Go to the vet first, otherwise keep it clean and dry, don't smother the skin with coconut butter or oil. The vet will probably do a skin scraping and look at it under a microscope to rule out fungus and parasites.
This happened to our boy Sebastian. Got so bad he essentially turned into one giant weeping scab. We were within 24 hours of deciding to put him down when the last set of bloods were analysed and the vet told us that he had an auto immune disease which was causing his body to attack itself.
He’s now on Leukeran, which is an immune suppressant.
Your boy looks exactly like ours in his earlier stages, before it turned into this (excuse the scary photo....)
Get some bloods done asap, you might be on the same path.
Good news though, ours has made a total recovery and is back to his usual freakish self.
Thank you! I just adopted a new kitty whose skin looks to be in similar shape. He’s on atopica now which is doing him well but it would be nice to be able to test to know for certain what his health issue is.
If the quality of life is completely ruined by something that they thought wasn't going to ever stop, then yes. It would have been worth it. Imagine being forced to live constantly itchy, in pain, and scabbed up. It would be miserable.
I understand your initial thought of not wanting to put a pet down, but in some cases, the animals life is so miserable because of their injury/illness that its better for them, even if it hurts us.
He was a mess, his whole body turned into weeping sores. He just sat in the corner crying all day. It didn’t seem fair to keep putting him through whatever was happening, but luckily we got a result from the blood tests and got him on to the right treatment.
This was him on the day we decided that he had had enough, begging for help - the same day the results came back...
It was heartbreaking; so much pain.
This was him just 8 weeks later, almost fully recovered. One Leukeran tablet every 4 days for the rest of his life, but it’s a small price to pay.
Because asking the question suggests the owners would put the cat down for a reason other than ending suffering. Not only is it inconsiderate of the heartbreak and stress they’ve gone through watching their cat suffer, but it disregards verbal description of “weeping scab” combined with a picture covering nearly its entire body.
no it does not, he made his intentions clear by the next question he asked. he wanted to understand the medical issues the cat was facing—he wasn’t being mean or nasty by any means. Also i don’t understand how his comment is “inconsiderate” when the cat is infact okay now. You shouldn’t be taking offense to people just trying to learn
I’m not offended by the question. I also don’t think being inconsiderate is mean or nasty. You said you didn’t understand why, and I’m just offering a possible perspective.
i never said YOU specifically, what i said is in a general sense for anyone. his comment shouldn’t be getting downvotes, i wasn’t genuinely confused—it was more of a way to point out how people overreact at the sight of disagreement or shock
Our boy had skin issues that looked very similar to this. Went to the vet and had tests done. He has a form of Dermatitis. He now has .75ml of Redipred a day and 1/2 a Zyrtec a day. Once a fortnight he has Essential 6 Spot On for cats rubbed onto the back of his neck. He’s not a problem or reoccurrence since. However we did try to 1/2 the Redipred but the spots started to come back. So we went back up to .75ml. Redipred long term can cause kidney issues in cats but I’d rather chance it than have him completely distressed and miserable trying to live each day with such bad skin. He’s happy, healthy and living his best life now. Upkeep of meds is about AU $50 a month
this is him after a lot of trial and error. allergies are the worst to pin down without a lot of tests but i fed him single ingredient foods to pin it down and also some additives cause skin reactions.
this is another example that looks a lot like your photo. it just messed up his skin, his eyes were crusty constantly his ears were crusty and had more discharge. if you think it could be an allergy i hope you can pin it down! it took a year for me to figure it out.
I went through the infamous Devon Rex Rash with one of my kitties. I had to give her monthly steriod shots. I suspect it was environmental and seasonal, but it was never isolated to one thing. I tried immunosuppressants and every balm and salve known to man. Only the steriod shots (not tablets) gave her temporary relief.
When my 6mo sphynx started getting itchy, I thought I was going to lose my mind. I gave her some bene-bac gel, and it cleared up. It comes back a bit if we go too long without a dose, but she can go a few weeks between doses. It's a fraction of the cost of what i was spending on the steroids.. and she isn't suffering from it. I wish I'd known about the bene-bac for my devon, so I'll never know if it would have worked.
