Hi

It is horrible isn't it seeing them in so much discomfort.

If it is worse now it sounds to me like it may be pollen related, does he go outdoors a lot?

We have managed to control it with a mixture of prednisolone tablets and piriton, along with regular monthly treatments of Stronghold. To get to this stage though we had to get an Elizabethan collar as it was the only way to get the sore patches to heal, whilst bathing and applying fuciderm twice daily. They really don't like this (and if you have other cats there may be a few unwelcome words betweend them) but it is a constant viscous circle otherwise that we found we could not get out of and was worth the short term upset, and when compared to the discomfort the sores must cause. We had to keep the collar on for at least a week until all the scabs had cleared (feel for scabs and don't remove it until these have all gone) and to allow the medicine to get into her bloodstream, we took the collar off a couple of times to allow supervised washing but be very careful when doing this as they will instantly start scracthing which will undoo the good so keep them in one room and discourage them from washing this area and swiftly put the collar back on once they've finished having a quick spruce up as they start to smell a little otherwise! When you do decide to take the collar off for good, keep an eye on him whilst he washes and until he is finished as the first time we thought Sasha was healed she washed so much she made herself sore again so we had to go through the whole process again, just keep a close watch.

We had the blood tests and were going to go down the route of having a unique vaccine made up for her but unfortunately she is allergic to so many different things it was highly unlikely to work.

She is now on 1/2 piriton and 1 prednisolone tablet every other day which seems to be working, we are going to go back to the vet at the beginning of Autumn to see if we can lower the dose slightly as unfortunately with long term use there can be side effects but I'd rather her be able to enjoy what life she has than see her in constant pain.

We did also try different foods, however this didn't seem to make any difference, obviously every cat is different so I would suggest trying lots of different things, however, you need to persevere to see if something works. If you have pet insurance that will cover it I would suggest trying the blood tests as the vaccine is a great option if it will work for him.

Hope this helps and wish your boy a speedy recovery.