How can I stop cat pulling her fur out?

Pumpkinseeds

We've only had Poppy for 3 or 4 months and we don't know anything about her past, other than she seems to have been left behind at an apartment complex. Given that she only has a little stub of tail she might have had some kind of trauma to that area or she may just have been born like that. She's about 3 years old.

She has a habit of pulling her fur out and eating it, so far she hasn't got any bald patches, but she does get fur balls every single day. She won't take any of the furball remedies we've tried with her. I'm just concerned in case it's some sort of anxiety thing and I don't want her to hurt herself.

Does anyone have any experience of this, and is there anything I can do to stop it?

Rips

Its a behaviour often caused by stress, but don't rule out physical issues either. Have you had her checked over by a vet in the time you have had her? Is she wormed/de-flea'd or done for mites?

Is she indoors or outdoors?

What furball remedies have you tried? You can apply things like De-furrum to the paws and if they have a tendancy to overgroom, this is the best bet, but its the last thing I would try as I would be hesitant to encourage the behaviour. I actually dislike the product for my own reasons but I haven't found an alternative that works quite so well, I don't rate hairball treats or similar.

Eating her fur may cause her problems in the long run. What sort of coat does she have? Is it a specific area or all over?

Other thoughts would be to try and alleviate any stress she has, does she have enough stimulation? Is she home alone for long periods? Have you tried pheromone products, even catnip might help.

The other thing to consider is that it can become a learned behaviour if a cat is suffering from distress or pain associated with injury. Some cats start it when they have a skin problem and its hard to alleviate the 'need' to do it, even when healed.

Pumpkinseeds

She has been vet checked. We've tried the chews and at the vets advice, the defurrum on her paws. I'm at home most days and she has no end of toys. We have a Feliway plug diffusers in the living room, kitchen and on the landing. She tends to pick areas that she can reach by twisting sideways rather than stretching.

We have 3 neutered male cats, she was spayed by whoever had her before we did. It's something that she's done at least as long as she's been here. she's been treated for fleas and worms. She's on a grainfree high quality dry food and has a little wet food each day. They don't get pet treats, we give them a little tinned red salmon, raw chicken and raw mince each week and treats would be cooked chicken.

She's a mostly indoors cat who likes to go outdoors for a few minutes throughout the day, we have a catflap. Even though she's only been here for a few months she rules the roost with our male cats and is a bit of a bully, truth be told.

When I first found her she was in a wooded area by an apartment building in an apartment complex. We weren't sure if she belonged to anyone as she wouldn't move past a particular block even though she clearly wanted to come with us. After a couple of months of feeding her at different times of the day we realised that she didn't have a home and we took her home with us.

My best guess is that she was an apartment cat that was just left outdoors to fend for herself when her family left and that maybe she's anxious about being abandoned again.

Rips

Fussy lady - not impressed with the defurrum on her paws?

Stress from the other cats? I know you say she rules the roost, but maybe its a tough job?! I suppose she has the option to go out, so not much more you can do there.

You seem to have everything covered, maybe she will settle in time.

The only other thing I can think of, if she is predominantly pulling from her flanks and not her paws, is a cat thundershirt.

Now I don't have one, nor have I used one, but my cat has an encompassing body harness and he goes all dozy when he's wearing it, presumably from the same premise as the thundershirt.

Thundershirt covers a bit more and might have the double whammy of not allowing her to pluck those areas?

http://www.thundershirt.com/Product/ThundershirtForCats.aspx?item_guid=04a62476-dd84-4c67-ae9b-83f2fb67db81

It could go down either way of course!

Pumpkinseeds

Unfortunately we tried her with a harness but she got so strung out that we didn't pursue it for long. She doesn't like to be out for more than maybe 5 minutes at a time and the boys don't bother her. She'll run up and eat from their bowls and they just stand there and look at her bewildered. She'll curl up on our bed or the sofa near them and she doesn't show any signs of being anxious about them.

In fact she gets a bit narky with one of our chaps since he's been playing with the foster kitten. So when he goes up to see the kitten she chases him downstairs or sits outside the pet gate to stop him getting out of the kittens safe room. It's just worrying to see her with a lump of fur hanging out of her mouth a few times a day. I've even seen her eat a tuft of one of our other cats fur off the carpet once

Rips

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

I've even seen her eat a tuft of one of our other cats fur off the carpet once

Kinda funny image there... discreet-binge-eating-cat-fur Cat.

