Any ideas?

[amber416]

I have a foster cat who has been with me for the past month. She was picked up as a stray and taken to a vet hospital because she apparantly bit the person who found her (which still baffles me as this is by far the sweetest cat i have ever encountered). She was in rough shape and they thought she had a terrible case of ringworm. The local shelter was scheduled to pick her up later that day (which would have been a sure death sentence) but someone from my group happened to stop by and heard her story. This person sent out a fostering plea and she has been with me ever since.

Anyway, she was in horrible shape when I got her. She was super skinny and her "ringworm" was really bad. The clinic did not culture her for ringworm, though, just diagnosed her by using a Woods lamp. I treated her with lyme sulfur dip twice and she had a bad reaction to the dip. It didn't dry properly (it almost looked like it wasn't diluted properly even though it was) and it clumped all over her fur. Her fur then started to fall out in huge clumps. So I gave her a regular bath, as one of the vets that works with our group suggested, which helped with the clumps. About a week later we cultured her for ringworm and it came back negative. A couple of days later her supposed ringworm patches began to bleed and she got more of them. The vet put her on clavamox which didn't do anything.

Now it's been five weeks since I got her and she still looks horrible. She has about four patches of skin that bleed off and on and much of her hair has come off in big clumps, so she is bald in many areas. Several vets have looked at her over the past week and nobody knows what to think. They have done many tests, including skin scraping, but haven't found anything. Right now our group's vet is trying to get her in to see a veterinary dermatology specialist, but otherwise I haven't been able to do anything to help her. It's so frusterating, because I have to keep her downstairs, isolated from everyone since we don't know what is wrong with her. I try to spend as much time as I possibly can with her, but she is so lonely down there... she howls constantly when I'm not with her.

She was given her shots, tested for FIV, and dewormed when she was brought in. The vets estimate she is about 2 to 3 years old and she was already spayed. She is so incredibly social and sweet, and we're assuming she was once somebody's pet. She eats like a horse, drinks and uses the litterbox just fine.

I feel so helpless, so I just thought I'd take a shot and see if anyone has any ideas or maybe has seen a simillar case in cats?

[AdoptionPalace]

Hot spots on dogs can often be misdiagnosed as ringworm. Has anyone ruled out a simple allergy?