My cat has itchy bumps and I want to help

December 2, 2023 7:11 PM

My cat, I think he's seventeen years old, has a lot of itchy bumps on his body. He licks at them a lot. I'd like to help, but don't know how. Advice?

I've been to vets. The generalist vet gave a steroid shot that did nothing, and was going to be a monthly recurring subscription. The cat specialist vet offered to do biopsies on all the bumps for $80-150 each, but didn't offer to actually heal any of them.

I can locate these bumps easily. I know where many of them are because they are around for a while, and if he's licking at a spot for a while he's okay with me getting me fingers into where he's licking at and I can trace down a new bump or one I'd lost.

Anyway, I'm wondering... what can be done?

He really REALLY likes it when I find one of these bumps that stands up a bit and start really snagging it with my fingernail, like I'm trying to pull the top off of it. He LOVES this. Should I be trying to pull these off, trying to open them up? I know on my skin I have things I want to get out, do cats get this?

I've thought about getting cuticle scissors and doing fur trimming down around all these so he can lick at them, which he loves doing, but lick at them without the interference of the fur, so his tongue barbs could do the scratching at his itches. Is this a thing that might be good? Like, he isn't going anywhere, and we don't have company, so if he looks like hell but feel better, I'm okay with that, and he doesn't care.

Are there other recommendations? He's a very complaint cat, so I could imagine him putting up with a lot insofar as treatment options might be concerned.

I've been trying to put additions into his food for not only these itches but also sore joints as he is old... but he refuses any adulteration in his food at all. So this might all need to be treatment directly on the skin problem places and not systemic.

But any recommendations are welcome! I love my old guy, and just want him to feel good until he decides it's time for him to move on.

posted by hippybear to Pets & Animals (12 answers total)

I’m not sure why the vet would need to biopsy all of them, but cancer is definitely a possibility here. Different symptom (no bumps), but our vet recently gave us a choice between steroid and antihistamine for one of our cat’s itchiness, so that might be a less expensive thing to try before going for the biopsy, unless the specialist vet has good reason to have ruled out anything that would respond to things that are cheaper and easier to try first (not a vet, so possibly this is indeed the case - like maybe it’s either cancer or some specific parasite, and the parasite treatment might be rough enough on the cat, or not-cancer but still sufficiently expensive that you wouldn’t want to just give it a try without knowing for sure that it was the appropriate treatment?).

So the two things to ask area:
(1) Is there a less invasive (and less expensive) thing to try to rule out other options before doing a biopsy?
(2) What info would the biopsy provide? What are the possible outcomes and what would be the treatment options in each case?

The context is that your cat is 17, which is quite senior for most cats (modulo breed a bit, but still getting up there even for the longest-lived breeds). So depending on the outcome of the biopsy, you may face questions such as: will the biopsy results give you any actionable information? For example, are treatments for all of the potential diagnoses out of budget, or is there one possibility that you would reasonably be able to follow up on? Same except for how well your 17-year-old cat would tolerate potential treatments and what the cat’s quality of life in old age would be? If not to all of the above, should you just focus on palliative care at this point? In which case, does having the biopsy results make any difference (eg. in the palliative care details)?

To your other question, no: do not encourage or facilitate the cat licking or scratching even more or even harder at these spots. They can lick or scratch their skin raw, creating sores that can get infected. So regardless of whether or not you go with the biopsy, ask for another treatment option for the symptom of itching in the short term (mention to the specialist vet that the steroid didn’t work).

(I so want to help scratch for the cat, myself; especially when there is a little bump! Sometimes it’s a bit of a struggle to restrain myself. But the cats here have now had a couple cuts from their own claws or of unknown source that looked like nothing but got infected and needed antibiotics, so I resist the urge. And the one cat that had to have a cone on for a week this fall got really itchy as a result and was over-grooming her neck afterwards (thus the antihistamines) - took off a patch of fur and was well on her way to licking her skin raw enough to bleed! :( We brought her in to the vet before that stage, but they absolutely can and will do that to themselves even with just licking.)
posted by eviemath at 11:08 PM on December 2, 2023 [6 favorites]

The first thing I would check is whether your cat is protected from fleas and other biting insects. The bumps could be an allergic reaction to flea bites. So the first thing I'd do is rule out (or treat) fleas or other biters.

Second question I would ask is, do the bumps go away and new bumps show up in different places, or are these the same bumps? If they are the same, persistent bumps, they may be cancer (sorry). In that case I'd suggest going back to the vet to get one of the bumps biopsied (I don't think it's necessary to biopsy every single bump).
posted by heatherlogan at 8:36 AM on December 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

We had a cat whose allergies caused her lips to swell up on a seasonal basis, and she’d also get itchy dry little crusty skin bumps a few times a year. We changed her diet, and that helped some, but it really did seem like seasonal allergies more than food allergies. And, yeah, she’d come over and jam her head into my hand repeatedly until I’d give in and scratch off the two or three bumps that were on her scalp.
posted by slkinsey at 9:26 AM on December 3, 2023

Response by poster: Okay, so it's not fleas or any kind of skin vermin like that. The bumps show up and some go away and some stick around and then go away after a long time. Sometimes one of them will pull off and it's like a bunch of hair stuck together onto some kind of little skin plug thing, similar to something I might pull out of my own body. Albeit with less fur if it's from me.

I'm really not looking at taking him in for more medical treatment for this. As I said, he is quite old, and I just want him to be comfortable in his dotage. Thought people might have some advice or household cures/treatments.
posted by hippybear at 12:07 PM on December 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

So are you saying that your cat is on flea prevention medicine? Because itchy, sometimes crusty papules are a symptom of flea allergy dermatitis. It only takes one bite for a a reaction. Absence of live fleas does not rule out this condition.
posted by oneirodynia at 1:34 PM on December 3, 2023

This really is a medical issue and should be seen by a vet. If you didn't like the suggestions from the vet you saw, try a different vet.

