Sorry in advance for the length. The last 6 months have been a long drawn-out medical saga and I tried to keep everything as informative but precise as I possibly could.
Back in early March, my cat (male, approx. 9-10 years old) had surgery on both of his eardrums to remove polyp roots that were causing him nasty, painful ear infections. Not too long before the surgery, he developed what looked like dermatitis on the left side of his face. Nowhere else. The only thing in his environment that had changed that week was a kitty tower that I had given him. I removed it to be safe, wondering if he was having a reaction to the cheap carpet material. (he was taking antibiotics and an appetite stimulant at the time, but he had been for a while so I'm not sure it's what he was reacting to)
During his next visit, the vets insisted that he was just scratching at that side of his face because his ears were still bothering him, and thought he would be fine once the surgery was over with.
He gets through the surgery like a champ and the recovery process is long and difficult - several weeks in a hard plastic cone with heavy painkillers. Finally the day comes where we can take the collar off, and he looks great - his face + the stitches on the side of his head have completely healed and his hair is growing back. The vets give me the go-ahead to remove the cone. He was great for the first few days, but one morning I check on him and he's scratched up that same area on his face again. I call the vet, and they tell me there could be internal healing still going on that's bothering him, and to put him in the cone for a little longer. So I do.
But we just go through the same process again. I bring him to ANOTHER appointment, and now they're saying it's some kind of mysterious allergic reaction (which is what I said in the first place but.... whatever) and that he'll have to be on anti-inflammatories for the long term. But no clues as to what could have caused this kind of thing.
Now it's been about two weeks since then, in which time he's been in a soft cone for safety and taking 0.3mL of Prednisolone once a day. Most of the area is scabbing over and healing, but it looks like he still tries to poke at it somewhat and I am terrified of taking the collar off. I feel terrible about keeping him in a cone 24/7 but I don't know what else to do.
Has anyone else experienced something like this? Is there a solution?
(For added context I lost my job during this whole mess and between the surgery, 8 vet visits and countless different medications, I am around $3200+ in the hole. I'm really stretching myself thin just to keep him fed and I can't afford to keep bringing him back to the doctor and putting him on meds that won't work)
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/be7cp5/mysterious_facial_irritationallergic_reaction_on/
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