Hi Derek,

Thanks for submitting your question. Sorry to hear that you’re dealing with this but I think I can help.

The most important thing here is to stop guessing. We need to start determining what’s going on. The first thing I want you to do is to visit your veterinarian and have a skin scraping performed. This is a quick inexpensive test where they scrape the top layer of the affected skin and look at it under a microscope. This is then evaluated for bacteria, yeast and ectoparasites. During this test, your cat’s coat should be examined for evidence of fleas or flea dirt. If they are present then some evidence should be easy to find. If we perform tests then we can eliminate the guesswork. This needs to be done before any discussion of allergies or diet is entered into.

Make sure you speak to your veterinarian about a reliable treatment plan for any of the infectious agents found on the skin scraping. Keep in mind that an underlying disease could be present with one of these infectious agents as a concurrent condition. If treatment for the cause is unsuccessful, then I would investigate the possibility of an underlying disease that allowed the infectious agent to become a secondary issue.

I recommend you perform blood work and urine testing to make sure there are no underlying health issues that could interfere with the body’s ability to fight an infection. If this is negative as well, then you could consider a skin biopsy as the next step. Many cats will have skin lesions due to complicated immune conditions that biopsies could diagnose. You have to remember that a diagnosis of allergies is really something that should occur after all other causes are eliminated since there is no confirmatory test for it. As a side note, you could always consider requesting a referral to a veterinary dermatologist. They deal with complicated dermatological cases such as these that have been difficult to diagnose and that have not responded to recommended treatments.

You’ll notice in my answer so far I have not mentioned diet at all. I recommend you stop thinking about diet as a treatment at this point until you achieve a diagnosis. The diet typically comes into play if we’re dealing with allergies. You cannot be certain about allergies in any way at this point until the infections are identified and eliminated. So I recommend everyone stop guessing, perform the tests, confirm the diagnosis, and implement the correct treatment. Otherwise, this problem may persist and cause further cost and distress to you and discomfort to your cat.

If you perform these tests and don’t achieve a diagnosis, only then would I consider allergies. I would recommend that you look at our resources about allergies. We have videos and articles that discuss it in depth from diagnosis to treatment.

I hope this helps. Good luck.

Dr. Clayton Greenway