My 2-3 year old male cat is having some issues with bald patches. I've been to the vet but unfortunately they are not much help. I have attached some photos below
He has around 20 bald patches all over his body - belly, tail, feet, hands, back, sides and a spot with some discoloration inside one of his ears. and they seem to be getting worse. It started with just 1 very bald patch on his hip (which was already scar tissue from perhaps a previous injury) about a year ago that he would lick until bleeding over and over again. I thought it may have been due to stress as we adopted him from the streets. The vet thought it could have been an allergy and advised me to change his food to either a protein that he has never had or to get a special dried food. So I opted to change to a different protein - the only protein he hadn't tried that I could source was seafood. So I switched him to acana seafood dried food and N&D ocean wet food. After that he stopped licking and the bald patch healed. Unfortunately the prices of acana and N&D skyrocketed in the country I live (Turkey) so I switched to another cheaper brand but it was still clean ingredients and seafood. At the same time I also started walking him on a harness out in the garden where there is a lot of long grass. It was after this that he started itching much more and lots of bald patches started appearing all over his body. So I switched back to acana and N&D and also gave him flea treatment. It got only a little better over the course of a few weeks, but now it's getting worse again and I haven't changed his food or taken him outside at all.
I did consider that it could be psychogenic alopecia as he may be a bit bored as an only cat. But from my research it seems that cats with psychogenic alopecia tend to choose 1 particular spot and lick until the bald patch gets bigger and bigger, but this is not the case with my cat. All of his bald patches are about an inch in diameter and have a small red dot in the middle (but the vet didn't think it was an insect or flea bite). Although he's never left alone for much time and he has his own balcony, cat trees, toys, view from every window with birds etc. He is in a fairly consistent routine but I do notice that if he wants something (like to play) and he doesn't get it immediately he will just start chewing his hands and make them bleed. But also when we are playing and he's running around he will abruptly stop and start itching.
I feel so bad that he is causing damage to himself and licking himself to the point of bald patches and bleeding.
Just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and what the cause was?
He has around 20 bald patches all over his body - belly, tail, feet, hands, back, sides and a spot with some discoloration inside one of his ears. and they seem to be getting worse. It started with just 1 very bald patch on his hip (which was already scar tissue from perhaps a previous injury) about a year ago that he would lick until bleeding over and over again. I thought it may have been due to stress as we adopted him from the streets. The vet thought it could have been an allergy and advised me to change his food to either a protein that he has never had or to get a special dried food. So I opted to change to a different protein - the only protein he hadn't tried that I could source was seafood. So I switched him to acana seafood dried food and N&D ocean wet food. After that he stopped licking and the bald patch healed. Unfortunately the prices of acana and N&D skyrocketed in the country I live (Turkey) so I switched to another cheaper brand but it was still clean ingredients and seafood. At the same time I also started walking him on a harness out in the garden where there is a lot of long grass. It was after this that he started itching much more and lots of bald patches started appearing all over his body. So I switched back to acana and N&D and also gave him flea treatment. It got only a little better over the course of a few weeks, but now it's getting worse again and I haven't changed his food or taken him outside at all.
I did consider that it could be psychogenic alopecia as he may be a bit bored as an only cat. But from my research it seems that cats with psychogenic alopecia tend to choose 1 particular spot and lick until the bald patch gets bigger and bigger, but this is not the case with my cat. All of his bald patches are about an inch in diameter and have a small red dot in the middle (but the vet didn't think it was an insect or flea bite). Although he's never left alone for much time and he has his own balcony, cat trees, toys, view from every window with birds etc. He is in a fairly consistent routine but I do notice that if he wants something (like to play) and he doesn't get it immediately he will just start chewing his hands and make them bleed. But also when we are playing and he's running around he will abruptly stop and start itching.
I feel so bad that he is causing damage to himself and licking himself to the point of bald patches and bleeding.
Just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience and what the cause was?