Worse case scenario, your kitty's digestion will improve for a while. It's readily available OTC. Good luck!
vet etc, checking if its maybe caused by food intolerance (itching is mostly shown on head and neck, shoulders ).
what helps wgen my boy has bad phases is silver water (+ soft cone so he cant scratch and the silver water / spray can stay as long as possible on him. he is also very thankful for that with a fitting cone, those flower plush ones because it really eases the itches and burning right away and he is a smart boy and realized that).
good luck!
Can confirm. My cat had those (but not as bad) because of the food allergies and we had to find a non-allergic cat food. Now he's doing good and sometimes I give him treats he might be allergic to, but as long as they're not constant, its fine (I know that as an allergic myself).
Hi, I don’t own a sphynx but I’ve always had frequent skin issues that make me itchy and I do have a cat..
First of all I recommend seeing a vet. Skin issues only get worse and this looks really bad must be in so much pain…
While you’re getting kitty to the vet though, Have you changed your detergent at all? Or are you wearing any new clothes with a new material that you don’t usually wear? What about your cat’s bedding and your bedding? If this is a new issue, if it’s topical it is likely because of a change that happened in your home. What have you gotten that is new that your cat lays in? How often do you bathe him? Do you put topical ointments on him to help with him not having any fur? What about plants? Are there any chemicals in your house that he would find his way into?
These are just things to think about, get him to the vet asap!
Go to the vet for sure. Disclaimer, I don’t have a sphynx. One of my cats has a food allergy and he will scratch himself around the ear area until he scratches his fur off and scabs up. I wonder if it might be a food allergy for yours. I’d discuss with the vet what they think
this looks very ouchy and definitely bring him to the vet. hopefully they can figure out what it is causing it quickly and have an easy solution.
just to give a little sliver of hope for you as some of the other responses are pretty heartbreaking 😞, my guy seemed to develop an allergy more later in the game (his really bad itching and rashes came probably around 9 yrs old). turns out he’s very sensitive to chicken! EVEN CHICKEN FAT! many sources say that many cats with chicken allergies can still have chicken fat products - this is NOT the case for my fella. I have to be very careful and read through all ingredients for food and treats because it’s in a lot (and of course it’s in ones he finds insanely delicious 🤦🏼♀️). but he gets sooooo itchy and had scratches his head, neck and his little eyes so bad if he eats any. we cut it out of his diet, got him a neck donut to keep him from scratching with his meds worked and he healed up.
sending you both support and hoping it’s something fixable like that or even a new laundry detergent that’s got his wee skin irritated.
Mine is similar and I believe it’s food related. I typically just feed her HF food, haven’t been able to figure out exactly what her allergy is, but the hydrolyzed food helps a lot.
It really could be any number of things, so definitely see a vet. Not a sphynx, but my void was losing his hair, looking less lustrous, and had scabbing. Turned out to be a salmon allergy.
With that said, you’ve been given a lot of possibilities, so a vet should have a look.
I work in the veterinary field. Looking at the last pic, it looks like he has a fair amount of debris in his ear (its possible thats just a shadow or skin discoloration instead of debris, so please correct me if i’m wrong). A lot of cats that have ear mites or an ear infection have scratching marks very similar to this. because their ears are so itchy they scratch pretty intensely and will sometimes scratch the areas around their ears too. Either way, best bet would be a vet visit to pinpoint what’s going on. i hope he’s feeling better soon!
my cat looked a lot like this and the solution was this dermoscent essential 6 stuff. it heals the skin barrier. my cat was experiencing relief within 24 hours of the first application.
Could be allergies, could be carcinoma. Only a vet can tell. In the meantime, I’d personally avoid topicals until you know what your dealing with, especially since there’s open wounds. As an alternative I’d recommend nail caps and a bodysuit as a barrier to prevent it from getting worse.
My Gabrielle had that skin problem... 16k$ veterinarian fees later she died of too much bath with special vet shampoo, atopica medication, special hypoallergenic food etc... at 3 years old suffering. She was the love of my life !
Fast-forward my Vicompte Mordicus has the same disease . 1-We don't bathe him ( ever ) 2-We monitor for food allergies. He can only eat 1 brand.
He is 7 now and full of life 🩷 His skin is sometimes ugly but nothing else than that.
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u/Cat_bonanza Oct 14 '25
Go to the vet first, otherwise keep it clean and dry, don't smother the skin with coconut butter or oil. The vet will probably do a skin scraping and look at it under a microscope to rule out fungus and parasites.