Is this Pemphigus?

My cat Loki is a 4 yr old, neutered male. Over the past 2 years he has been getting sores on the pads of his feet (one foot at a time, but it's happened at least once to each foot), sort of between the "fingers". The sores would happen every 3-4 months. My vet had no idea what it was and suggested it was an infected wound or an abscess. We treated with antibiotics each time, and she suggested trying to bring it to a head with epsom soaks before coming in, in future.

Prior to this week, the most recent incident was in September 2012. Loki had a sore foot, and some little black bumps on his chin. The bumps were itchy and he ripped them open and had a horrible infected mouth. I put him in the cone for a day or two, and then we went to the vet. While he was in the cone he also got little "scabs" inside his ears. The vet treated with antibiotics and biopsied the chin.

He said the results say Loki has eosinophilic granuloma complex and that it could be food allergies, but if we can't control it with diet, we'll need to go on oral steroids for life. At this point we switched to Hills z/d (dry) which has decreased how often this is happening, but he has still had one sore foot incident since - which we soaked and kept him in the cone for, and which seemed to go away on it's own. We have also since switched from silica litter to newspaper pellets.

This week, Loki was in the cone again for a scratched ear (cat fight) and has since developed another swollen, weeping sore on his right hind paw and a big, crusty "scab" in his left ear. He's still in the cone. The back paw is a little fevered and he is "flicking" it like it's itchy and it is weeping. He won't really let me have a good look, so I'm not sure what's going on.

I've read a lot about EGC now, and the problem with his feet just doesn't sound typical or look like any of the pictures. The issue with his ears sort of sounds like eosinophilic plaque, but not really.

I am wondering if the chin issue might have caused the biopsy to be positive for EGC, but that the foot issue might be something else.

My two questions are:
1) Does this sound like EGC or should I still be looking for answers?
2) Other than prevention, what should I do WHILE he has these sores? Do they warrant a trip to the vet (VERY STRESSFUL, Loki is a BAD patient) for steroids or will they go away/heal on their own if kept clean?

This is incredibly stressful for both of us and I don't want to over-vet (they've sent me home without any treatment for this before) or under-vet (if I made it worse I would feel so intensely guilty).

I have also emailed pictures. I'm not sure if they'll be helpful as he's none to keen on me touching that sure foot.

Any insight or help you can offer would be GREATLY appreciated.

Valerie
(from Calgary)