Hi all,
A fellow feline foundation caretaker posted about her feral cat's skin problem on our private message board. Any ideas what this could be? I emailed her already with a few suggestions. I think it might be flea allergies and overgrooming. Anything I can pass on to her? Please do not email her, I will just pass it on. Thanks!

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Poor kitty..... that actually looks like what happened to my dog's elbows. He ended up licking them till they would ooze blood. I took him to the vet and the vet decided it was an allergy issue. We were given a gentomycin cream to put on it (only available by prescription).

Your friend could look for gentomycin liquid or cream (OTC - it wouldn't be as strong as the prescription stuff but it would probably help anyway). It would be by the bandages and ointments area of any local pharmacy..... gentomycin kills gram positive and gram negative bacteria... it is the only thing that would kill both. Besides that, it would also soften what appears to be rough, dry skin. If she finds a liquid, it could be put on with cotton balls. Do not RUB with cotton balls, it would have to be applied as dabbing so as not to spread anything.

I hope she can find this stuff and it helps.

Alisha, the person should trap the cat and get her to vet. Sure, the cat gets upset by being trapped, but a vet needs to see the cat and the sores. If the cat will eat in the trap, the person can get a sedative pill from the vet to grind up and hide in a small amount of tempting canned food an hour or two prior to the vet visit.

If that just can't or won't be done, then the person should make an appointment with the vet and bring the photo- not the cat, asking the vet for ideas and a good, safe, likely to help treatment. Those photo's are rather good- large and clear. Maybe the vet won't charge for a visit, but his time and expertise would be used so it would be expected to pay him something.

A vet's opinion really is needed.

It could be a terrible flea allergy, where those little red bumps are flea bites and they caused more itching than in some other cats so the cat wound up scratching and licking off all his fur on his back. Is his belly balding too? Often with a flea bite allergy, the cat overgrooms his stomach too.

But, it could be other reasons as well.

Here is a link about skin problems in cats:

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I agree a vet visit would be much more desirable than trying to fix this herself if it's possible.

GG, this woman emailed me back. She is bringing another cat to the vet and bringing the pictures with her. She is actually doing a pretty good job of trying to figure out what this is. She used Frontline for fleas but I told her Frontline doesn't work well here so she is going to try advantage. She is going to try diet too because she wants to fix this from the inside instead of just treating the symptoms. I believe the vet said to try antibiotics too. Anyway she's going to keep me updated but she seems very determined and this is a lucky kitty, cause that condition does not look comfortable!