In October of 2010 I took a kitten off my friends hands after her cat had a litter. He was about 16 weeks old, playful, healthy, and very affectionate. About a month after taking him home, it became clear that he had fleas, I went through various treatments including shampoos and flea powder and even bug bombed my apartment twice to make sure the pests were gone.

All evidence of fleas vanished except one issue remained. I noticed that he had scratched a sore on his back between the shoulder blades. I used anti-biotic ointment and continued flea treatments to be safe, but he kept scratching it open. So, I found a comfortable way to fashion a type of vest out of a handkerchief to cover the spot and to keep him from scratching.

It worked! The scab fell off and healed. I removed the vest, only to find the very next day, the exact same spot was scratched open and bloody. The sore is about as big as a nickle. He continued to itch so I continued flea treatments although nothing else indicated fleas were a culprit, in fact, by then it was December, and living in Minnesota I imagine the bitter sub zero temperatures is an undesirable environment for pests.

Even stranger, I moved the same month and traveled with him by car to California, a new environment. The itching continued, the sore remained, and he was wearing the vest again. His behavior shifted and he became aggressive. He is a big biter. He would bite you for any reason, pounce, and scratch. I assumed some of it had to do with age though. He was less than a year old.

He then became an outdoor cat once I moved to Arizona in February. I wondered if traveling added stress and caused worse behavior. The outdoor life cheered him up incredibly. He still had an attitude but all my neighbors loved the little guy and his biting was at a minimum. But the scab was still there and had been there for months. At this time I also found out his siblings had similar issues, scabs that won't heal.

Now I'm currently in Oregon [yes, I've moved a lot] we've been here about six months and he still has a scab, still wears the vest, and his behavior has become aggressive again. I thought he may have miliary dermititis due to a food allergy, so I gave him a strict holistic diet of duck and potato, obsessed over ingredients to cat foods, read page after page online, but nothing seemed a proper fit. I began grooming him regularly, trimmed his nails, regularly cleaned his vest, his food bowls, everything, but still the scab remains.

It's been a year now with this scab and I'll be able to afford a vet next month. I plan to take him in since matters seems to not improve. He's put on weight, is strictly indoors, has no flea traces, and the scab has grown to the size of a quarter. In fact, the area is super sensitive. If I touch it he howls/meows licks the air and chews on his vest. My mom always says he has severe issues or something and well... I hope I haven't done anything to make matters worse.

I feel like it's been torture for both him and I. I miss the guy I brought home. At times his behavior is so terrible I'm in tears and seriously considering giving him away. Other times he comes to cuddle and I feel all I can do is help him get better, I know him the best. Poor guy.

Help?

First questions - has he been to the vets? Has he had scrapings taken to work out what this is? Has he been neutered (for the aggression etc)?

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he has only been to the vet once and that was to get neutered and shots taken care of. i mentioned the issue with his back and if it could be looked at, but when i went to pick him up after surgery they had nothing to tell me related to it... disappointing clinic fyi, i don't think they even glanced at it. so, no, scrapings have not been taken, what does that kind of test do?

also, upon getting neutered, his behavior has mellowed out but VERY very gradually.

Certainly it sounds like a skin condition (probably;I'm not a vet) and he is probably in a significant amount of pain with it and this will impact on his behaviour - leaving that kind of condition without treatment can only really make it worse and into a problem that will need more treatment to sort it out than if he was seen initially. I don't know about the US but here int he UK to not take an animal to a vets to get treatment when needed (and this has been needed for a year) is actually illegal. It can amount to animal cruelty.

Skin scrapping will involve the vet taking a sample of the area around the lesion and sending them off for tests to see what the problem is - it could be a mite, it could be cancer, it could be something really simple - it could be something simply treated with antibs or not. Unfortunately by letting it drag on this much he has now formed a habit of making himself raw again every time you get it to heal - it is probably sore or itchy too and that makes him scratch at it. I'm sure once he feels comfortable in his skin (literally) he will be a much more pleasant cat to be around.

What age was he neutered at? If it was late then he may have learn bad habits.

What are you feeding him now? Duck and potato won't give him everything he needs in his diet - if you want to feed raw there are loads of threads on here to help you.

His biting is quite probably because he is in pain - imagine what it is like when you are hurting, you will often snap at someone even if they are being nice - it is exactly the same with him.

By the way, how old are you - it's just you talk in a grown up way but then mention your mum?

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Oh wow, I didn't even think about it being a legal issue. I assure you I'm very loving and I've done nothing but dote on him since the issue has risen. I've stayed up late many nights reading in to the issue since I haven't had funds for a vet visit. I've done the best I can on my own and with every intention of getting him medical care once I had decent income.

