QUESTION

In the past two months slowly but surely my cat has been pulling her hair out by the nape of her neck, She hasn't pulled hair out anywhere else but in this region. In the beginning the vet recommended changing her diet to Nutri diet, because maybe it's an allergic reaction to food contents. But unfortunately this persisted we then put her on a course of Synolux to decrease inflammation and irritation, which unfortunately has persisted. We have taken her to the vet five times in the last two months, we have changed her diet, put her on a course of Synolux three times, gone to the extreme of giving her a cortozone injection and this problem has persisted it started off as a whole the size of a thumbnail and is now the radius of the bottom of a coke can. It is constantly weeping and bleeding she can not stop scratching it and just seems to rip the scabs off which in turn continues pulling out hair. Please could you advise me what this could be caused from and how can we stop this from happening.
Candice

ANSWER

Dear Candice
Your cat has a form of acute moist dermatitis - unfortunately this can be caused by a number of different problems and as you have seen no response to antibiotic treatment I would suggest that a more in depth investigation is required. This will entail your vet taking some skin biopsies from the affected area under a general anaesthetic. The results of these tests will rule out parasitic and fungal infections and hopefully point you to a diagnosis.

Micaela Wright