Skin irritation

[langara]

Hi, My middle aged cat seems to have a skin problem, first of all we noticed she was licking herself quit a lot, and upon inspection her skin was very rough and covered in little red spots, treated her for mites, fleas etc and she seemed to recover, three weeks later we seem to be back to the beginning. Any help would be appreciated.

[Noweia]

Sounds like a flea allergy - it's the most comon cause of the skin condition, called miliary dermatitis. The spots will be mostly on her back, especially towards the tail, and she may be looking slightly bald there as a result of over-zealous grooming.

The trick is to control the fleas - even one bite can trigger the allergic reaction that causes all the spots. A good flea treatment is needed every four weeks, and you need to treat the home too - 95% of a flea population lives as eggs, larvae and pupae in the carpets and flooring of the house. Wash everything that can be washed and vacuum everywhere the cat has been, then spray the areas involved with a good insecticide (e.g Acclaim). Hopefully you'll be able to get on top of them, they can be hard to control.

Don't worry if you can't find any evidence of fleas on your cat - often they groom themselves very thoroughly to remove the source of the irritation and you won't necessarily see any adults or flea dirt. If the flea treatment worked before, the fleas are the likely cause. Let us know how you get on!

(I'm a UK vet).

[wiggal]

Hey langara,

We have a cat, Spinks who was the same. And as Noweia says, she has a what they said is a severe reaction to fleas.
During the summer she has to have steroid injections, 4 weekly flea treatment with frontline combi and she is meant to have piriton tablets twice daily! We had to stop the tablets after a while though as anytime we went near her she knew it was tablet time and run away and hide, and we didnt want her to be scared of us!

Sometimes she licks herself so much her back end near her tail and the tops of her back legs are nearly completely bald, but other times, like now even though we have eased off her treatment, she grows a full coat back!

[langara]

Thanks both, looks like more Frontline then, I keep washing her bedding and the Dyson is working overtime, here's hoping. One more thing my other cat has no signs.

[wiggal]

I have 7 cats, and only Spinks shows any signs of having problems, but she seems to have them so bad she makes up for the rest of them bless her!