My cat has crusty paws, bites, and hair loss. What's the cause?
Updated On September 23rd, 2025
Pet's info: Cat | Mixed Breed | Male | neutered | 7 years old | 15 lbs
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.
4 Answers
Most Helpful Answer
Published on April 12th, 2017
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.
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful
Related Answers from Veterinarians
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Published on January 13th, 2018
This is probably caused by an allergic reaction. first of all make sure you de-flea Macy regularly every month with a high quality spot on (ex. Advantage) as fleas are by far the most common reason for these reactions. If the fleas are not the problem, it could be an allergic reaction to food or an environmental factor. this is more complicated to treat and will sometimes require medications such as Steroids, anti histamines or cyclosporin in order to stop the allergy.
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful
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Published on July 22nd, 2017
There are a lot of different reasons why a cat would have scabs on their skin. The first thought would be fleas. Though you are quite sure there aren't any fleas I would still keep a really close eye out for them. Cats are incredibly good at grooming themselves and can eat almost all the fleas that end up on them so you might not see many. There are also certain mites that can cause bumps and itchiness that can lead to crusts (aka scabs). Some other causes are allergies (either to food or environmental irritants), stress (which can lead to overgrooming and then to skin infection), or contact irritants in the home (or yard) such as chemical cleaners, insecticides, or weed killers just to name a few. You don't mention whether Patches is itchy but often these bumps can be accompanied by itchiness. Your veterinarian may do a skin scrape to evaluate for mites, bacteria, or yeast on the skin and can prescribe appropriate medications (antibiotics, steroids, mite treatment, etc.) depending on what they find after performing their diagnostics. Good luck with Patches, I hope this was helpful!
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful
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Published on April 3rd, 2020
Hi, and thanks for your question. This could be due to an allergy, although it could also be infection or mites. First of all, in order to rule out skin parasites, you will need to treat with a high quality flea treatment, 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, pollens, dust etc etc). Some medications can be given by the vet in order to repair any possible skin lesions (like steroids and antibiotics). Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further. If this answer was helpful please let us know, this will be used to improve our service!
1Pet Parents found this answer helpful
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