Willow started with a little red patch of skin on her stomach that she had licked so much it had no fur on. We took her to the vet, who suggested it could be an inflammatory response to having scratched herself or something so they prescribed steroids. Said they'd work quickly but to come back if they didn't. The patch grew in size.
Took her back. They suggested maybe she needed a (£300) biopsy, but they'd wipe her skin onto a slide. The slide showed a clear bacterial infection so they said she didn't need the biopsy. Instead she had antibiotics and more steroids for another week. Suggested we flea treat the house in case it was an allergic reaction that has since become irritated and infected. We did this.
Her patch is covering most of her stomach now. And she is starting to over groom an area on her leg too, removing the hair there. I'm taking her back to the vets later before they shut for 4 days for them to have a look at her. Her skin seemed a bit damp to the touch the other day, but could be sweaty as she was sprawling all over DH. And was a normal pink, but she was soon back to over cleaning the area, making it look angry red and sore.
We've tried salt water cleaning (that doesn't sting her as she placidly lets us do it).
Getting close to pulling our hair out over it now. She goes out so we haven't wanted to put her in anything that stops her reaching the sking (cone of shame or some sort of vest arrangement!) as that wouldn't be safe for her, or she'd be stuck inside and miserable.
Does anyone else have experience of a cat with a skin complaint that can shed any light on what happened in their experience?
We've had a rescue cat many years ago that had ringworm causing a bald patch but they've not mentioned that as a possibility.