Diabetic cat in remission, over-grooming with rash and a fever

[MaSha]

Hi everyone,
our cat is still overgrooming but in the past few days it has reached a point of unbearable - we took an appointment at our vet's, but we still have to wait for over 48 hours.

He has been overgrooing for two years. Recently our vet suggested we put on him a collar/cone for at least a week. He took it rather well. When we took off off he immediately started to lick himself aggressively! He just wouldn't stop. He got a rash on his abdomen and I could feel that he was hot (abdomen, ears, nose...). When I took his temperature it was 38.2 (100.76 F). I don't know if our thermometer works well, because he sure looks hot.
Otherwise, his glucose levels are normal, he eats, drinks (a bit more than usual), uses his litterbox... the only thing I noticed is that at the beginning he wanted to sleep somewhere hidden. Now he sleeps again with us.

Do you have any ideas what this may be? Which questions should I ask our vet? I won't allow them to give him any kind of cortico-steroids.

Thank you!

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

If anything 38.2 is a bit low for a cat. It is not a fever.
If your cat is overgrooming, he could have an allergy.
My daughters cat was overgrooming all the time and she was put on 1/2 Zyrtec tablet (1/2 of a 10mg Zyrtec tablet) and she stopped overgrooming. She is going to have testing to see what it is she has an allergy to.

 

[MaSha]

Thank you for your reply!

The vet took some blood samples and will do an allergy test. In the meantime, due to the state of his abdomen, she put or cat on antibiotics and his collar is back on. We've also used alginate powders and dressings (completely natural and used in human medecine) to heal the wounds.
He tolerates well the cone and this time we're hoping to get some results.
The wet also did a test on his skin for bacteria (some are present) and fungus (none).