My Cgirl as dermatophilus for sure. It's a bacterial infection of the hair follicles usually found in horses! (I do not know.) He said it's the worst case in cats that he's ever seen. (Just once, could a vet say "Aw, it's just a little cold." No, I always hear words like "worst case I've ever seen", "treatments for life", "chronic renal failure", "vestibular hypoplasia", "biopsy". Sigh.) He did blood work and I'll know the results tomorrow. He also gave her an injection of an anti-inflammatory which he said would definitely help her feel better. He said she just has to be miserable right now. Her hair is coming out like a paint brush. He also suspects pemphigus, which is crusty black scabs, one of which is a big nasty one on her mouth. She has them on the bottoms of her feet, too, and inside her ears. He's probably going to do a biopsy on her but for now he gave me shampoo to bathe her with at least twice a week. He said that will also help her to feel better and a lot of the scabs will come off. He also said that she'll probably look pretty bad for a while because she'll continue to lose some hair until the antibiotic really starts to work. Unfortunately, it sometimes takes up to a month or more before that happens.

I asked him if I'm doing something wrong because I'm fastidious about my house; I vacuum and dust every day, clean the litterboxes a minimum of twice a day, I groom them and clip their claws regularly. He said "No, I'm sure you're doing what you should and that you're clean. Her immune system is compromised and unless she's hanging out in the litterbox 24/7, she's susceptible to things like this." He also said that it could be triggered by a food allergy. I have just recently started giving my furkids Fancy Feast gourmet but just a tad. But Cgirl is my finicky one and she won't eat anything other than what she's used to, which is Purina Cat Chow, period. No treats either. But I've stopped feeding them the Fancy Feast because they're just not used to wet food and it messes w/their stomachs.

So...I thought I might get a break tonight but I guess I'm going to be giving Cgirl a bath. That's if I can get her out of the carrier. She hasn't come out yet. I think she's mad at me. Sweet thing didn't make a sound when they took blood and gave her the shot. I think I'll have her sleep w/me tonight. Well, I started off my day at the BMV waiting for my tags, then finished up at the vet. Yahoo.

Thanx for the good thoughts, friends. I'll update when I get the results of the bloodwork and if/when Dr. Lee wants to schedule a biopsy to be sure she has pemphigus. Either way, he said that thing on her lip has to come off. She could get more around her eyes, too. Great.