Long Haired Cat Pulls Fur Out And Around After Flea Treatment

LouH

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ive taken Lily to the vet at least 8 times over this is the past 3 years and they literally don't have any idea why she does what she does and you guys seem like a knowledgeable lot so thought I'd ask your opinions.
Sadly I don't have pictures :-/

Anyway she's a long hair domestic cat and whenever she has the flea treatment (pipettes type into scruff of neck) she almost immediately starts over ghrooming which results in yanking her fur out and causing nasty sores which she then has to have antibiotics for but the vet doesn't know why she does it! When the treatment wears off (8 ish weeks) the fur starts to grow back but wirey and not soft.

We've tried advantage, frontline and bob Martin over here in the UK.

We were advised to change to an all dry food diet which we did but that's not changed anything (been 6 months)
We go through periods of not flea treating her so that her fur grows back and wounds heal but with 4 cats in total and kittens (not hers) on he way she does need treating again.

We comb through all of them and drown the little biters in a soapy bowl of water and we regularly put the flea powder on the carpet etc so she's not infested but I'd prefer that she could just have a treatment and leave her lovely fur/skin alone.

She's 12 now and a super affectionate cat when she's not got flea treatment and ripping herself apart :-(
 

LTS3

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It sounds like she is having a reaction to the flea medicine if she's only pulling out her fur after a treatment. One of my cats gets a reaction to Revolution so I don't use it on him anymore. I'm not sure what other monthly flea preventatives are availabe in the UK. Can you ask your vet about other brands of flea preventatives?

Hopefully some UK members will be along soon and post some recommendations on what to do. In the meantime, I found these that may be helpful:

Indoor cats - opinions on frequency of flea/worm treatment
Severe reaction to Revolution? Best flea med for allergic cat?
Does anyone know the best flea treatment for cats in Europe (the Netherlands)?
Fleas and worming?
 

Kieka

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Sounds like an allergic reaction or irritation by the topical flea treatments. I had a cat who got a red rash (shorthair and very pale orange, so we could see it) when we tried topical flea treatment. We washed him really good to get it off and he was better in a few days. We tried a different brand and got the same reaction.

So we started doing Capstar (oral flea treatment) with him and no more problems.

Edit: just to point out Capstar is a 24 hour treatment. I was many years ago and at the time it was the safest option. We'd treat when he had fleas probably once or twice a month. There is are prescription oral treatments that last a month now
 
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LouH

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We have tried 3 brands of topical to no avail.
I didn't realise you could get oral as our vet says topical is best but it's clearly not for her and she gets so distressed by it!
I'm going to google UK oral flea treatments :-)
 

merry

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Sounds like an allergic reaction or irritation by the topical flea treatments. I had a cat who got a red rash (shorthair and very pale orange, so we could see it) when we tried topical flea treatment. We washed him really good to get it off and he was better in a few days. We tried a different brand and got the same reaction.

So we started doing Capstar (oral flea treatment) with him and no more problems.

Edit: just to point out Capstar is a 24 hour treatment. I was many years ago and at the time it was the safest option. We'd treat when he had fleas probably once or twice a month. There is are prescription oral treatments that last a month now
Will you tell me where you get your Capstar? I just recently heard of it, maybe here, but I cannot find it. Thank you!
 

kashmir64

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It does sound like an allergic reaction. Check the ingredients in the ones you know cause the reaction and see what they have in common. I myself am allergic to Deet, and since now all repellents use it, I'm kind of in a bind in the summer. There has got to be a flea repellent that doesn't have the common ingredient.
 
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