My cat has crusty paws, bites, and hair loss. What's the cause?

Question

My cat has crusty bits of hard skin on all four paws and black in between the toes. He bites them a lot. I live in Kenya and the vet thought it was a bacterial infection and gave him cortisone+antibiotics. A week later no change and clumps of hair falling out (he has allergies and is on hypoallergenic food) and I have seen signs of weakness in his back legs once or twice. Is he allergic to meds/misdiagnosed? Very worried. Pet's info: Cat | Mixed Breed | Male | neutered | 7 years old | 15 lbs

Dr. Massimo Orioles, DVM, Cert AVP, MRCVS · Accepted Answer

This is probably due to a severe allergy, although it could also be fleas, infection or mites.  First of all, in order to rule out skin parasites, you will need to treat with a high quality flea treatment (advocate or advantage), then ask the vet to perform a skin scrape - this might reveal an infection or a mite infestation.   If all of those came back negative, the next step is to treat the allergy symptomatically and try to discover the cause of the allergy.   Three main type of allergies are usually affecting pets: food allergies, flea and parasite related ones and environmental type (allergens coming from trees, pollins, dust etc etc). Some medications can be given by the vet in order to repair the skin lesions (steroids and antibiotics). Please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation (where you can post pictures ) if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

My cat has crusty paws, bites, and hair loss. What's the cause?

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