How to help Dcat stop scratching chunks out of herself?!

[Liltzero]

I adopted Dcat late last year from a rescue. She is a British longhair with a very fine fluffy coat. When I adopted her the rescue said she had some scabs around her neck and they thought these were caused by another cat she had been living with in her original home.
Anyway, it has become apparent that she is scratching herself so vigorously that she is causing these injuries to herself! I've had her to the vets twice but with no real advice on what to do (there's no underlying skin condition that can be seen, no fleas etc. )
She also licks herself so much that she has a bare tummy :-(
I have a Feliway Optimum and have switched her diet to a product claiming to be good for sensitive skin (it contains omega 3 and 6). Has anybody got any other ideas of things to try? She seems quite happy in herself and is not scratching for excessive durations nor repeatedly. BTW she's an indoor cat. Thank you in advance

What the vets can do is steroid injections which would help stop itching from whatever cause (possibly an allergy). Ideally a short-term fix to give her chance to recover from the cause, rather than longterm treatment. If she's flea-treated (I know she's inside only but you never know) food is another common allergen. You could try a 'hydrolysed protein' food which is meant to be hypoallergenic, if you don't see an improvement from the sensitive one.

Stress is the other option, but sounds like she's relaxed, and you have a feliway. Some cats just do this, mine always has a bare stomach. As long as she's not licking herself raw, no skin irritation etc I just accept it! She doesn't scratch much, not sure how much you can prevent that. Keep her nails trimmed if you can, and as she's an indoor cat, there are soft nail caps you can put on in theory, no idea how practical they actually are though. Sounds like they were invented by the same people who sell cat toothbrushes 😆

Has your vet mentioned either flea saliva or allergies? For some reason, skin allergies are more common in white dogs and cats. Its worth looking into.
It sounds like woo but I used to use Dorwest Herbs green leaf powder for Ddog, who had a severe flea saliva allergy;
https://www.dorwest.com/product/easy-green-powder-for-dogs-and-cats/

It might be a food allergy. Have you tried single protein food? It's a long process, but one of elimination. I suggest you ask on Pet Forums, or search on there. it's a very good place for help. Wet food only.

It could be a flea allergy, mites, type of litter. I can't use corn based litter. I did brush out some bits of dead fleas (had been in a bad way when rescued) using a Furminator, gradually and gently, but she still scratches a bit and has dandruff, but not so much now.

Put old girl had a flea allergy and had exactly the same.

It sounds like allergies. It may be that the allergen is long gone because it was something from the rescue or previous home but she won’t be able to resist scratching the existing sores. Or it could be something in your house. You need the vet asap for steroids. I’d also do a hypoallergenic diet.

My Mum's cat has this. After extensive investigation, and many vet trips, vet has concluded its not flea allergy, or any other kind of allergy and there is no underlying cause. For her it's entirely behavioural. We assume it's stress, though struggle to identify what's causing the stress most of the time! (only cat, no other pets or resident children, two retired owners who are around all day, large house and garden etc- she is pampered!)

She gets occasional steroid injections from the vet if things get really bad, but the thing that's been most helpful day to day is putting a cone collar on her for a while, which physically prevents her licking the bare/sore patch. Using it for a few days seems to reset things for a while.

Old Fluffyarse did that when I first took her in, to the extent of being completely bald on her undercarriage. I was so worried about what could be causing it, as she didn't have fleas and the previous owner had allegedly spent hundreds on taking her and from the vet with no success.

Then instead of putting her food down and leaving for work, I had a day off. After eating, she ambled into the living room, jumped up onto a shelf and settled down for a snooze on top of the cable TV box. The same type of box that the previous owner had. The box that I'd noticed had appeared to be running rather hot when I got in from work, but never seemed to be as hot when I checked it in the evening.

The daft fluffbag had been toasting herself for hours after I left for work each day. I moved the box (to her disgust). Her underside recovered in under a month.

Mine does this after a flea bit.
Just because your cat doesn't have fleas doesn't mean they haven't picked on up that bit them and then died.
Mine will scratch and eat at herself for weeks after a flea incident.
I give her an antihistamine and at it's worst one steroid injection broke the cycle.

I'd flea the cat as flea treatment is not just for when cats have fleas but also prevent fleas too and also kill mites that might be too small for the human eye to see. I'd think the cat might have mites.

Thanks all for your advice and suggestions. She has to go back to the vets in September for her annual jabs so I'll ask about the steroid injection / plain diets then (though she's not a fan of wet food, much prefers biscuits).
I think the excessive licking might be habit. She particularly goes full strength when getting ready to sleep last thing in the evening!

We are dealing with this on one of our cats right now. There can be many causes, but our vet suspects for our cat it is anxiety. We have started her on an antidepressant and it does seem to be helping.

I really wouldn’t wait until September. It has the potential to turn quite nasty quite quickly when they’re scratching themselves raw- my cat went from a couple of patches to nasty infected sores over a weekend. I would take the next appointment they have, or at the very least call and ask for their opinion (at ours the nurses do reception so it’s usually easy to get advice).

I'll keep an eye. We had her at the vets only a couple of weeks ago and the number of sores / scabs is pretty stable at the moment after getting worse for a while. I kept finding chunks of cat fur with attached scab around the house!

Our Tortie has a skin condition.
She licks herself raw without a daily apoquel tablet and every other day Prednisolone.
If you do end up on these, get a script from the vet as the Apoquel was costing us £90 every 6 weeks.
Her meds make a huge difference.
Here is the obligatory photo.

The hypoallergenic food I tried was dry, was a Royal Canin one. My cat seems to do it from habit too, though judging by the state of her when she was adopted it was initially triggered by a flea(?) allergy. It's only occasionally she'll lick to the point of causing sores etc, that's when I'll go to the vets for a steroid jab, but if it's just short hair/healthy skin I don't worry.

@maddiemookins16mum I have a soft soft for torties! Mine with the scabs has some torite / tabby colouring. Here she is showing off her bare tummy whilst sunbathing!

Interesting this is more common in white cats as my boy had hair out everywhere until we clicked he was allergic to fleas.

In the meantime you could also try catmint. Keep an eye, some cats become a bit neurotic with it but most relax hugely. One or two aren't interested.

We tried everything for our tortie for this last year. Hypoallergenic diet. Steroids. Biopsies after it dragged on.
The steroids worked then didnt and they then put her on atopica which is the only thing that has done the trick long term, and even then it can flare up again for a few days. Expensive too, but worth it not watch her licking herself raw or pulling out clumps of fur.

What kind of food are you giving her? Lots of cats can't tolerate wheat/grains as it isn't part of their natural diet - it's often used as filler in lower quality cat food though.

You can get wheat-free, high meat content dry food.

She's gorgeous! Nude belly included. Lellocat says it's a valid style choice 😻

@cyncope She's on a mixture of Purina One and a Hills Scientific for Sensitive Skin and stomachs. I'll take a look at the ingredients!

Those brands do tend to have a very low meat content and lots of wheat, maize and soya to make up the bulk of it.
Cats naturally are pure carnivores so lots really struggle with a diet mainly of processed grains.

My cat went through a phase of over grooming her head after an incident where she was in a lot of pain for possibly a couple of weeks. She was shot by an air gun and we didn't find the entry point straight away.
The vet suggested some calming tablets which I ordered online. They did help. She had one reoccurrence 6 months down the line but the tablets worked again x