Since my recent job, I have been saving to do so. If it is a legal matter here in the US, I feel terrible that I've let it drag on. I have done nothing but provide the best of care to him with the means I've been living on. Maybe I shouldn't have gotten a cat, I just didn't foresee this.

For a better picture to his behavior, I think I may have painted a dramatic picture of him. If you met the guy you wouldn't get the impression there is anything wrong. In fact, I would say what he feels isn't pain but rather an itch. He doesn't scratch like he did when the issue first arose, but only if someone touches or irritates it, which is avoided 100%. His bad behavior peaked around the age expected for young cats to be the most rebellious to their owners, plus he was introduced to a second cat at the same time. This second cat was my sisters and her and I now live separately. He is the only pet in my current household. Trust me, he isn't a complete sour-puss these days, he'd let you pet him, he'd rub against your leg, and then attempt to play. His behavior currently is the best I've known since the issue started. He's a lot less stressed since I've stopped moving.

Anyway, I just want to let you know he's very loved and doted on. Also very spoiled. He's one hell of a high maintenance guy. As for the diet of duck and potato, it wasn't a raw diet. It was a holistic cat food diet put together by a a brand called Basic and was given to him for the recommended 12 week trial I researched online, but unfortunately came with no results.

I wouldn't trust myself with a raw diet, nor would I have to discipline to keep it up. I read that doing the raw diet requires a lot of calculation and care. His current diet is a holistic blend of chicken and potato by The Blue Buffalo Co.. I discontinued the other one due to digestive issues... he didn't like the taste either. He chews this new food down like a wolf, thank god it's also balanced to control his weight hahaha.

With the vest I have made for him, he is unable to scratch the sore open. What baffles me is that it doesn't heal, even with ointments and treatment. The scrapping sounds like a really good idea and after my next paycheck I'll take him straight in to a vet and recommend it as an option.

He was neutered at almost 6 months old, which I've read is within the appropriate time. Why the vets chose to ignore my questions about the sore? I have no idea. The clinic was shady and I regret taking him there for the procedure. They gave him back to me covered in his own piss, the incision still bleeding, and no remedies for pain... it still makes me angry.

Oh, and lastly I'm 21. I live close to my Mom and she knows my boy well.

If you'd said you'd lived in Pennsylvania, I would guess that we've been to the same clinic. When our oldest dog needed spinal surgery two years ago, they returned him less than 24 hours later, with his fentanyl patch barely attached, his back shaved, but not cleaned so that his incision got infected, and a dirty paw where his IV had gone in (not shaved, by the way), and no additional pain meds. It amazes me how anyone could do that to an animal. I've had fantasies about burning down the doctor's new facility

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My babies
Aber, Ragnar, Kelso (the corgi trio), Daisy (our rescue mystery-mix puppy), Ellie, Henry, Gwennie, Jezebel (the kitty quartet), Blake, Chaucer, Molly and Milton (the kittens), and Bingo the African Grey parrot

Over the Bridge:
Pippin: 1/6/08-17/5/11
Freja: 11/8/10-30/10/10
Kirby: 11/8/10-1/11/10

"Praise liberty/The freedom to obey/It's a song that strangles me/Well, don't cross the line" Billie Joe Armstrong

Vets like this should be put to sleep.

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Hannah W

My first thought on reading your first post was something like ringworm or another fungal type infection. The fact he's constantly scratching the are is probably setting off a cycle of events whereby infection sets in. I also wondered about a parasite. Definitely a vet visit in view of very obvious discomfort he's in but in the meantime I'd discontinue all medications, flea-treatments etc. in case these are exascerbating the situation.

From what you've described I very much doubt it's food allergy since the itchiness is usually more widespread and generally around the face and neck regions.

Apart from the suffering caused by these type of things it's never a good idea to leave inflamed areas like this untreated-in certain instances they can also turn into something more serious.

I've heard that potato is bad for cats DOn't feed it to mine so don't know. Same with onions.

Do you not have a Blue Cross/ PDSA equivalent in the US? Pet Insurance? Rescue centres that have a vets dept that deal with those on low income? I didn't mean to imply that you were mistreating your cat, just to say that it is serious and leaving a condition can often mean you end up paying a lot more as it has become a long term condition that takes much longer to clear up costing more in the long run. I really think your cat needs to see a vet sooner than next month. Best of luck with him though and let us know how he gets on when you do take him.

Any photos of the little man

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double post

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