For that, I don't know. My cat had a problem with eating MY hair, which obviously is not good for him and that's where the defurrum comes in, it works for that aswell! Previous to the defurrum it was coming out in his faeces and he'd get danglers...

I tried to stop shedding so much (!) was careful to remove hair from brushes/clothes etc but the biggest problem was I'd wake up in the morning and he'd be having a good chew. Once I fell asleep on the couch, and when I woke up, he had completely swallowed quite a sizable strand of hair, still attached to my head. He's a bit daft.

Nothing really changed, he just grew out of it.

Pumpkinseeds

My former feral likes to sit on my head and nibble my hair as a wake up call, especially on rainy nights when he's soaked. Nothing like a freezing cold wet paw on your face to wake you up quickly. She's a funny little thing. We've only had her a short while but it feels like she's always been with us. She is such an affectionate little cat and would sit on your lap all day if she could, in fact she gets quite vocal if you get up when she's comfy:)

DBB

I'm no cat expert by any stretch of the imagination, but according to the literature I have here, three-quarters of cases of psychogenic alopecia in cats are caused by medical conditions (10% are compulsive, and the remaining 15ish% are a combination of medical and behavioural). So, the first obvious choice is to eliminate a medical cause.
Your vet needs to eliminate, or have already eliminated anal sac problems, blood and urine testing, and a viral profile. In addition, dermatological exam should include a trichgram, fungal culture, skin scraping, and possible biopsy.
These tests will not indicate a parasitic hypersensitivity, adverse food reactions, or other hypersensitivities, and these will require pre-emptive treatment to see is there an effect. For the record, in the study quoted, the most common medical cause for the behaviour was a combination of atopy and adverse food reaction.
Another possible form of hair-plucking ("barbering"), interestingly, is tail-mutilation. It'd make you wonder, wouldn't it?

Did you ever get on to Bev about your cat woes? This is one she'd get her teeth into, I'm sure!

Pumpkinseeds

I haven't got onto Bev yet, unfortunately. All in all the vet bill for the past 6 months was about 1000 euro, I think we were virtually living at the vets at one point, that's not including the cat food and litter. So we're going to have to wait for a while until we have the funds for it. Still haven't had the electricity bill for the Christmas period yet either:eek:

Felix and Molly are at the vets tomorrow for their checkups and I've got to try to get Jazzy fasted and sneakily get him in a crate for a vet check, hopefully next week. He has had problems with his teeth in the past and I think there might be something going on with his teeth at the moment. He's eating fine and is in great form so that's ok. His feral suspiciousness has never left him and the slightest change in routine makes him wary that we might try to put him in the crate. Honestly, getting him to a vet is a fricking nightmare, which is why he only ever goes when there's a problem, not ideal I know but we do the best we can.

mymo

2 things come to mind...

I have a friend in the uk that had problems with one of her cats pulling hair out, eating it and vomiting hair balls everywhere. He made his belly almost bald and she thought it might be a contact allergy due to it being on his belly.
After months of tests and lots of money spent, it turned out he is allergic to beef!
So no more beef for him, this meant a change of diet obviously, and he's fine now. Could it be diet related?

I have an older boy who sheds a lot and was getting lots of hair balls (sofa or my bed are fav spots) so I got a furminator and give him a good brushing with it once a week, he looks great and sheds a lot less, and no hair balls in ages.

Pumpkinseeds

mymo wrote: »

2 things come to mind...

I have a friend in the uk that had problems with one of her cats pulling hair out, eating it and vomiting hair balls everywhere. He made his belly almost bald and she thought it might be a contact allergy due to it being on his belly.
After months of tests and lots of money spent, it turned out he is allergic to beef!
So no more beef for him, this meant a change of diet obviously, and he's fine now. Could it be diet related?

I have an older boy who sheds a lot and was getting lots of hair balls (sofa or my bed are fav spots) so I got a furminator and give him a good brushing with it once a week, he looks great and sheds a lot less, and no hair balls in ages.

She doesn't actually vomit the hairballs up. She's on Applaws dry food and we use a mixture of the Felix As good as it looks so there's a choice of fish or meat varietys. The thing is she hasn't actually got any bald spots, yet! We're keeping an eye on her and she doesn't seem to be hurting herself. We've got Felix and Molly at the vet for follow up tomorrow and I'm hoping to nab Jazzy and get him in to have his teeth checked, I think there's something going on with them and then we can get our vet to give her another check up.