Kitten scratches her neck to bleeding, help :(

Caroline_ie

Hi all,

My 4 months kitten Naya is scratching her neck to the point of bleeding. I attached two pics, you can see a little bit.

She's done it before, but not as bad and it healed up quite fast.

She doesn't wear a collar, and doesn't seems to be scratching anywhere else on her body. She's also an indoor kitten for now.

Any idea what it could be? Thanks

I think I will bring her to the vet this week.

boomerang

Ear mites?

Caroline_ie

Just had a look with a flash light and her ears look nice and clear. How can I know if she has ear mites?

Just googled it and > not ear mites.

The Sweeper

Is that a speck of flea dirt I see in the second photograph, that wee black speck to the left of the picture against the white fur?

The bleeding patch could be a hotspot - an allergic reaction to a bite, especially a flea bite. The black speck - comb or lift out one or two of those and crush them on a piece of wet tissue paper - if they show up red, it's flea poo and the red is the blood that comes out in flea poo and the kitten needs to be flea treated.

If she's got a bad case, you'll need to de-flea her bedding and so on, and use a spot-on product that breaks the reproductive cycle of the fleas for a while.

If she has fleas, see if you can get a capstar tablet - spot-ons kill fleas gradually, flea shampoos work immediately but don't kill eggs and it's hard to wash a cat. Capstar kills every flea moving on the animal within an hour, and then you can comb out the fur.

If that patch is a hotspot, clip the fur around it so the air can get at it - hotspots can become infected if the animal scratches enough to make the spot bleed, and then she'll need an antibiotic.

Orla K

My kitten used to do something like this, with him it could have been ringworm(other cats had ringworm) that he over scratched and kept on doing it. I was talking to a friend at the time and her kitten did the same(hers was for no reason) she just stopped the kitten from scratching the spot whenever she saw it doing it eventually it had stopped scratching enough to heal(same with my guy)

But give the kitten a once over yourself, and check for fleas lit sweeper said.


I will add that my kittens wound got so bad he went on antibiotics it healed and then he scratched it up again:rolleyes:

dvet

I would say best bet is to rule out any flea problems, and if you still get no result, take her to the vet, as it could be an allergy/other complaint.

The important thing with fleas is to treat ALL your animals (not just the scratching one), and at the same time wash her bedding & hoover up all the areas she's been in recently. A bit of effort but worth it - otherwise the fleas can come back to haunt you time and time again!

Like I said, give it a go and if you still have problems, go to your vet, as there are lots of possible causes of scratching in kittens.


P.S. when I say treat all your animals for fleas, use a spot on or other medication for this (best ones are from the vets, some of the supermarket ones are cheaper but are not great!) Flea collars are better for prevention, and won't work well in your case.

Caroline_ie

I live is a small flat. Surely if she had fleas i would have fleas too, right? Her neck is also the only spot she scratches.

I looked at her neck and there are no black spots. She tends to hide behind my bikes, sometimes she gets a black nose and paws from it.

Today her scratching is worse today, she is definitely going to the vet tomorrow.

Thanks all.

dvet

Caroline_ie wrote: »

I live is a small flat. Surely if she had fleas i would have fleas too, right?

No, not necessarily! (Fleas can sometimes bite humans but they don't infest them). That's why the vet will check her coat for flea dirt and may do the wet paper test described above. Sometimes even 1 flea can cause a reaction if they have a flea allergy, that's why all the hoovering/flea treatments etc are important. Anyway no harm getting the vet to check her if she's scratching so severely.