Hi guys. I'm new to the community, but seem to have exhausted my resources. I have a absolutely precious and sweet 5 year old orange tabby. I am his only owner found him at about 4 weeks and raised him ever since. Starting about a year ago he started to develop a little redish patch on his tummy near his hind legs. This red patch has grown to a hairless, red, flaky, senstive rash encompassing his entire belly. As well as a patch of scabs (that I can't see but do feel) around his collar area.
I have my theories to some of it, but not the underlying issue. I clearly see him over grooming his belly, constantly licking until it bald and almost raw. I also see him scratching whit his hind paws at his collar area which just perpetuates the scabs. I have taken him to the vet 3 times in the past year and have done lots of research nothing is working. The first time the vet said it is was nothing and should go away. The second time the vet did scrape test and nothing came back positive, the third time the vet said it could possibly be allergies and presribed him zyrtecs. The zyrtecs did not really work and is expensive.
So running with the idea of his problems being a cause of allergies, I got my carpets professionally cleaned, changed his shampoo, switced to wheat free food (he threw it up daily for ten days until I switched back), changed his kitty litter, I wipe his stomach with peroxide then clean it with water(that works a little bit), and got an E collar (which admittedly I haven't been using as consistenly as I should)
As a college student I do not have $200+ to spend on each vet visit with no results. Any suggestions would be deearly appreciated I hate seeing him suffer and it just seems to be spreading. There are more patches popping up up near the nipples on his chest as well as a patch under one of his front arms.
So my question to you guys are there any alternative options I could explore? The e-collar fixes the symptom and not the cause because as soon as I take it off he is right back at it, and I imagine the itch-you-can't-scratch-feeling is horrible. :(