That said, it does sound like allergies to me and I know you said you tried additions to his food but what I would recommend instead is a hypoallergenic diet like Natural Balance Limited Ingredient.

But please let me change your mind and convince you to see another vet.
posted by capricorn at 1:35 PM on December 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

Yeah, with the update, since the bumps come and go it sounds like a course of flea treatment (like Revolution - be sure to do the full 3-dose course) alongside some antihistamine would be a reasonable thing to try. There are a couple other options a vet might have for treating the itching, as well. You can get Revolution at a PetSmart I believe, but do get a vet to give you dosing recommendations for antihistamine if you try that, and consult on other options for just treating the itching. Any reasonable vet will be perfectly fine with “the cat is 17, I just want to ensure their comfort with a minimal amount of fuss or interventions.”
posted by eviemath at 2:00 PM on December 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Okay, so, a lot of questions here.

He's an indoor cat. So fleas how?

Neither vet suggested these bumps could be from fleas, neither of them suggested he be treated for fleas, and given how both of these vets seem to have been pushing me for maximum dollar value out of my cat, it's peculiar they didn't even want to do that.

Neither of them actually offered any solution for itching on my cat. One offered a monthly subscription of steroid shots at $25/month. The other wanted to biopsy every bump, at $60+ a bump.

Do I just have shitty vets?

Why are internet strangers suggesting my indoor cat might have fleas when nobody who has actually encountered my cat in person has made this suggestion at all?
posted by hippybear at 6:18 PM on December 3, 2023

I don't know whether or not your sweet old boy has fleas, but I will say that indoor cats can get them.

One of mine (Marty RIP) got them one spring and I wound up having to use Revolution, sprinkle Borax on the carpet and vacuum like I was being paid to do it to get rid of the things.
posted by virago at 7:20 PM on December 3, 2023 [2 favorites]

What did the first vet say when you told them the steroid wasn’t working - did you have a follow-up visit or consult with the actual vet? Did the second vet mistakenly think that the first vet had tried more options to address the itching, so was jumping in with a premature suggestion of the biopsies? (If we’re looking for a more generous interpretation; though vets that aren’t particularly sensitive to cost certainly do exist - your two experiences align with the two extremes of variation in vet approaches that my partner and I have experienced over the years, though, so maybe you just had the misfortune of two not great experiences in a row. But we can also confirm that a middle ground between the two does exist.)

Fleas are just very common. And yeah, it’s less common but indoor cats can get them (but more often will have a very mild case which you wouldn’t necessarily notice except for the cat being itchy) - they can get tracked in on your shoes, especially if you’ve been walking in fall leaf litter or similar, for example, or can find their way inside of older houses with softer wood or leakier windows, maybe riding in on slightly larger pests seeking warmth as the outside weather turns cold. Some of the flea treatment options (now I’m second guessing myself and can’t remember if it’s Advantage or Revolution?) deal with mites and ticks and maybe one or two other pests that can cause dermatitis, too. With our cat that has recently been itching, she’s also had dandruff for ever, and in the past multiple different vets have recommended a course of flea treatment as a way to rule out the most common cause of itch or skin issues. Then if that doesn’t resolve the itching, you go on to try the next most common or easiest thing to rule out. I guess ‘cause the alternative to that trying and ruling out things method is the sort of expensive and invasive testing like the biopsies your second vet wanted to do?

Side note, our current vet said we could try an omega-3 supplement for the dandruff, (which is actually a side benefit of a joint supplement, but the cat is now a senior and the joint supplement certainly won’t hurt; what we ended up getting is just ground up/powdered green mussels in gel caps that you can open up and sprinkle over the cat’s food - odiferous, but the cat absolutely loves it). I don’t know if it’s that or the antihistamine, but her dandruff situation does seem to have improved. I guess that’s more the sort of easy to try at home suggestion you were looking for here? Likely wouldn’t solve the bumps or get rid of the itching. In particular, from what I’ve read, I gather that cat skin structure is a bit different from ours and it sounds like they don’t have pores or sweat in the same way we do, so they can get dry skin and resulting dandruff which the omega-3 helps with, but it wouldn’t cause the same sort of pore-clogging skin issues for cats as it would for humans? But who knows, I suppose an omega-3 extract could help your cat maintain healthier skin overall which could potentially help tone the itching down a little bit.
posted by eviemath at 9:23 PM on December 3, 2023 [3 favorites]

Indoor cats can get fleas - I have experienced this personally with my cats. My vet at the time said the fleas likely hitched a ride home with me from the outdoors. I can’t say whether your cat’s symptoms are consistent with that - it was many years and another generation of household cats ago - but it happens. And it’s fairly cheap to treat so seems potentially worth a try.

I’d try the flea meds and limited ingredient food for a while, and if neither helped, go back to the first vet (or a different one altogether) for a “steroids didn’t help, I don’t want to do anything invasive so no biopsies, what other options do we have to make this cat more comfortable?” consultation.

I’m sorry your friend is so itchy! I hope he gets some relief one way or another.
posted by Stacey at 4:19 AM on December 4, 2023

My cat has had bumps like these before and it's because she's allergic to chicken. I took her to the vet to make sure it wasn't anything serious, and they agreed that it was probably an allergy and suggested I try changing her food. Once I switched her to a cat food with no chicken, the bumps went away over a couple weeks. I wish I could explain this to her so she'd stop staring longingly any time I eat chicken, but alas.

Anyway, I would try a limited ingredient food and see if it helps.
posted by birthday cake at 6:47 AM on December 4, 2023