Licked his belly bald...now what?

[tiggy2]

Hi I'm Tus's mom (the feeding tube thread) and now my boy "Tig" has decided to get in on the attention

Here's his story;

He's an 8 year old neutered male. We moved from Ontario to NB in Fall 2008, and into a 3 year old house Dec/08. By Spring of 09 Tig started coughing, usually in the morning. He'd stretch his neck out and cough for awhile and then that would be it. This went on for awhile and started to get worse so when he was having an episode I called a vet and brought him in. They did blood work and an x-ray. (I don't have results of that blood work and this vet is not the most cooperative in giving out copies, hence the switch to a different vet)

Anyway from that the vet really did not know what was wrong, just that he had some inflammation in his lungs, gave me some steroids and sent me home. Needless to say the steroids and Tig did not mix. His whole personality changed, he was a totally different cat. So I took him off that and this vet did not have another solution except more tests = more $$$, (another story, with another cat to the tune of close to $3,000)

Anyway, he started coughing again, so I went online and found an online vet who suggested allergies and to put him on chlortrimeton. I cut them into 2.5mg pieces and got him up to 3 pieces a day (7.5mg total)

This went on until the beginning of November, where I thought I might be able to take him off the drugs over the winter as I presumed the allergies were to mold spores. I started to reduce until he was down to 2.5mg/day and that's when he started to lick his belly bald. Something he never did before.

So my new vet (Tus's vet) suggested to put him back on the pills and I have been increasing it again since Monday, but he is still licking his belly. I also started to give him diphenhydramine hydrochloride (benadryl), cut into 6.25mg pills up to 3 times a day. As long as he'll take the benadryl, it tastes terrible, if he gets a taste I switch back to the chlortrimeton.

So that's his story. I don't know what to do with his licking his belly, I've thought of coning him, but I don't want to stress him out. If I can avoid more vet bills it would be good, as Tus has racked up the bills over the last month and I'm sure more will follow. Of course I will bring him to the vet if I can't find some temporary solution, as I can't have him licking himself bald

So any suggestions would be appreciated Thanks for the help I'm sure someone has some ideas