Why can't I have a normal cat?

Lily's blood tests are back from the vets - the news is not good. Rewind to Christmas when I first got her from Cats Protection, she had some injuries which I was told were from fighting while she was a stray, two nasty looking sores, one on her neck and one on her belly. So she was back and forwards to the vets for the first few weeks having antibiotics and trying a collar on her to stop her licking them. They took ages to heal but finally she started looking like a normal cat after about 2 months.

Then I noticed she was grooming her belly quite a lot, so I had a peek and she had another sore. It looked like she'd licked so much that the hair had gone and she was licking herself raw. Back to the vets she goes, more antibiotics and a steroid jab (which she was a complete wuss about). This did the trick, she stopped licking it and it healed nicely. Cue another month or so of normal cat.

Then she did it again and again. After the third steroid jab in so many months I asked the vet to do some more tests, we'd previously talked about what could be causing it and I'd changed washing powder and stopped using Fabreeze but nothing seemed to help. So, this time he took some blood (which Lily did NOT like) and now the results are back. In the meantime she was put onto a hypo-allergenic diet (which she loves - weird cat) to see if that helped.

The results ... she's allergic to pretty much everything, indoor stuff (dust mites etc) and outdoor stuff (pollen, grasses etc). Next step is to have more blood tests and narrow down what exactly she's allergic to and then vaccinate (yes, I know, I didn't know you could vaccinate against allergies) against them. This works in 60% of cases provided we find out what she's allergic to. The diet seems to be working too as she's still got a little sore on her belly but it's going away slowly, very slowly.

Bad news: It's all going to be very expensive, it might not work, means more tests and more injections.

Good news: She's insured so it's not my money, she might actually be a normal cat at some point soon.

I never thought, when I got her, that I would end up going to this much trouble to stop her licking herself raw. But she's so little and wee and quite cute really, plus she's a bit dopey to be doing this in the first place. Cats are a lot of work, but she's very purry.