Red crusty rash in ear... food allergies maybe?

[Kasdfkl]

Spooky has some feline acne going on. It's not TOO bad, it's just some of those black flakes on his chin, a few have scabs on them and such.

What really concerns me are his ears... they are red, and kind of feel warm/hot to the touch, and they have these flakey scabs or something in them. The scabs are a lighter colour. I am fairly positive they aren't mites because they aren't thick and black, and none of the other cats (or even the dog) have it. He scratches a fair amount (no fleas). It's mostly in his right ear, but he has a bit of it in the left, and both ears are red. I also noticed a red rash type thing above his eye a few weeks ago; it was dime sized and now gone. I've also ruled out ringworm; my husband and I don't have it, nor do the other other animals.

I feed him a dehydrated raw kibble (the name escapes me at the moment), but mostly soft food. I feed Friskies - yes, I know it's awful food, but it's all he will eat! I tried only feeding him Wellness or Weruva (sp?), but he refused to eat so much that he started losing weight, so I gave in. He's a nice weight now, and he acts normal; full of energy and super mean as always

He is going to the vet tomorrow, and I'm hoping it's nothing serious (I love my little guy). Any ideas what could be going on?

[scottd]

What type of container do you feed him in/keep his food in? If it's plastic, switch to glass/stainless steel. Plastic is believed to cause or at least make cat acne worse.

Red hot ears could be an indicator of a few different things and one of those is allergies which could be food related. It could also be hypertension, fever, or infection.

Based on what you said, I would learn towards a food allergy. It's basically impossible to determine what's in Friskies so perhaps you've been bought a batch that has something he's allergic to in it. I didn't look at all of their products but "meat" and "poultry" is listed on the ones I did look at. That could be any kind of animal and any kind of bird so you really have no idea what it is. If your vet decides it's a food allergy, they will probably recommend a prescription diet. I suggest you try finding him something with named proteins so you can figure out what it is. Merrick's BG line has a few varieties of wet food with only 1 protein.

[Mitts & Tess]

It really could be mites too. They can get way deep in the canal of the ear. Even if you've treated the ear interior washing it out for mites. The vet can take a cotton swab and dig deep in the ear and look at what he digs out under a microscope to see if there are mites on the sample. Does your cat shake it head? Keep scratching its ear? That is an indicator of mites.