Fleas Or Dermatitis Or What?

[Sheryl]

My beloved (understatement) cat I sick. I was away for several weeks and when I returned I noticed she had lost weight and seemed unhappy, but that's par for the course when I've been away so I'm afraid I was slow in picking up on the fact that she was actually ill. Then I noticed bare patches on her legs and clumps of hair lying about, and saw her puilling her hair out. I was in the midst of trying to meet a work dealine so had my niecve take her to the local vet, as far as I can gather he thinks it is either an allergic dermatitis due to fleas or ringworm. He took a skin scraping, gave several injections, (don't know what -- maybe anti-flea?) , and prescribed an antibiotic and prednisolone and said to bring her back in 2 weeks time.

It's been about 4 days now and she is still unhappy, pulling out hair and not eating well.

She gets frontline or revolution regulalry every 3 months and was wearing a flea collar (had to remove it as the skin underneath was inflamed) so it seems a bit odd to me that she would get fleas. She has been catching mice lately with a vengence, several a day as it's the time of year when they seem to abound (? rice harvest).

Questions:

-- Is this likely to be FAD (dermatitis due to fleas)? If so how soon should I expect to see improvement? Does this condition also cause loss of appetite?

-- could it be pyschogenic? She does get very upset when I'm away and altho I had a house/dog/cat sitter staying there with her, she has never liked him and lately seems to have begum to actively dislike him (among other things he is partial to the dog, therby upsetting the oprder of things.)

--could it be scabies? If so tho wouldn';t the vet have picked up on it? And wouldn';t predniosolone make that worse???

- is there something more serious it might be?

I plan to bring her to a proper animal hospuital as soon as I can but it will be a few days before I can get into Bangkok, meanwhile frantic with guilt and worry so any advise appreciated....

[BambinA]

As you use Fronline every 3 months, I will not think about this.

To me , it can be : Psychogenic Dermatose

Different diagnosis

-Flea bit allyger

-Atopic dermatitis

-Dietary intolerlance

-mange

[Sheryl]

As you use Fronline every 3 months, I will not think about this.

To me , it can be : Psychogenic Dermatose

Different diagnosis

-Flea bit allyger

-Atopic dermatitis

-Dietary intolerlance

-mange

Thanks Bambi. There has been absolutely no change in her diet so I don't think that can be it. Flea bite allergy seems to be what the vet thought it was and why the treatment with a steroid. But if so, how soon should I see improvement? It is about 5 days now, maybe some slight improvement but she still pulls out hair.

Mange I believe is scabies, isn't it? How is that treated in cats? Would prednisolone make it worse?

I wouldn't put it past this cat in the least to have a psychosomatic disease. However after sleeping with her both my niece and I got red welts on our skin that really itch and look like bites so I'm thinking mange (scabies) or fleas must be it. I don't see bites on her, only her pulling out her hair by the roots. But the bites on me are big red welts, don't look at all like human scabies look in humans, but I don't know how cat scabies would look on a human.

Could she get scabies from mice? As I mentioned she has caught really a lot of them lately.

[Nienke]

If they were large big welts, like mosquito bites, that appeared in straight lines on your arm or body (there where the cat was touching you or your niece) she very well can suffer from sarcoptic mange.

Cortisone reduces the itch but does not get rid of the mites.

Nienke

[Sheryl]

If they were large big welts, like mosquito bites, that appeared in straight lines on your arm or body (there where the cat was touching you or your niece) she very well can suffer from sarcoptic mange.

Cortisone reduces the itch but does not get rid of the mites.

Nienke

Very large welts, much bigger than from mosquito bites, and not in a straight line, just scattered here and there. Raised, hard red welts, the size of a 10 baht coin. Whatever it is that is biting, both the cat and I are allergic to it.

The vet took skin scrapings so I assume if it were scabies he'd have seen them. He gave her 4 different injections and I have given an extra spot on of Revolution (selamectin). I don't know what the injections were that he gave but I assume they included treatment for both mites and fleas. What I don't know is how quickly I should expect them to work. It's been about 5 days now and she's still itching and so now am I....

I suppose it is possible she's being reinfected by the many field mice she is having a field day catching?

I'm just praying I won't have to attempt to give her a bath. (Would need to update my last will & testament first).........