Cat with holes in skin

Hi there,
My cat has had these "abcesses" since October. She was taken to the vet and they cleaned up all of her wound area. She had a sore on her back near her tail. She had 3 or 4 more going down her right leg. She also has these holes under her right leg. She has a lump which the first doctor thought it was a mammory gland tumor. She was given Clavamox and Chlorhexidine Flush. I was to clean her wounds every day with the flush. She ended up with diarrhea from the Clavamox and that was it. It never helped her. Since this time she has been to 2 other doctors. The last one was a dermatologist. She did not know what caused this problem. She has been on Doxycycline and Marbofloxacin. I was also given ChlorhexiDerm shampoo to bathe her wounds. The last medication she was on was a combination of Doxycycline and Clofazimine. The latter was a liquid and is used to treat Leprosy. I had her on this stuff for 1 month and she was so sick from the diarrhea that she looked like she wanted to die. So I took her off of all the meds and removed her surgical collar which she has been wearing for 5 months. The dermatologist said that the lump was a gland that is swollen from the infection. She eats drinks and acts ok. But I am sure she must be in pain.

She originally was an outdoor cat that my sister befriended. She said that she has gotten the sores and they go away. But, this last time when they got worse is when she brought her to the vet and to my house for me to take care of her. She stays indoors now. My sister mentioned that she saw Mockingbirds and Blue jays dive bombing her while she just laid there and did nothing.

So if anyone has had a similar experience with a cat, please let me know.

She is 9 years old and not even sure if she is spayed since she was a stray.

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

 

on the spay thing the vet should be able to locate a spay scar.
She is 100% indoor now? Now other cats/pets in the house?
If you can't get an answer from this vet I'd suggest a specialist or even consider a holistic vet....I highly believe in the holistic approach especially when "normal" drugs don't appear to be doing anything.
Are you sure this cat isn't mutilating herself? Maybe an allergic reaction to something and she might be getting carried away with scratching?
Have they done skin scrapes? Test for allergies?
Also could it possibly be a staph infection on the skin? My friend's dog is recently going through this and it can be nasty and looks like abcesses but go further than that - gross stinky stuff coming out of the skin

 

Is it your sister that got the sores also?? If so did your sister get any medical treatment?
Have the areas been swabbed and sent for testing to see what drugs its resistant to? Do they know if its fungal or bacterial? Has blood work been done? Cultures?
If all these tests have not been done (and like Mary said there is no chance that the cat is self mutilating) then I would go to a different dermatologist...or holistic vet as suggested.

 

It doesn't seem to be contagious. Right now she is with my other female kitty. They get along ok, too. She wore a surgical collar while I was bringing her to the vets on numerous ocasions and has never took it off. Well I took it off in the beginning of March when she looked so terrible. The last doctor was a specialist in dermatology and she just has never seen anything like it before. She had her on several different antibiotics. I just wanted to see if someone out there has had this problem before.

 

Ive seen infections that havent cleared up after being on a couple of different antibiotics but when they dont work then we usually do a variety of tests which include swabs (anearobic and aerobic) and a cultiure. That way there should be a definite diagnosis along with the knowledge of which antibiotic and/or anti-fungal will get rid of the infection, thats in the case of the holes, for the lumps there would be even more testing done if nothing is helping, the lumps could be recurring abscesses, although you would see other signs of infection like lethargy, loss of appetite, high fever but after this amount of time I doubt it just an abscess unless the meds shes been on are temporarily keeping it down, it could be swollen glands due to infection or other disease which could be ruled out or diagnosed with blood tests, tumours, have x-rays and a biopsy done.
Is it possible your other cat is 'grooming' her...licking and nibbling can cause problems whether its from her doing it to herself or from another pet.
Im just curious though as you say the specialist said she had never 'seen ' this before but did she do any tests?.

 

One of the doctors stuck a needle in the lump on her belly and stated that if it was an abcess, it would of had a lot of stuff coming out. She never did test what she took out. Another doctor stated that it was one of her glands that was swollen because of the infection.

My other kitty that is with her most of the time isn't that affectionate towards her. They don't fight or hiss at each other. They can lay on the bureau together and look outside. They smell their noses and just walk away. I am glad it is not contagious.

None of them took any sample of the sores. They mostly gave me antibiotics and solutions to help keep it clean. One of the places I went to stated that they would have to do 4 separate cultures and with all the testing it would come to over $1000.00. If I had it there wouldn't be a problem. The first place I was at couldn't believe my sister spent over $200.00 for the first visit knowing that she was a neighborhood cat.

I am just hoping that someone out there already spent the $1000. and knows what this is. She still likes to jump up on high things and look out the windows. She loves to bake in the sun. It is hard to see her suffering much. I would just hate to put her down. She gets along with my other 2 male cats and my bunnies. The only problem I have is if she has run of the house, I have to make sure she has aher towel to lay on. Otherwise, she is has several things that she likes to lay on when she is with my other cat.

 

Sending you a PM.