Thank you all for your advice and suggestions. I took my boy for some swabs and thankfully they all came back negative. The vet now is 99% sure that he has an allergy and has given him some antibiotics and steroids which have really helped him. This time though she wants him to stay on a low dose steriod long term which if it works, I am in full agreement with.
I'll keep you all posted

Thanks for the update! Hope he continues to do well.

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Hi Marsha

I've just joined this site as our Nina is having problems with her nose, but spotted your post, and thought I'd write back as it sounds just like the problems Nina had a few years ago....

We'd just moved house from a 1980s house to a 1930s house (this will make sense in a minute) and oen day we noticed a bald patch on her back. It got bigger and bigger, and redder. We kept taking her to the vets, and after using different soothing creams etc, eventually they did a biopsy to remove the whole patch completely to see what was wrong with the skin. (My husband called it a tummy tuck - silly man). They did tests and couldn't work out from that what was wrong with her. So we went to see a dermatologist (I think someone else suggested this) and they did a special blood test, and it turned out she is allergic to nearly everything!! Particularly dust - hence my comment about the house. As it was a v old house and we were having building work done there was quite a lot of dust.

To combat the hair pulling/licking she was put on antihistamines which helped no end. She was also put on zylkene, which I think is kind of a relaxant, that's very safe. She's been on both for a few years now. She is an extreme case though, and the best thing to stop her doing it was a cone. With the cone on she could reach the areas she was try to pull hair out of (The worst time was when she had a big patch on her back and a load on her bib and legs). We'd take the cone off to eat, but she was fine drinking and sleeping with it on.

Not sure if this would help you at all, but I agree that amputation is not a good idea if he's done this in other areas. Perhaps try to get an allergy test done?

Really hope your cat gets well, good luck

C x