Cat pulling hair out

Ziegfeldgirl27

My cat is biting his hair and pulling clumps of it out, in the lower back area, leaving bald patches sometimes.

He started doing this almost a year ago.

Brought him to vets a couple of times, he was given a steroid shot and all his flea/tick treatments are always up to date. The steroid didn’t work on neither occasions so I don’t think the hair pulling is to do with itchiness.

Nothing in my or my cat’s home life has changed within the last year so it cannot be down to stress/behaviour reasons. He is a very happy cat in every other way.

Any ideas why he may have started doing this? He will be 10 years old this year and I’ve had him since he was 12 weeks.

DBB

Anything else going on? Is he pulling at his hair all the time, or in short bursts?
Do you notice his skin doing anything unusual when you pet him? A sort of rippling effect?

Ziegfeldgirl27

DBB wrote: »

Anything else going on? Is he pulling at his hair all the time, or in short bursts?
Do you notice his skin doing anything unusual when you pet him? A sort of rippling effect?

He would pull it out in short bursts. I have not noticed how his skin moves when I pet him, I will check. What would a rippling effect indicate?

DBB

Did your vet discuss or rule in/out feline hyperaesthesia?

tk123

A friend’s cat was doing the same thing and back and forth to the vets. From reading posts here I suggested a baby grow which worked in getting the hair to grow back. She also realised it was a a change in her perfume that had caused the stress in the first place. She was pulling her own hair out trying to figure out what had set it off and like yourself OP couldn’t think of anything that had changed...but initially she was focusing on what physical changes had happened in the house - not something like her perfume!

Ziegfeldgirl27

hi everyone thanks for all your replies.

I googled feline hyperasthesea ... the vet did not mention this condition to me, however it sounds quite severe and the symptoms are not what my cat does. I studied him when I was petting him this morning and his skin does not ripple either.

My cat can be quite relaxed when he pulls his hair out. He will be calmly grooming himself then just bite out a clump of hair. He doesn’t do it constantly though.

I just cannot think of any change that has happened in the house that would cause him to stress and pull out his hair.

The vet gave him a steroid both times I brought him, incase he has an itchy skin condition, or he said it could be an allergy...he said it could be anything really! He didn’t seem to think it was behavioural.

It’s quite upsetting to me as I really love my cat, he is my only pet and he is spoiled rotten and I know he is so happy to! To see him with self inflicted bald patches is really upsetting.

q85dw7osi4lebg

My family cat does this in summer, vet gives him a steroid early summer to avoid him doing it for the rest of the year. Have to go back each year. Unfortunately I do not know what it is called but symptoms are identical.

eezipc

Ziegfeldgirl27 wrote: »

My cat is biting his hair and pulling clumps of it out, in the lower back area, leaving bald patches sometimes.

He started doing this almost a year ago.

Brought him to vets a couple of times, he was given a steroid shot and all his flea/tick treatments are always up to date. The steroid didn’t work on neither occasions so I don’t think the hair pulling is to do with itchiness.

Nothing in my or my cat’s home life has changed within the last year so it cannot be down to stress/behaviour reasons. He is a very happy cat in every other way.

Any ideas why he may have started doing this? He will be 10 years old this year and I’ve had him since he was 12 weeks.

Hi, our cat was doing the same thing a couple of years ago. It was very upsetting. The cat is fine now. Not sure what the vet gave her but I'll post back here later when I find out. Need to call the wife.

eezipc

eezipc wrote: »

Hi, our cat was doing the same thing a couple of years ago. It was very upsetting. The cat is fine now. Not sure what the vet gave her but I'll post back here later when I find out. Need to call the wife.

Ok, so it was a flea allergy. Apparently most fleas are more of an annoyance but this one type of flea caused havoc. She lost all her hair on her stomach and patches on her back. She went through a few different antibiotics but like I said earlier, she is fine now.
We always use flea treatment but I guess nothing is 100%. I remember at the time trying different food, different flea medicine, different worming tablets. We tried loads of things. Even the vet did not know what was wrong initially.

acequion

OP My cat has a similar problem. She's semi long haired and always had a bushy tail until quite recently where it is now noticeably quite bare at the base. She tears out clumps. So I took her to the vet who diagnosed alopecia caused by an allergy. He put her on a medication called Viacutan plus, capsules for the skin and coat containing oils and nutrients and I have to give her one daily in her food over six weeks. She smells it and isn't mad about it so getting her to eat up has now become an issue where it wasn't before. I'm also in the process of switching over to Royal Canine food. I got her dry food especially for hair and coat which has rave reviews. Actually so does Viacutan plus. However it seems that it's a slow process getting the hair to grow back normally and in the two weeks of her treatment I haven't seen any improvement yet, but will certainly persevere.