cat is licking off all of her fur! Help!

princess7807

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My cat, Daisy, has always been a bit anxious and has had issues with excessive grooming for most of her life. It was never bad enough that she lot hair though, and Feliway has helped calm her down. Then, a few months ago I noticed that her belly was completely bald!

I took her to the vet and they gave me some allergy medication to try. Since starting the meds (about a month ago), the grooming has gotten exponentially worse. Now the underside of her tail, inside of her hind legs, and armpits and parts of her front legs have no fur. Now she’s starting on the outside of her hind legs too!!

I called the vet again and they told me to stop the allergy meds and prescribed ampitrypline(sp?). I’m still waiting for the prescription to be ready, so I haven’t started giving it to her yet. Do you think it will help? I’m really concerned at how quickly she’s losing hair. Is this really just anxiety, or something more? Please help!
 
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princess7807

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Did they do any testing on your cat? How old? Indoor/outdoor? Diet?
The vet wants to to do bloodwork, but I can't afford it at the moment (hoping to do it within the next 2-3 weeks). She's 10 years old, is indoor only, and eats only dry food. Same food she's been eating her entire life, and nothing else about her diet or environment has changed lately. She's also about 2lbs overweight and I'm working on getting her to lose the extra weight.
 

silent meowlook

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Ok. If it was my cat and in the same situation, I would start with doing a dose of Revolution topical flea medication. I wouldn't use the newer version, Revolution plus, just the regular Revolution. Even if you don't see fleas, you always want to rule that out first. The Revolution also takes care of mites, not that I think that is what it is, but you never know.

I would also consider switching her over to a prescription diet with a novel protein source such as Royal Canin Venison diet. Or even a hydrolized protein food like Blue Buffalo HF diet. I would also only feed the canned variety of these foods. You should speak to your veterinarian about this and get a written Rx for it so you can order it online where it will be less expensive.

The reason I say canned food is because dry cat food has allot of carbohydrates in it. Cats can't process carbohydrates and it causes allot of problems like obesity, diabetes, allergies, intestinal issues, even, I think, intestinal lymphoma. Cats do much better on a canned diet being fed two or three times a day. Cats are not meant to eat whenever they want. They actually were designed to hunt, after many failed attempts, finally catch a small meat meal, be it mouse, bug, bird etc. and then they groom and sleep. They wake up a few hours later and repeat the entire thing again. So, feeding a cat twice a day with a limited amount of food is the best thing to do.

The above being said, it is also very important for a cat to eat. You never want to wait out a cat to eat a new diet. But there are ways to transition cats that don't want to eat canned food into eating canned food. There is a good website for more information called Catinfo.org

The reason for the novel protein source is because cats can develop allergies to different proteins and other things at any time in their life. The only way to check for food allergies is to do a novel protein diet trial and it can take up to three months to know if it is working or not.

What are the names of the medications your vet gave you to try on your cat.?
 

fionasmom

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Amitriptyline is an anti depressant used to treat anxiety. If this is the underlying cause, you may see an improvement since allergy meds did not work. I agree that allergies can occur later in life and that it can take a while to get to the offending substance. I would try working with the food initially and see if there is any improvement, along with trying the amitriptyline.
 

nujay

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My cat Bellabear was doing this not too long ago, and the vet gave her a steroid shot and it went away. Also we switched her to grain free food. She said it was because of allergies. And it can be allergy to anything like fleas, food, etc.
 

StanAndAlf

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My old cat had stress-induced OCD and would overgroom severely - my vet put him on hormone regulators and he bounced back incredibly well. Not saying that is what is going on with your cat, just something to consider if other treatments don't work :)
 
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