There can be multiple reasons for a cat to be barbering her hair. The top three I think of are allergies, referred pain and behavioral.
Cats with allergies tend to manifest their symptoms in their skin rather than with runny eyes and nose like people. Allergic cats may over-groom their hair, have acne or ear issues, or have small lesions on their skin. Cats can be allergic to multiple things including food ingredients, fleas, and indoor irritants like dust, grasses, trees and pollens. If a cat is flea allergic, even one flea bite can cause them to be very itchy. I suspect your veterinarian was trying to be sure fleas were not the culprit, although the Revolution should be controlling things well. Cats can be allergy tested or often times, anti-inflammatories like steroids are used to control the symptoms. A diet trial can also be used to rule out a food allergy. Cats are usually not allergic to a food per se, but instead an ingredient like chicken or corn or fish. Feeding a limited ingredient diet with a protein and carbohydrate your cat has never been exposed to is an option. These diets are usually only available though your veterinarian and need to be fed for a minimum of six weeks with no other foods or treats. If Rain improves, we say she likely has a food allergy. If no improvement we move on.
I would also try to make sure that Rain is not painful over any of the areas where she pulls her hair. If it’s over joints, I like to be sure I don’t feel signs of pain or arthritis. If the hair is over-groomed on the belly, a urine sample can be helpful to be sure Rain’s not pulling her hair out because of a bladder infection or other urinary problem.
If everything else checks out ok, then we’re left with a behavioral issue. Cats can over-groom if they are bored, stressed or out of compulsion. If this the case, eliminating the stress, changing the environment to make it more stimulating and even using various medications can help.
Your veterinarian should be able to help you with all these options. Hope you get to the bottom of the problem! Good luck.
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on Monday, August 11th, 2008 at 3:08 pm and is filed under Cat Physical Fitness.
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