please help our poor rescue cat!

[Mayqueene]

We got our lovely rescue cat Olive from the RSPCA a month ago. She seems happy,eats,plays and sleeps well. She's our only pet.She's thriving in every way except she scratches at her neck with her back leg to the point of making it bleed.

She was found abandoned with a sore neck. Rspca trrated it with a cream which they gave us, but it seems totally ineffective. We've started putting a cut up sock round her neck like a sleeve iyswim, but i'd love some advice on how to get her to stop. I've had a cat all my life and have never encountered this before !

Any advice would be much appreciated

Have you tried putting talc on the area! That's what our vet suggested although it didn't work... There must be something that will work, I'm sure someone will have some ideas.

Could it be a skin condition that's making it itchy, have you seen the vet? Or is it purely habit?

Has he got an allergy? is it fleas?

That should have been 'area?' not !

she* sorry puss

No fleas definitely. She only scratches at the one area on her neck so I suspect it's habit rather than an actual itch.

The RSPCA vets gave her a steroid cream but it didn't seem to help at all. They also suggested Feliway but in all other respects she seems very chilled and unstressed. I've also heard mixed things about whether it works or not.

I must admit, I hadn't considered allergies.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

In just one area I wouldn't think it was an allergy. Might be that she's hit the "itch/scratch cycle" that so many eczema sufferers hit.

No idea about skin conditions in cats, but in people I'd try a steroid, with an antibiotic and/or antifungal agent in it too. It might be that it's infected. If you can get it healed over, can you stop her scratching at all? Would she tollerate some sort of bandage over the back leg to prevent her doing too much damage? Can't imagine she would, but you never know!

Thanks Suzi-I might try to fashion some little bandage socks for her back legs-great idea!