it itchy, or hurting. If she had a yeast infection she would most likely be having a problem in/around her ear. I found a similar picture to your, a cat had similar fur loss on its back. Abnormal hair loss (Alopecia) could be caused by stress, illness, allergies, fleas, or poor nutrition. The vet should definetly run some more test. I hope she is alright!!

 

[taylamo]

I agree that it sounds like a flea allergy. We went through this with our cat Taylor recently. The tiny scabs sound like miliary dermatitis, which can be caused by a reaction to flea bites, you can google it for more info.

We were actually dealing with this in March and April, and I had been applying Frontline Plus monthly, which has apparently stopping working in our area. So I switched to Advantage 2 and saw an immediate improvement with the fleas. What I did to prevent Taylor from overgrooming (which she tends to do anyway) and losing even more hair was to make her a shirt. I cut off a leg from an old pair of my daughter's thermal pajamas and made two leg holes in it. She adapted to it pretty quickly and it did seem to help. But the Advantage was the real key to getting her through it. She was so bumpy with scabs at one point and now her fur is so rabbit-soft and lovely again.

I read somewhere that some cats are such efficient groomers that you may never see a flea on them even though you do have an infestation. I think it's true because I rarely found a flea on Taylor but usually found several on my other two cats who don't seem to be allergic or as obsessed with grooming.

I know what you mean about her not being able to do this to herself by licking. Taylor had a spot under her chin that she couldn't have caused herself. I think it just spreads. The scabs would come off with a flea comb. They were small and reddish colored, very similar to your top picture.

Did the vet give her a steroid shot? That might give her some relief from the itching.

 

[thunderseed]

Thanks, I am definitely going to try the sweater idea if the meds don't help stop her licking soon. We brought her to the vet a second time, and this time they did some skin scrapes again and used tape to recheck for mites, lice and other parasites, as well as bacterial infection and yeast infection and found nothing, but she did find a few bacteria on the skin, not enough to cause alarm but she said it doesn't rule out an infection. The vet said there were more red inflamed areas this time, which made it seem like it could be a type of bacterial infection. The blood tests came up with nothing, all her results including her thyroid are normal, which is good news. I'm glad I got that done anyway because she's getting older now.
Still haven't found any fleas but we are planning on continuing the Advantage anyway.
The Vet gave her some antiobiotics and anti itch medication just in case, and I'll be doing that for 2 weeks then bring her in again to get rechecked.
We're also continuing with the hypo-allergenic food. I think I like that food because she was having some occasional vomiting issues before and i haven't noticed that since she's been on it, but it is kind of too soon to tell.

 

[thunderseed]

Ok... I'm so confused and don't know what to do.
I started noticing my cat licking and ripping her fur out, so there IS the possibility it might be stress related, also because we got a new cat back in December.

But there are more variables on the table that is making this situation seem very odd.
First of all, the antibiotics and anti itch meds seemed to work. So obviously it was a type of infection or something that responds well to antibiotics, I don't know what that could be.
The patches have stopped getting worse, but I still notice her licking all the time so I think her skin is still bothering her. I get the sense that her skin is not itching, but burning, because she's not scratching, she's licking and doesn't like to be touched sometimes.

It's interesting to note that the hypoallergenic food has stopped her from puking all the time, which was a chronic issue for years. If she even gets into the other cats food, she will vomit, so I try to make sure they don't eat eachother's food. I am certain at this point it's food allergies to chicken meal, potatoes, chick peas and probably some other things, but unfortunately most cat foods have one of those ingredients, except this hypoallergenic food.

Anyway, I also remembered about a year or so ago I started having skin issues - no obvious rash or anything, but I would get extremely itchy everywhere and sometimes feel little pin pricks that would sometimes hurt, all over my body. That still happens to me sometimes! And the only cure for it I've found is keeping extremely hydrated, like drinking tons of water, to me it almost seems like toxic buildup or an allergic reaction of some sort because flushing it out of my system always helps. I've had allergic reactions where I get really itchy like hives, but without the rash before, and it seems pretty similar to that but I'm not sure exactly what it is in my environment that is causing it. I know that slathering oils on my skin during the itching just makes it worse.

Another odd thing is I have dandruff, and both of my cats have dandruff now. He's not scratching or licking, but he's shedding an awful lot lately. It just seems like an odd coincidence for me. I wonder if there is anything out there that can be contagious between animals and humans or affect all of us in the household, it's got to be something in our environment that is doing this to us.

Parasites were ruled out but I still come back to thrush or yeast/fungus being a possible cause. They didn't detect yeast on me or my cat, but that doesn't mean it's not somewhere else in the body. I've been giving my one cat probiotics after the antibiotics, but maybe I should get us all on probiotics.

I also bought a humidifier for the house in case it's something as simple as dry skin, but we all spend most of the time outside in the summer anyway, but it should be good for the cold seasons.

We don't have any black mold (there was some black mold in the walls in the kitchen a few years ago but we tore it all out) and I keep the house pretty clean.

 

[kashmir64]

I'm pulling ideas out of .....the air (ahem..)
Could it be the water? Maybe try bottled water?

 

[thunderseed]

Thanks for the idea. It seems unlikely but it's worth a try and I do have a big water filter, I just haven't been using it.