My friend posed this question to me last night.  He has a cat (approx 4-5 years old) who has what he calls "lick spots".  Basically she licks herself so much, that she takes the fur right out.  It is also red.

She also has bumps going down her spine, and her rear legs.  He said that he can pick these bumps off, and that they look like scabs. 

I suggested maybe an allergy, but he says he hasnt changed anything.  The cat is being fed IAMS and Temptation treats.  Sometimes gets dog food, as the dog is free fed. 

She doesnt have fleas, as he has checked her.  He also looked at these "scabby bumps" under a magnifying glass, to see if it was a bug of some sort, but couldnt see legs, just said they looked like scabs, but big ones.

Any ideas????  I am not a cat person, and apart from suggesting allergies, have no idea what this could be.

Thanks!!!

If she's an outdoor cat she could possibly be getting into fights, cat bites don't really show as they are generally just puncture wounds that scab up. 

I would also check for fleas as she might have an allergic reaction to them.  It could also be that she just has a problem with overgrooming and is making little sores on herself, if it was me I would take her to the vet for a check up. The red is probably just caused by the bacteria from the saliva.

A flea allergy? "Very few (if any) fleas may be seen on the cat"

It sounds like the results of a flea allergy, but there are so many different skin complaints and causes the vet would be be best bet.

I totally agree with mastifflover, I know for sure that it's a flea allergy. I've got a moggy (last one left from 6 now) she's suffers with flea allergy they only need a bite from one of the little bu****s. It's showing on her at the moment, fur licked down to the skin around base of tail and running up spine as far as she can groom also on inside of legs.

Autumn is the worst time for fleas I'm lead to believe, my moggy gets a regular dose of flea treatment and never has a problem except in the Autumn, if the 'sores' get infected antibiotics will sort it and I think you can get some sort of anti-hystamine from the vet. I will be 'bathing' my mog later on today (not an easy task :) ) and then tomorrow when she's completely dry more flea juice. I'm usually lucky as it generally clears after about 3 weeks

Another thing, I don't use Nuvan Top (not even sure if you can still get it) nasty organo-phosphate that used to cause strange reactions in one of my mogs, it used to send him potty and cause him to pant and his eyes would roll.

They sometimes do this because they are stressed or in pain.  Also I'm sure a friends cat was doing something similar and it had a kidney infection.

Could it be mites? Both my girls were rescue kitties and came to me with mites... horrible, tiny little things that look like dandruff but if you look realy closely you can see their tiny legs. They can cause scabs as well... I personally think that is it was fleas you would see a flea or the bits it leaves behind. I used frontline spray to kill the mites. The lick spots could be a function of being itchy, or just a learnt behaviour of the cat. My sister's last cat licked her tummy until it was red raw... for no apparent reason. Cat's are funny little animals and can react to the smallest changes. Make sure he isn't using new carpet freshener/air freshner etc etc. I hope he works it out what is wrong, poor kitty! xx

When I lived at home we had a cat with eczema.  She had small scabs on her skin. Things like turning the heating on would cause the eczema to flare up. Most of the time she didn't have treatment but when she had a flare up she would have steroids, I think, and I seem to remember a powder treatment we had for her.

Good luck with this kitty :-)

http://www.sniksnak.com/cathealth/mil-derm.html

Sounds like an allergy of some sort - fleas, harvest mites, food, pollens, whatever. Harvest mites season is from about August - they are pinhead sized red-orange things.

Thank you for all your replies.   I am going to email him a link to this page on the forum.  See what he wants to do about his cat. 

I had thought either allergies, or fleas (but dismissed fleas when he said he couldnt see fleas, but its back in my mind as well) On the dogs I can see fleas (at least always been able to).  So hopefully the little cat will get sorted out. 

Sounds like a flea bite allergy to me too - what you describe is almost exactly how my oldie cat used to suffer, and she had a nasty flea bite allergy.  She used to have injections for it and it eventually went away, but I can't remember what they were (I was only about 8 at the time :-p).  But as I say, it did clear up after a fair while - she was at her worst at around 4yrs old, and went on to live with no issues until she died at 20.  We did have to keep up with the frontline, but after the initial treatment, even if she did get the odd bite she didn't react anywhere near as badly.