Scratched himself raw

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Georgiana & Perlutz

Member Since 2019
Hi everyone,

About a week or so ago I found tiny pieces of dried blood where Perlutz has scratched himself, mostly around the scruff area. I didn’t notice him scratching himself more than usual until maybe 1-2 days ago, but even that wasn’t necessarily a lot or vigorous scratching so I wasn’t too concerned.

Last night when I brushed him, the dried blood from one of these scratches fell off and left a tiny bald spot (about 1/4 - 1/2 of an inch).

Haven’t seen him scratching himself at all today, but we went out for a walk for 1-2 hours max and when we came back home we found he scratched himself raw where that tiny bald spot was! It looks awful, but he doesn’t seem fussed at all, he’s just hungry and wants an early dinner.

We haven’t changed any detergents or cleaning products used around the house, no change in his diet either. He seems fine in himself, just maybe a bit hungrier this week. I have been terrible at updating his spreadsheet the last few months :facepalm: but his numbers have been fluctuating as per his usual (1-2 weeks around 10-13 and then few weeks in late 10’s or low 20’s) .

As he doesn’t seem bothered and he is not scratching himself now I’d rather not take him to an emergency vet but wait until tomorrow and call his usual vet see what they say. But as always I thought of asking here first, maybe someone has any ideas. I’ll attach some pictures of before when I first found the dried blood on scratches and of the bad one he’s done today.

PS: He’s strictly indoors and I haven’t found any sign of fleas on him.
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Cats sometimes develop seasonal allergies.

Your signature says Perlutz has GI issues. There may have been a change in the formulation of the food you give him.

Also, could this be a spider bite or something along those lines? You might want to have your vet take a look just to make sure there's nothing going un below the skin.
 
Cats sometimes develop seasonal allergies.

Your signature says Perlutz has GI issues. There may have been a change in the formulation of the food you give him.

Also, could this be a spider bite or something along those lines? You might want to have your vet take a look just to make sure there's nothing going un below the skin.
I doubt it could be a spider bite, he had tiny bits of blood in 3-4 places around his scruff (the 2nd picture above was of the biggest one that he scratched raw today). Haven’t seen any spiders or creepy crawlies either (we live on the 4th floor).

I’m definitely calling the vet tomorrow, see if he wants just pictures or to see him in person. I just hope he doesn’t recommend corticosteroids injection as I don’t know how that would work with his diabetes...
 
Steroids will raid numbers. However, most vets will do their best to avoid steroids with a diabetic unless it's really necessary.If it is, we'll work the insulin dose around the steroids since it's likely a time limited treatment.
 
We’ve seen the vet earlier today. She is giving him 1/2 pill Piriton twice a day and topical corticosteroids for a week, twice a day as well. She said they are safe to use topically - anyone has used corticosteroid cream on their sugar babies?

Perlutz is doing fine (apart from being upset for the vet trip) I haven’t seen him scratch himself, but he does occasionally try to lick himself closer to the bad scratch (can’t quite reach thankfully).

Oh and as we are both working from home, he is not getting the cone of shame, we will just keep a strict close eye on him so he doesn’t lick himself where we put the cream on.
 
Some have had an increase with creams with cortisone in them. It’s another ECID kind of thing. Did you notice what looks like a rash anywhere? One of mine civvies gets military dermatitis and has caused her ears to bleed. I found zyrtec helped. Once you finish with the cream your vet gave you ask if it might help if it reoccurs. Hopefully it won’t. Looking at one of your pictures I think that’s what it could be. It can come from the protein or something in the food or be environmental like Mocha has.
 
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