My cats licking all her fur off!

HelenDaveKids

Have 2 gorgeous (in my opinion) cats, litter mates, bout 4 yrs old now and are fantastic with the kids.

Recently (3 months ago) moved house. Hes fine but shes licked all her tail bare, some of her tummy and now her legs are started to go. We have in the past had problems with fleas as both like to catch things but now with ++ of flea stuff are completely on top, I always have for the same reason, have to really strictly worm.

Shes really fussy with her food, will quite literally only eat whiskas but will eat any cat biscuit brand. If her foods not "fresh" out the tin she won't touch it.

My first thoughts worms and fleas but I'm really hot on this. My second thought is stress as she was very outdoorsy before the move yet theres more cats were we moved to, and wheras the boy wil chase off cats she tends to not go out or go out only if were in the garden. i even wondered if there is foxes as very rural.

Shes really affectionate and sleeps between us every night, whereas he tends to pick a child and sleep on their bed, then after a few nights he chooses another child.

They (cats) fight quite a bit and he does appear to bully her.

Any ideas what we do to stop her licking her fut away? She looks really scraggy!!:cool:

Thanks

sexki11en

Our cat had this last year. Started as a simple flea allergy but turned into a nasty skin infection which needed lots of treatment. I'd get her to the vets now as ours ended up a right sorry state.

*I'd like to add, we only left it so long as we'd been told previously our cats problem was behavioral so we put a collar on to try and stop it. Poor thing was being driven up the wall then by not being able to lick it.

SK x

MiniMoo

My old cat had this it was a flea bite allergy and would drive him nutty and he would lick all the fur off his back and it got quite sore, trip to the vets got him sorted.

Hope you get it sorted soon

Moo x

bagginslover

My old (sadly depated now ) cat did this, and we narrowed it down to a food allergy. Like you, we fed Whiskas, and it turns out that the proteins they add are sensitising to some cats-causing them to become allergic.

In the first instance you should take both your cats to the vet. They will probably want to do skin scrapes to check for mange etc, especially if you've just moved to somewhere with a decent fox population. If she is negative for that (which she probably will be as your boy is OK, and thats why I also suggest you take him along, it might actually stop them doing the scrapes and save you some cash ). You'll need to tell them what type of flea medication you are using, and if you have changed it recently, same for wormers.

It took a couple of trys to figure out it was our cats food, and we then had to feed her chicken and potatoes for almost a year before we could try commercial foods again. It was a bit of a bother having to cook for her, but we just cooked chicken mince, and boiled potatoes once a week, mashed it up together, portioned it out and froze it. Then just got a new portion out each time we fed her so it would be defrosted ready for the next meal. It worked very well, and she lived to a ripe old age

Good luck with your kitty.

Waterfalls

The overgrooming sounds like it maybe due to stress due to the move. best contact the vet soon and make an apt

HelenDaveKids

Thanks Folks. Thought it would be a trip to vets but thought I'd ask first just in case it was something simple and easy to cure.

Her skin (where shes furless) doesn't look inflamed, its not warm to touch or looks even remotely scabby. She definitely (have inspected) not got any fleas or eggs visible (have 3 girls so am good at spotting such things!).

Many Thanks for all your posts

Helen xx

Rev

My cat was the same. Turned out to be a food allergy. Fur has never grown back on his stomach bless.

delain

Waterfalls wrote: »

The overgrooming sounds like it maybe due to stress due to the move. best contact the vet soon and make an apt

My old cat stripped then chewed it's tail, ended in an amputation. I had to re home her in the end, and sje's much happier now.

Can't believe the lady who gave her to me (she was 2) didn't tell me she was so nervy. She couldn't cope withus at all

Go to the vets, maybe get some feliway.

adandem

Our cat did this. We had tests done on her skin but it just turned out to be a 'cycle' thay had developed (itch, scratch). We bought a lotion to take the 'itch' from her her skin which stopped her grooming and the hair soon grew back. You could also try a 'lightshade' for a few days to allow the hair to get past the stubble/itchy phase.

juliebunny

I've had this problem. I took on a ten year old rescue cat that no one else wanted and it was due to stress. I started feeding her away from my own cats and gave her her own litter tray upstairs next to where she likes to sleep and some feliway. She has now settled down and stopped pulling out her fur.

A few years later my tortie was pulling out fur on her back leg. Turned out she has asthma - I didn't know until it got really bad - vet just said 'oh it's stress' at first - and now she has been treated for that she has stopped the fur pulling.

I have asthma too so now we share an inhaler !! She has heart condition too so can't take steroids too often.:)

HelenDaveKids

We've had her for a few years and this is the first time shes done this. They'res no way I'd part with her (or him!). With it being a recent move I was really hoping she'd settle soon. She did bring a bird in the other day so she's returning to her previous hunting which she hadn't done since moving here.

She's always been really picky with her food so she hasn't had anything did, I have tried (as i do frequently) to try new brands of food but it always fails so I'd be really surprised if it was an allergy.