Skin rash/bleeding

My cat is an "only child" and 100% indoors, so he has virtually zero risk of catching anything, so never had any issues with him for the past 6 years. the last few weeks, I have notice what I thought were maybe some dry skin on his tummy and base/underside of his tail. Today I was giving tummy rubs and noticed that the rash on the stomach had def gotten worse and he has two patches of this rash plus matted blood on the inside of both hunches too. what could be going on? and, any home remedies that may help?? (Google keeps saying fleas, but I see no signs of him itching more, checked his fur for bugs, plus, how could he possibly have gotten fleas??)

Hello!  Its not unusual for indoor cats to get fleas or worms.   Worms are often wiped onto the doormat;  fleas can come as a freebe with new houses, furniture, material or clothes, visiting animals and so on (they live in soft material usually, not on pets).  What's more, fleas are the most common cause of itching, despite nearly every owner saying 'I know its not fleas.'  I think that people expect to see fleas crawling about on their cat, but most fleas live in the house and only jump onto the cat when they're hungry.  A cat with a flea allergy only has to meet one single flea to end up with symptoms as clear as these (not quite as dramatic as a true peanut allergy in people, but the same principle).  Luckily, they are the cheapest cause of itching to rule out (apply flea treatment monthly).  Putting yourself in the vets' position then, the most sensible thing to do is to treat every single itchy cat for fleas, regularly, because we'd look pretty silly doing an expensive work up and have it turn out to be a flea allergy after all.  We do need to use a good product on an ongoing basis though, which we know will work. But you are right;  there are plenty causes of itching in cats, so if the signs continue when fleas are ruled out, most vets will have you continue the flea treatment and set about ruling out other things.  Other sorts of allergy, or beavioural scratching, for example - some cats scratch in response to chronic pain.

I hope that you get to the bottom of this interesting case - please do let us know how you get on.

Another thing to mention is that most cats have some quite determined bacteria living under their nails.   Cat scratch wounds, even if done by the same cat, cat therefore become infected in which case they need topical treatments eg cream to help.  Again, your vet who knows the case and can see the wounds will be the best judge of this - but infected wounds do itch and tend to be scratched, perpetuating a cycle.

Chronic skin problems are an easy one to underestimate and we do reccommend seeing your vet.