Cat overgrooming/"barbering" fur on her front legs

[ladytimedramon]

Fancy had started barbering underneath her front right leg to the point where the top of the leg was fluffy and the bottom of the leg was short. The vet said it was allergies and had me put her on allergy meds. It didn't seem to stop. Now she's started in on a spot on the front of the left leg. Could this be allergy, as the vet said, or could she be stressed. I've noticed that my other cat Delilah can be a bit of a bully. I've been debating on getting Feliway to see if it helps.

 

[Alldara]

Give the Feliway Multicat a try and there's also cat calming music with purring on any streaming service

Are you getting bully cat's energy down with playtime and other enrichment? Cats won't often play enough with toys laying around that it keeps their energy or levels low enough.

Is Fancy playing with you too?

 

[ladytimedramon]

They ignore the cat calming music. I've put it on, for example, in the bedroom, and they'll go to the living room and vice versa. Crazy kitties.

Actually Fancy plays more than Delilah. Delilah just wants to curl up, usually on my leg or my chest. Generally Delilah doesn't seem to seek out Fancy. She doesn't hunt her down with "I'm going to do something to Fancy". She's content to be left alone. Usually the incidents will happen after Fancy does something that seems to annoy Delilah, such as grooming her too long (Fancy will groom Delilah, then it becomes "go away kid you're bothering me" but Delilah never grooms Fancy), or having zoomies when Delilah is trying to nap. I do have to zone out my bed. Fancy has her own little bed on my bed for her space and Delilah leaves her alone there. Night time, Delilah is usually on her cat tree and Fancy goes on a bed outside my bedroom door.

 

[silent meowlook]

Hi. Didn’t have time to read replies.
Psychogenic alopecia ( cat pulling hair due to stress) is a rare disorder and is over diagnosed. Most of these are itchy due to a parasite or allergy.

In my experience, antihistamines don’t do much if anything for itchy cats. I don’t know what the allergy meds are, so I can’t comment on that. Often these cats are allergic to certain foods or protein sources, or from their environment, such as dust mite allergy or can be affected by any environmental causative like pollen. They can also have allergies to fleas, or even for, or human dander.

Extensive testing needs to be done to rule those things out, long before it can be considered behavioral.

Honestly with the amount of itching your cat must have to do that kind of damage, the best bet is to get a referral to a board certified veterinary dermatologist as soon as you can.

Do you know what the allergy medication is?

Good luck with you kitty.

 

[ladytimedramon]

I think the name brand is Chlortrimaton but I'm using the generic Walgreens version, which is the only version I can find.

I know Fancy is sensitive to poultry. Right after I adopted her and got her into a healthier state (when I adopted her she was an adult and only 4.5 pounds), I started noticing a horrid smell after she used the litter box. The vet put her on rabbit and the smell pretty much stopped.

 

[silent meowlook]

Do the pills seem to help?

 

[ladytimedramon]

With this? not really. They don't even seem to do much on her constantly drippy nose.

 

[Alldara]

There was a poster on here that had good reviews with low histamine probiotics: Introducing pre & probiotic - Miralax
It should help with the eyes. I think only with the barbering if it's allergies.

I was more wondering about how/when/how long you play with each cat per day, not how they okay with each other. It's best to have a semi-schedule for each, and most cats will come around to playing for 5 or 10 minutes at least.