Tipper Pulling Out Her Fur

[cat marcum]

I have been caring for Tipper for over a year first 6 months as an outside feral who I fell in love with, had spayed and decided to give her a forever home. She has been wonderful and happy plus she is so much company to my Mom who is 84. I have had a major change in I am now working at home all day instead of leaving the house each morning. Mom always said that when I said goodbye to Tipper after I leave she walks through the house crying for me. I have had to turn one of our rooms into an office space but kept her little chair she looks out of the window with and her foot stool and mat she loves to sleep on. I notices yesterday she is pulling at the hair on her leg and near her dew claw. I noticed the claw was long and clipped it today but that has not stopped her from grooming and licking. Nothing else has changed except I did purchase a special Fancy Feast dinner with shrimp and that was just 2 days ago and she cleaned up her dish. She has been a little shy of eating her wet food but loving and eating her dry food. I haven't changed her litter and it was just emptied and clean with mild soap and water, rinsing it well 4 days ago. I am planning to take her to vet in the morning but just wonder if anyone else has had this issue with their cats. Tipper is 1 year and 2 months old has had all her shots, use Revolution Flea Control once a month and she has no fleas at all. Tonight I decided to wash off her paws because that is the only place she is pulling hair from and she loved it. I was ready for an explosion but she played in the water and chased it down the drain. She seem to feel better once they were washed and dried.

 

[Rahoyt]

One of my cats did the same thing for a while when I changed job schedules. Vet said it was stress. I have no clue if that's what's wrong with your fur baby but I would just make sure she has extra loves and see if there's any change in a day or two.

 

[stephanietx]

I would invest in some Feliway diffusers to help calm the stress she's feeling. Also it could be a food intolerance to the new food.

 

[orange&white]

Does her regular food contain fish/shrimp? valentine319 's cat rips her fur out with any fish/shellfish due to allergy.

 

[MeganLLB]

My cat does this because of stress.

 

[valentine319]

It can also be seasonal allergies, mine has allergies too. If mine gets fish she scratches and proceeds to rip out fur and hand it to me. Raw has really helped her but if she does start pulling hair due to allergies my vet approved zyrtec. I've used CM (chlortabs) but be prepared for the excess drooling. It foams in their mouth.

Stress can do it too. I've heard some vets do low dose prozac but I'm really not sure if it permanently changes them. I've heard it does.

If mine didn't itch and scratch I would discuss it being stress with my vet. Mine is having an allergy day today.

 

[danteshuman]

I have heard of cats pulling out their fur from stress. Allergies also usually present other symptoms (runny nose/eyes, excessive itching, vomiting, swollen lips or mouth. I would try treating the stress first. If it doesn't get better than I would take her to the vet.

 

[valentine319]

I agree with danteshuman . If your cat doesn't have any of these symptoms scratching, over grooming, itching, sneezing, swollen lip, vomiting, running nose or running eyes then I would assume stress related.

 

[cat marcum]

Does her regular food contain fish/shrimp? valentine319 's cat rips her fur out with any fish/shellfish due to allergy.

No this was something special I picked up from Fancy Feast Purely Fancy. Tipper normally ate what the out side cats were eating which was Friskies Can food. Then she would not eat it anymore so I went with Sheba perfect portions. She loves the one in beef pate. Then she started to ignore that although she eats her dry Friiskies Naturals very well.

 

[di and bob]

If you see no signs of fleas and she is now a indoor kitty, I would discontinue the monthly Revolution, I had a cat that developed an allergy to topical flea medicine and became so itchy he lost most of his fur. Check to see if any carpet cleaners, deodorizers, etc were used, that may be affecting her feet. It also could be the litter causing an allergy. I have an almost 17 year old cat that has pulled out his fur for years, this year so bad that he had to receive a steroid injection. He may be just a nervous cat, although he doesn't act like it. We have 5 cats now and I'm sure that contributes to his problem. I hope you find the problem!

 

[valentine319]

The only thing odd in the purely natural it's sunflower oil. I haven't seen that as an ingredient. This is the ingredients for the beef one, they forgot to list beef as an ingredient.

Chicken, Chicken Broth, Sunflower Seed Oil, Calcium Lactate, Tricalcium Phosophate, Guar Gum, Xanthan Gum, Choline Chloride, Salt, Potassium Chloride, Zinc Sulfate, Taurine, Magnesium Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Thiamine Mononitrate, Niacin, Vitamin E Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin A Supplement, Manganese Sulfate, Copper Sulfate, Riboflavin Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Potassium Iodide, Folic Acid, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Source of Vitamin K Activity), Biotin, Vitamin B-12 Supplement

C-6407

 

[cat marcum]

I got Tipper to the vet and the vet felt that it is an allergy reaction to either the fact that we've been trying different wet foods or something in the house she has come into contact with. She has no fleas but when I asked the vet if we could discontinue the Revolution due to her being indoor and no fleas she recommended I continue it until the fall and then once the weather turns cold and if she still doesn't have fleas I could discontinue. The vet said fleas are extremely bad this year and will be worse in August and September when it gets warmer. She gave her an injection of cortisone and Tipper has been sleepy and very quite this afternoon. She is not licking or pulling out her fur any more which is a good sign that it may be allergic reaction. She has not lost any weight by not eating her wet food and the vet said as long as she is eating her dry food and drinking water in good amounts, not to worry so much about the wet food. Thanks for all suggestions and help - we hope this will take care of the problem.

 

[haleyds]

I would like to add that my girl was doing this severely with the fur around her neck and it turned out to be a food allergy. So, with that being the only significant change I would suspect it's something in that bin. Although what part of the food she's allergic too I am unsure.