Unknown skin condition

Hello vets. I am hoping someone might be able to help as I am at a loss. I fostered a cat back in August who arrived with what looked like burns. It turns out now he's making the sores himself by scratching. He's had a skin scrape and is negative for bacteria, mites, fungal etc. He's tried an anti allergy diet, has no stress at home with me, I've bought a huge air purifier in case it was something in the dust etc but it's just not getting any better. When one heals he creates a new one. Has anyone had any experience with this as even my vet is at a loss? Steroids help for a short time but once they wear off it's back to itching again. It's only his neck. Thank you in advance 🙏🏼

Hello!  Scratching is quite common and I wonder whether you might be doing your vet a disservice when you say that they are at a loss.  I read it all the time on talk-boards but hear vets say it hardly ever, so I wonder if a lot of what vets say about chronic diseases somehow gets lost in translation.  Questions for your vet include. 1)  can we definitely rule out fleas?   This might seem a bit ridiculous if you cant see fleas on your cat, but bear with me:   flea allergies can cause this when only one single flea has been encountered, and you won't normally see it.  Most vets will start these cases by putting the cat on a lifelong flea treatment; it will need to be repeated at intervals.

2)  Could this be caused by allergy?  People's immediate reaction is 'to what' but allergies can also broaden, to include more and more allergens.   Diets will only work if the cat eats that and nothing else - and only then if its a food allergen that is not contained in whichever food you pick, which should be fed for 12 weeks before you make up your mind about it.  Thus a single anti allergy diet never rules out allergies.  If you think that an allergy may be to blame, speak to your vet about where to go next.

3) Could it be pain?  Scratching can be a manifestation of pain - and not necessarily near where the scratch is.

4) could the itch of healing be the cause now?   5) sarcoptes ruled out?

Repeated steroid injections are rarely good news for a cat, so if this seems to be an allergy and  they seem to be needed, it may be worth investigating some of the wide range of alternative anti-itching drugs.

Once pain etc have been established as not being the cause, that is.

Crucially, itching is often a chronic symptom that will be with a cat for most of their life, but scratching doesnt have to be present if the itching is controlled.    Good questions for your vet are:  1) what do you think might be causing my cat to itch.  2) its not good for cats to be on steroids, especially in the presence of a non healing wound, but we can see that the itching needs to be controlled.  What else can control the itching?

3) when should we revisit? 4) might a specialist be able to help? 5) what have we ruled out so far?  What can we rule out next? I hope that something here is useful