Hey everyone! I'll try to make this as short and to the point as I can. I have 4 cats - Marley (male, 3 years old), Levi (male, 2), Ava (female, 1), and Penny (female, 1). For a little over the past month, Ava has been licking and pulling hair out from her tail.
We first noticed a small bald patch underneath her top coat of hair when she was at the vet getting her vaccines. We didn't think much of it then. Over the next 2 weeks I saw her start to actually pull chunks of hair out while grooming. So we took her back to the vet.
They did a cytology of the balding area and said she had a minor bacterial infection, gave her a steroid shot and a Convenia (antibiotic) injection. The symptoms disappeared until about 2 weeks later. Took her back, and the vet said her skin looked good but put her on an oral antibiotic and antihistamine because I was thinking it may be allergy related. A few days into those medicines and she became lethargic and lost her appetite so we stopped. The vet didn't have any other suggestion other than psychogenic alopecia.
So I researched more and thought maybe it was her anal glands as she would also scoot her bottom across the floor every now and then. So they expressed them and said they were pretty full. Still no change in the hair pulling. Took her to a different vet who did a complete blood panel on her and everything came back normal. They expressed her anal glands again, saying one produced a pasty substance instead of the usual liquid it should. He also thinks psychogenic alopecia.
So she's been on 5mg of buspirone once a day for 5 days for stress. I know it takes awhile to see any improvement, but I'm just not convinced 100% that it's stress.
Here's a few reasons why it might be stress:
- she gets "picked on" by Ava and Levi. They each like to play too rough with her. She used to reciprocate the play with Penny, but not anymore. She's always hated when Levi has tried to play with her and will hiss, growl, and swat. Now she does the same with Penny. She doesn't mind Marley probably because he's never messed with her like they have.
- she has distanced herself from the others, and seems fearful that Levi may pounce on her. He basically stalks her, pounces, and bites her. I don't think he's being aggressive, I think he just plays entirely too rough
Why I think there is a physical reason to the hair pulling:
- she scoots from time to time
- the other cats try to smell her tail a lot, as if they sense something is wrong with it
So this was entirely too long! I'm sorry! Just looking to see if anyone has experienced something like this, or has any suggestions. I don't know if I should separate her when we're not home but I'm worried that will cause more stress. I'm so worried! Her little tail is looking worse and worse. My cats mean the entire world to me! I'm worried we're treating her for the wrong thing thank you for reading!
Allison
We first noticed a small bald patch underneath her top coat of hair when she was at the vet getting her vaccines. We didn't think much of it then. Over the next 2 weeks I saw her start to actually pull chunks of hair out while grooming. So we took her back to the vet.
They did a cytology of the balding area and said she had a minor bacterial infection, gave her a steroid shot and a Convenia (antibiotic) injection. The symptoms disappeared until about 2 weeks later. Took her back, and the vet said her skin looked good but put her on an oral antibiotic and antihistamine because I was thinking it may be allergy related. A few days into those medicines and she became lethargic and lost her appetite so we stopped. The vet didn't have any other suggestion other than psychogenic alopecia.
So I researched more and thought maybe it was her anal glands as she would also scoot her bottom across the floor every now and then. So they expressed them and said they were pretty full. Still no change in the hair pulling. Took her to a different vet who did a complete blood panel on her and everything came back normal. They expressed her anal glands again, saying one produced a pasty substance instead of the usual liquid it should. He also thinks psychogenic alopecia.
So she's been on 5mg of buspirone once a day for 5 days for stress. I know it takes awhile to see any improvement, but I'm just not convinced 100% that it's stress.
Here's a few reasons why it might be stress:
- she gets "picked on" by Ava and Levi. They each like to play too rough with her. She used to reciprocate the play with Penny, but not anymore. She's always hated when Levi has tried to play with her and will hiss, growl, and swat. Now she does the same with Penny. She doesn't mind Marley probably because he's never messed with her like they have.
- she has distanced herself from the others, and seems fearful that Levi may pounce on her. He basically stalks her, pounces, and bites her. I don't think he's being aggressive, I think he just plays entirely too rough
Why I think there is a physical reason to the hair pulling:
- she scoots from time to time
- the other cats try to smell her tail a lot, as if they sense something is wrong with it
So this was entirely too long! I'm sorry! Just looking to see if anyone has experienced something like this, or has any suggestions. I don't know if I should separate her when we're not home but I'm worried that will cause more stress. I'm so worried! Her little tail is looking worse and worse. My cats mean the entire world to me! I'm worried we're treating her for the wrong thing thank you for reading!
Allison