Overgrooming

[siggav]

Hi Kerry,

Now I don't have an overgrooming problem in my cat at the moment but I was wondering about how chronic overgrooming is. I.e do I need to keep an eye out constantly for it happening again or can I let my guard down?

To give you the history. I have a 16 month spayed female pedigree bengal cat called Nikita. Last August shortly after she was spayed I noticed a bald raw looking spot on her inner arm. I knew it hadn't been there long because I pet her quite thorougly and check her out all the time.

I took her to the vet and got a steroidical antibiotic ointment to put on it and was told it was almost certainly behavioural overgrooming.

I live alone and work full time and have no other pets (well apart from fish but they don't really count) and Nikita is an indoor cat, although we do go out on a harness and leash regularely. I played with her a lot and spent lots of time with her before but I realised that Bengals are such an active breed and need so much stimulation that what I was doing just hadn't been enough.

I rearranged a lot of things in my flat to suit her better, several cardboard boxes on rotation through the living room (some hidden away so I can bring them back and have them be "new") even more play time, I'm playing with her for atleast 2 hours every day now. She gets all her dry food through puzzle balls, I'm running a feliway diffuser and I opened up my entire flat to her while I'm away so she'll have more windows to look out of and more space, put nice perches in front of all my windows etc and makes sure I take her outside regularely.

Anyway all this helped and although I saw a few spots that had slightly too thin fur while the big hairless spot healed now it's almost been a year and I haven't seen any hairless spots or her licking herself excessively since then.

I'm still paranoid about it happening again, I really love my cat and I want her to be happy rather than stressed and self mutilating.

 

[catpsych]

Hi Siggav,
As with any bad habit or obsessive compulsive disorder you'll want to always keep an eye out for any signs of reoccurance, because individuals who have already had it have a better change of repeating the same behavior than an individual that never has before. It sounds like you are on the right track and Nikita is doing much better. As she ages her activity level will decrease and with that so will the chances of her repeating the excesive grooming behavior. Some other things that might help.....hang a bird or squirrel feeder just outside of one of your windows for her to watch during the day. Also you can purchase a DVD called the Cat Sitter, you can normally find these at your local pet store or you can order it online. I leave mine playing on a continous loop all day a few times a week, as also have 2 kitties and work fulltime, spending lots of time away from home. And one other thing you might try, before you leave for work, hide a few morsels of her dry cat food in hiding spaces around your flat, like inside her cardboard boxes and in the windowsill, this will give her an opportunity to hunt for her food while you are away and when she finishes that she will have some live entertainment of the outdoor bird/squirrel feeder or the Cat Sitter DVD on the TV. Oh and one more thing about hiding the dry cat food, another fun thing to do is to stack several medium sized smooth rocks in a pile and pour the dry food down inside, she will have fun working at and pawing at her food to manuver it out. Keeping her busy and reducing her chances of boredom will reduce her likelihood of reverting back to overgroomong herself. I hope these few suggestions go a long way and keep her well occupied.

Take care!
Kerry

Originally Posted by Siggav

Hi Kerry,

Now I don't have an overgrooming problem in my cat at the moment but I was wondering about how chronic overgrooming is. I.e do I need to keep an eye out constantly for it happening again or can I let my guard down?

To give you the history. I have a 16 month spayed female pedigree bengal cat called Nikita. Last August shortly after she was spayed I noticed a bald raw looking spot on her inner arm. I knew it hadn't been there long because I pet her quite thorougly and check her out all the time.

I took her to the vet and got a steroidical antibiotic ointment to put on it and was told it was almost certainly behavioural overgrooming.

I live alone and work full time and have no other pets (well apart from fish but they don't really count) and Nikita is an indoor cat, although we do go out on a harness and leash regularely. I played with her a lot and spent lots of time with her before but I realised that Bengals are such an active breed and need so much stimulation that what I was doing just hadn't been enough.

I rearranged a lot of things in my flat to suit her better, several cardboard boxes on rotation through the living room (some hidden away so I can bring them back and have them be "new") even more play time, I'm playing with her for atleast 2 hours every day now. She gets all her dry food through puzzle balls, I'm running a feliway diffuser and I opened up my entire flat to her while I'm away so she'll have more windows to look out of and more space, put nice perches in front of all my windows etc and makes sure I take her outside regularely.

Anyway all this helped and although I saw a few spots that had slightly too thin fur while the big hairless spot healed now it's almost been a year and I haven't seen any hairless spots or her licking herself excessively since then.

I'm still paranoid about it happening again, I really love my cat and I want her to be happy rather than stressed and self mutilating.

 

[luckygirl]

Oh I have the cat sitter dvd!

I love it! I put it on for them if I am going to be out in the evening.... they are used to being alone for most of the day, but if I have to run out in the evening I put it on so they have something to watch while I'm away.

 

[siggav]

Thanks for taking the time out to answer my question and for the suggestions!

I hadn't thought of getting a cat dvd. I'll go see if I can get hold of it now.

I sort of guessed that you need to be careful to watch for possible reoccurances of behavioural problems in cats (humans as well I guess, heh). I've so far only had the one bout of overgrooming with her, that very first one almost a year ago so here's hoping she'll continue to be happy enough not to resort to any neurotic behaviour.