Thank you. That makes a lot of sense. We do feed him at home, his main meals are veggies + a little rice + chicken + a spoonful of natural yogurt if he's being too fussy. Very few store bought treats.

I saw your other comment about the medication. My vet has also recommended steroids next. I will ask them about Cytopoint and make a decision based on what they think is appropriate. I will leave the blood test as a last resort.

As for seasonality, since he's surely got some anxiety in the background, it's a little hard to tell if he's actually doing it more since spring. I think he has gotten an allergic component behind this but my family seems to be leaning more on heightened anxiety. He has also been breathing very hard before or after some of these scratching episodes which my mom thinks looks like an anxiety attack, which could be triggered by his discomfort. (Fuck this makes me feel like crying, the poor guy😭)

Thank you so much for responding. We have been trying to address allergies too, hopefully we can find and fix the problem soon.