Does my cat have a skin condition???

Hi and welcome to the forum. I have 7 cats and 2 are Maine Coons. As I was reading down your message I was going "yes, that's the same as my Kiba-Khan" until I came to the bit where you said Mr Darcy isn't itching excessively. I agree with your vet that it sounds like a flea allergy, which is what my Maine Coons suffer with, but the difference being my 2, especially Kiba-Khan, scratch so much that I have to take him to the vet for an injection to stop the scratching. I think you are lucky that your cat isn't too bothered by the allergy and I suggest you just use a regular spot on flea treatment. The last time I took Kiba-Khan to the vet in January (not expecting fleas in January!, he had scratched himself raw in places and was covered in scabs - when the vet did the standard flea tests, like with yours, no fleas or flea poop. Remember, if a cat has a flea allergy, it only takes one little flea to set it off. 6 of my cats are indoor cats with access to a garden pen and 1 cat goes out so I have to treat my lot with Advocate regularly. I hope this helps.

Thanks so much for your replies, so helpful. 
I think I'll just continue to use the spot on, and as long as it's not annoying him, just leave him be.
The vets did offer me injections, but also said it's basically pointless unless it's bothering him. 
Thanks again 

Hiya, welcome to the forum.

I have a cat with a flea allergy. It only takes one flea bite to cause the skin problems (even if the cat is regularly flea'd, as with most flea treatments they require the flea to bite first), and it doesn't matter that it's a house cat and that the dog is flea'd regularly, you can bring them in on your own skin and clothes, and the eggs can remain dormant for I think a year in carpets/pet beds/etc.

When Bramble gets bitten, she gets little cuts and scabs from itching and biting the area. She also loses hair as she over grooms the area to try and stop the itching.

She gets a steroid injection to stop the itching. Sometimes one works, sometimes she needs a course over a few months.

It does sound like a flea allergy that your cat haas, although, are the scabs all in one area, or in sort of clusters? Or are they randomly all over her body? I'm not 100% sure, but it appears that after a flea bite Bramble just gets itchy in the area of the bite (sometimes she gets multiple bites). But the bald patches are usually always in the same area so unless the fleas prefer the back legs/neck then it could be that her entire body is itchy and that those are the easiest bits for her to scratch.

Anyway if it is a flea allergy, you can try new flea treatments that don't require a bite to work, and keeping your other pets well de flea'd as well as regular treatments in the house in summer/ hotter weather as it seems to only happen to Bramble at those times (presumably the eggs lie dormant in winter, I think heat activates them hence them coming out of dormancy when an animal lies on a place with an egg)... And if the flea still bites, go to the vets straight away before the cat does more harm to itself.

Good luck, I'm always happy to give advice if you need it and I've had years of experience of cat flea allergy haha!

Hi.

What flea product do you use on your dog? If it is a pet shop bought one it is unlikely to actually do much. If it is a prescription product (basically, this means bought from your Vet) then it should work.

On the topic of allergy, how did you go about testing food? When you change a food you need to note the main ingredients that are listed. Then use it and nothing else (this means no treats etc unless it is a treat of the new food) for at least 4 weeks. If no difference then change to something with differing ingredients and use this (again, this and nothing else) for again another 4-6 weeks. Eventually you should hit a product that doesn't react. This is how to perform a correct food allergy test. If you feed anything else during this time it may contain an allergen and ruin the results. It does take a while but that's what you have to do to solve a food allergy.

The other alternative is to pay for an allergy test (you can test food or environment (dust mites/ grass etc), or both. However if it is a flea allergy this will not show up on these tests.

Unfortunately skin conditions are one of the harder things to diagnose in the pet world. Vets will check for the most likely and cheap possibilities first (as clients prefer to pay less which is fair enough!) and if that doesn't work then they start to test and 'tick off' other options until it gets narrowed down and eventually solved.

Hope you get sorted easier than this though. I do sympathise as my Simmi seems to have a dust allergy. It only appeared when we replaced the oven (dirty dusty work!) and her eyes went funny. Eye drops were a torture to get in!!! at least the 20 day tablet course was easy...she's a little pig so it was easy to hide them in liver paste!
Going to be installing a dishwasher soon so will have to see if it flares up again. :/