Scabs on cat

[Karamarika]

My 8 yr old Scottish Fold female cat has had multiple scabs on her skin for some time now. They are located throughout her body, but are really concentrated on her lower spine and the base of her tail. I have looked up what could be causing this and the primary cause I find is fleas. She does NOT have fleas. She is indoors only, as are my other two cats, and there is absolutely no way she could have fleas. These scabs have been there for a very long time and they even went away at one point. Recently, they came back and are worse than ever. I finally found one other possible explanation which is a food allergy. I stopped giving her canned cat food about a month ago to see if that was the cause and so far they have not decreased at all. I even noticed them on her face tonight, which I had not seen before, and I am now even more concerned. I plan on taking her to the vet if I cannot find an easily treatable cause at home but cannot afford to do so for at least another month or two. If anyone has experience with this problem and has a good idea for what could be causing it, please let me know. I know this is not comfortable for her. I have two pictures that will show what this looks like, but it only lets me add one so I will show you her back. I had picked at her face, thinking it was eye gunk and it turned out to be a giant scab that came off and she was then bleeding. They were on both sides, but only one side bled. I brushed her back and a lot of the scabs came off, which also made her bleed. I have applied an antibiotic ointment to the scabs that I got from the vet for a problem my other cat had on his chin a while back but it doesn't seem to be helping. My other two cats have nothing like this going on with their skin. Thank you in advance for your input.

[opus88]

yes give it awhile longer....theres nothing wrong with fancy feast just try something thats not chicken and doesn't have the gravy....like pate beef perhaps..

I would like to comment on the prescription diet for crystals....urrrr
some Vets make me so angry. there is an ingredient in these special foods that help prevent crystals...forget it right now but I do have info on that too.
however the best thing you can do for crystals is feed wet food, not dry and I don't care if its a prescribed food or not....DRY is what caused the issue in the first place so this Hills food is just putting a bandaid on it.
don't take my word on it, I will send you a whole write up from a Vet would is renoun for her knowledge on Diets....please read it.

all you have to be sure and do is feed canned food, with plenty of water...or these crystals will one day return. I know b/c her article saved one of my boys!!!!!

http://catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth

[Karamarika]

Thank you for the response. I stopped giving her the canned food that I would give as a treat. It is fancy feast chicken in gravy. I recall the scabs clearing up at one point and I know there was a period of time that I was not giving the canned food but I cannot recall if they overlapped at all. It has been about 3 weeks since she had the canned food and I have seen no improvement but I will give it another month or so. The dried food is science diet for my other cat's urinary tract problem. He nearly died a couple years ago from crystals that blocked his urethra so he has to eat this food to keep them from forming again. I haven't checked the ingredients in that food but it would be nearly impossible to feed her a different food. I would have to isolate her completely from the other two. Anyhow, thank you for the help. I will keep trying to find the cause.

[opus88]

thx.....he is beautiful and he 'knows' it....lol
yes he is Himalayan....9 yrs old now, scabs are all gone since we d/c the chicken....2 yrs clean now:))

[CML2014]

OMG!!!!!  What a gorgeous baby--even with the scabs. LOL!

Is he a Himalayan?

[opus88]

here is a photo of my Sami.....the only place he ever got these scabs is on his face.

http://www.medhelp.org/user_photos/show/274134?personal_page_id=473886

[opus88]

hi...this is a very common condition,if you look at my photos you will see pic's of my cat Sami with facial lesions as well. they are usually called Miliary Dermatitis or Eosinophilic Granuloma. and caused by allergies...usually to food!!or some ingredient in the food, with Sami it took alot of trial and error and his turned out to be an allergy to chicken, this is very common b/c chicken is something they are exposed to in nearly all the cat foods....
I will send you two websites to read more on this, they give some good advice to a point. I DO NOT AGREE with using antihistamines or steroids or cyclosporines this is only treating the symptom and not the CAUSE.and lead to a host of side effects...
we need to find the cause....start with the diet, does it include chicken? is it dry food, full of pesticides and chemicals? do you use scents in your home like candles/cleaners etc? have you new rugs or furniture?....
read thru these articles and we will take it from there.....

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/eosinophilic_granuloma.html

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=2134