Cat losing huge amounts of hair from tail.

acequion

My cat is a six year old female semi long haired. As she suffers from inflammatory bowel she has to take 2.5 mg of predisnolene every second day,doubled to 5mg in summer. She's an outdoor cat.This treatment has always kept the condition under control.

The problem is that recently, since about January,she has been losing huge amounts of hair off her tail area. As somebody pointed out,it looks like somebody glued on a tail and did a bad job in the process, as the loss of hair is very evident at the base.

Now apart from that everything seems normal. She eats well, plays, hunts,all her usual activities and is all bright eyed but not so bushy tailed. I also periodically give her a flea and worm treatment.

Because she seems in perfect health I haven't taken her to the vet about this. Should I? Or has anybody experienced anything similar with their cats and may know of a simple solution?

Any suggestions appreciated. Thanks a lot.

VonVix

Worth investigating. Hair loss around the back area is one of the signs of thyroid issues. There's also stress induced alopecia. Hair pulling/over grooming from stress. Lots of different causes. I'd definitely suggest a vet to suss it out.

metaoblivia

I had a cat who suffered from hair loss around her tail and back legs. It was due to excessive grooming, which was her way of dealing with stress. It would come and go, and we never quite could figure out what she was so stressed about when it was on. A vet will help determine if your case is similar or if there's something else going on that would require medical intervention.

acequion

Thanks a million for both the above replies.

Yes, I did think of alopecia and looked it up and it's not impossible that the steroids could be causing it, plus excessive grooming. She's often pulling chunks of hair off herself.

But I cannot see how she'd be stressed as there are no stressors in her life. No change at all since she came to us as a kitten. Same food,same comforts and she's a very much loved pet. So hard to see how anything could be causing her new stress.

VonVix

Stress doesn't necessarily need an external trigger, you can become stressed from not getting any relief from feeling unwell. The awkward thing is we can't ask our pets "how are ya?"

But I don't want to speculate that stress is the factor for the hair loss, as that would feel irresponsible of me, but it's just one possibility of many.

acequion

VonVix wrote: »

Stress doesn't necessarily need an external trigger, you can become stressed from not getting any relief from feeling unwell. The awkward thing is we can't ask our pets "how are ya?"

But I don't want to speculate that stress is the factor for the hair loss, as that would feel irresponsible of me, but it's just one possibility of many.

Thank you.