Weird patch of thin coarse hair on cat

hihifufu

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I noticed that my cat has this patch on one side of his back that looks like it’s missing the soft “down hair” and only has the coarser outer coat. It looks thinner and lighter than the rest of his body...

The first time I noticed this was a few months ago in March, at the time I didn’t think much of it I though he just had it pulled out by accident while playing or something. Fast forward to November I noticed that the patch of thin coarse hair still hasn’t grown in...i don’t see anything odd with the skin and he doesn’t seem to be bothered by it. I don’t notice any over-grooming behaviour on that spot either...

Has anyone else had a similar experience?
 

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Furballsmom

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Hi! Is the coarser hair correlating to a lighter color?

By the way, what are you feeding him?
 
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hihifufu

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Hi! Is the coarser hair correlating to a lighter color?

By the way, what are you feeding him?
Hi Furballsmom, yeah the patch appears lighter in colour than the rest of his fur. The hair itself doesn’t seem to be light I just assume that it appears lighter because it’s missing the down fur.

I have been feeding him raw lamb and rabbit, but I recently switched his diet to commercial canned food as my vet suggested me to do so for my other cat. He is mainly eating tiki cat canned ahi tuna and stella&chewy chicken in broth, and Weruva’s Peking ducken.

You can see it is more obvious here:
A0564922-99E9-4DB9-A583-DB5DEED780E4.jpeg
 
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hihifufu

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I went through his photos and it seems like this patch appeared back in May and then it wasn’t noticeable for a very long time until recently when it became super noticeable. Any chance this might be caused by allergies since I've been feeding him a lot of chicken and canned food lately?
 

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Oh my goodness he's handsome!!

Try cutting back on the extra chicken for a while and see if that makes a difference.
 
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hihifufu

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Oh my goodness he's handsome!!

Try cutting back on the extra chicken for a while and see if that makes a difference.
Oh thanks for the compliment:lovecat2:! I'm going to put him back on his normal diet to see if that would make a difference
 
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hihifufu

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Given you think you saw it earlier this year, could it be seasonal/environmental allergy related rather than food?
that's possible too.. In March he had an urinary cystitis situation when he peed blood but it cleared up after a week after a vet visit. I'm just hoping this is not related to that and it's not a sign that it's happening again...
 
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hihifufu

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I don't know the timing of things, but did the vet think the urinary issues were related to the raw diet?
No, the vet said sometimes these things happen when cats are stressed. My two cats had to live with a friend of mine who also had an older cat for a month in December while I was out of the country for a month. The older cat also ended up passing away during their stay. During that time, he was also fed some dry food for convenience.

And then, after I came back, we also had to babysit our other friend's cat in our home for 2 weeks. I think all these things added together may have stressed him out.
 

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You might consider cat music - even though things are quieter now, he might really like it.
There's Cat In My Arms on spotify and elsewhere, youtube has hours-long compilations of relaxing cat music, and there's also RelaxMyCat and MusicForCats :)
 
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hihifufu

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You might consider cat music - even though things are quieter now, he might really like it.
There's Cat In My Arms on spotify and elsewhere, youtube has hours-long compilations of relaxing cat music, and there's also RelaxMyCat and MusicForCats :)
thanks for those recommendations! I also got the Feliway out in the living room. He's actually been really playful and not showing any signs of stress. I hope it's just food changes and nothing serious 🙏
 
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hihifufu

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How did things go?
Hi Furballsmon, thanks for asking! We went to the vet yesterday and the vet doesn't think it's food allergies. He said that food allergies would be itchy. He thinks that it's might just be stress or something psychological that's causing it... We don't know for sure yet, we are going to keep monitoring it. But it doesn't seem to bother Fufu so that's good :)
 

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I apologize, I don't recall if I mentioned in an earlier post but you could try calming products, and also cat music. There is Cat In My Arms on spotify and elsewhere, youtube has a lot of cat music and also there is RelaxMyCat and MusicForCats as sources :)

There are also antianxiety marshmallow beds that he might find relaxing.

Here are some calming products;
Only Natural Pet has a calming product called Just Relax Calming spray with essential oil (catnip oil).

There's this one, be sure and scroll all the way down the page;

www.bachflower.com

Also, there is ThunderWunders calming chews, Richard's Organic Pet Calm drops, Naturevet Hemp, HomeoPet Anxiety Relief, Head to Tail Calming, Relaxivet Quiet Moments Cat treats, GNC Calming formula, and there is Calm-o-mile, Natures Miracle calming spray, Vetri-Science's Composure is another item to look at, Pet Remedy - UK (it has valerian) is yet another, as is Essential Pet Pet-eze, Pet Organics No Stress, Only Natural Pet (brand and website) has other calming products, Pet Naturals also has one I believe, and there are others.

Lambert Vet Supply is a website to look at, and of course chewy, also there's Petwishpros, animaleo, 1-800-petmeds, Petco and PetSmart, and other pet stores.

This post talks about some other products;
Calming Treats For A Very Picky Cat
 
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hihifufu

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I apologize, I don't recall if I mentioned in an earlier post but you could try calming products, and also cat music. There is Cat In My Arms on spotify and elsewhere, youtube has a lot of cat music and also there is RelaxMyCat and MusicForCats as sources :)
Thank you Furballsmom! I've been trying out the music, I put it on for about 2 hrs a day. I am also putting on cat TV to entertain him during the day when I'm working. So far I haven't seen any improvement, in fact, I think the patch has gotten bigger :(
Everything else about him seems normal though. I'm definitely going to check out some of the products you mentioned. I am located in Canada so I might only be able to get my hands on some of them. Thanks a lot for the suggestions!
 
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