Bengal Started Licking His Fur Off 2 Months Ago. It’s Getting Worse.

i have a 3 1/2 year old male F2 bengal who is an indoor cat. No other pets. I’ve taken him to the vet multiple times and they say he is healthy but has a psychological issue, similar to OCD.

To get it out of the way; I haven’t changed his environment, no new furniture or house or room. I haven’t changed his diet since he was eating adult food. And he has no allergies or health issues that bloodwork has shown.

I’ve been trying to play more with him, I’ve tried giving him cat CBD, and even the cone... no luck. My last resort is getting another cat or dog but it’s a big commitment getting another animal. I don’t want to start feeding him OCD pills like the vet recommended.

The main thing I want to ask about is now it appears his skin is turning black when it used to be white. I don’t know what could be causing this besides his aggressive licking. Is it like a bruise from his tongue? Or is it just what the skin under the fur looks like..?

Any advice on this situation would be very helpful. I love my cat and I hate seeing him this way, everything I’ve tried has failed.

Poor thing
He can still get allergies from the food even if he's been eating it the whole time. I would experiment with elimination diet, starting with introduction of some novel protein (that he never had).

But given that he's a bengal, and the are highly social and active animals, I would suspect he may be bored since he's the only pet.

She's a witch said:

Poor thing
He can still get allergies from the food even if he's been eating it the whole time. I would experiment with elimination diet, starting with introduction of some novel protein (that he never had).

But given that he's a bengal, and the are highly social and active animals, I would suspect he may be bored since he's the only pet.

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Yeah I can understand that, it happened to me with shellfish when I was about 20, just all of a sudden. I’ve been feeding him salmon dry food, salmon wet food and salmon treats since it was his favorite of different proteins. I can switch it up to another fish, maybe chicken.

I’m no expert, but is there anything to be worried about the skin being so dark in the bald spots? Or is that just his skin?

Javierthebengal said:

Yeah I can understand that, it happened to me with shellfish when I was about 20, just all of a sudden. I’ve been feeding him salmon dry food, salmon wet food and salmon treats since it was his favorite of different proteins. I can switch it up to another fish, maybe chicken.

I’m no expert, but is there anything to be worried about the skin being so dark in the bald spots? Or is that just his skin?

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I’m not sure about the skin. Since it was exposed, did it change the colouring or was it black from the beginning? On the picture it looks like natural pigmentation but I may be wrong. Hopefully someone who knows better will comment on that. Was your vet concerned about it?

Personally i avoid feeding my cats both chicken and fish, and if I were in your situation, I’d try something totally different, like Turkey or Rabbit. I greatly recommend Rawz canned food. They will send you few cans as samples for free so that you can check if your kitty will eat it. There are other brands that have mono protein cans. But prepare for difficult process, if he only ate one brand and flavour for most of his life, it can be time consuming to make him eat something else.

It could be just a reaction to the stuff in his saliva. I had a cat that developed oral cancer and he drooled and where he drooled it discolored his fur.

It takes several weeks for the original food to process out of the body, when you switch foods. be patient. I would try the food issues/allergies before adopting another pet. Have you considered a cat allergist? It could be worth the trip to have some things eliminated as possible causes and they might discover the problem.

I had a cat who drooled whenever she was really pleased. Did it all her life, it didn't signal anything other than she was happy. So keep the above in mind, but don't panic.

I wouldn't start with a dog. For some reason it seems harder for cats to accept a dog as a friend than another cat. We are on year two and have reached the totally ignoring each other stage, which depresses the dog who adores the cat. The cat stays under the covers until the dog goes downstairs. Your animals will act differently.