I'm a bit worried about our scabby semi-feral cat

[SheilaWheeler]

One of our cats is semi-feral and decided to move in with us about 2-3 years ago. She is just starting to let us pick her up when necessary and will perch awkwardly on some-one's lap if the mood takes her.

Anyway - she has had tiny scabby patches on her head for a few days and has scratched them off to leave bare skin showing. She is regularly de-flead and so I don't think that is the problem.

I am obviously very loathe to take her to the vet because I don't think she will cope with the basket, car journey and being poked about. She is still eating and drinking well, by the way.

Does anyone have any ideas what I can do to help her?

Can't help with the actual problem, but I can say we had similar worry with regards to taking semi-feral to the vets, but to our surprise he really seemed to enjoy the expereince in the end.

Ours did have a coughing/choking problem though so maybe to trip made him feel better.

is she a white cat? What are you defleaing her with? Could she have got sunburn? White cats often need to have sunblock, believe it or not as they are very prone to a form of skin cancer. If you havent zapped every flea she could have flea allergic dermatitis, she will only need one flea bite to set this off. It would be a general dermatitis.

I guess you just need to make a judgement call on whether to take her to the vets. Maybe give them a call and ask if they can let you have anything to put on her skin without seeing her. Not ideal but shes semi-feral and you dont want to stress her if you dont need to. I would put some spot on flea treatment on her - advantage is the best at the moment. Obviously only do this if you haven't been using one of the prescription treatments, shop bought flea treatments are a waste of money. Then maybe see how she goes?

could be, not would be!

oh and if you absolutely have to take her to the vets ever, get some feliway spray and spray it in the basket before you travel.

We phoned vet for advice and got a 'no wait appointment'.

Lucyellensmum - she's a long haired black so sunburn not a problem.

Now you mention it, I used a different flea treatment to our usual one this time, not a supermarket one though - I quite agree they are a waste of time. I think the best plan is to try de-fleaing again (it's been almost a month since last time) and then see how she goes.

I doubt very much our vet would give her anything without seeing her - they even wanted her to go in when I bought flea treatment for her. I pointed out that this isn't ideal, so they saw my point and put her script on one of the other cat's notes.

Gah! Too many 'points'! Sorry

Thanks for pointing out that point :)