Scabs on cat's ears.

Dr. Marie replied:

Sorry to hear that Chloe has these mystery spots.

The most common reason that I have seen for a cat to get spots on their ears is some type of allergy. And, quite often, we don't find the cause of the allergy. If you live in an area with mosquitos it could be a mosquito bite hypersensitivity which is essentially an allergy to mosquito bites. But there are many, many other things that can cause an allergy as well. While a food allergy is possible this is actually not all that common.

Allergies often will get better with steroids, so this could be an explanation.

It's also possible that this is an autoimmune condition like pemphigus. Again, steroids can often help. But pemphigus can get to the point where regular doses of steroids are not strong enough and stronger doses may be necessary.

A strong possibility is that this is a type of an eosinophilic plaque which really is a type of allergy but we don't really know what causes it. These are usually treated with steroids but it's not uncommon for a cat to need more steroids a few weeks after the first dose is given.

The problem here is that at this point there is no simple test that will give you an answer. The best thing that you could have done is to ask your vet about having a biopsy done. This is where they take some skin and send it to a pathologist to find out what the cause is.

I do see several conditions like this in cats that do require a small dose of steroids given either daily or every other day long term.

I hope things are better soon!

Dr. Marie

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