Non-diabetic cat licking his fur off

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KristenP&Sam

KristenP&Sam

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So one of my guys, Finn, has been pretty consistently licking his fur off his legs, belly, tail, sides and a spot near his butt. He seems to alternate so at the moment the fur on his legs and sides is growing back, however his tail looks like a rat's and the spot near his butt just gets balder and balder. I've done pretty much everything I've read online as far as changing out litter (no effect), changing food (I think it's gotten better since we eliminated all dry, but clearly it's not 100% cured yet). He's not alone as he was adopted with one of his shelter mates who's about the same age and seems to get on just fine with our other two cats. In fact, he and Scooter sleep together quite frequently. He plays alot, but he's definitely skittish - something we think is exacerbated by the fact that he only has one eye and gets surprised very easily. He's a sweet, sweet boy and I hate to think he's stressed about something and I'm not helping him out.

Any thoughts? I'll tell you now that I have no intentions of getting him a steroid shot. I've read a few things online about how that can help, but I know that it would only be temporary and don't want to deal with any possible side effects from the steroids. Like diabetes!
 
How long has it been since you changed the food? Did you change to a single protein food, the type designed for allergies? It could take a few months for food allergies to correct themselves once you do the switch.

I just adopted Kiki in December and she has since pulled out all of her fur on her belly, legs, chin, neck and above her ears. She looks awful :( We believe for her it's stress induced. We are using Feliway diffusers and I did add an anti-anxiety med last week because her stress was causing problems for my other cats.

I'm not a fan of steroid shots, but for me it depends on the situation. If quality of life is poor and steroids would help, then in that case I would do it. We are not at that point for Kiki, she doesn't seem to be in discomfort.

My cat Bean was adopted as an FD, brought on by steroids. She was given a steroid shot for excessive itching/fur loss in September 09, within a few months she was diabetic. I adopted her at the end of May in 2010 and she's been off insulin since and she also has no fur loss or itching. So, whether the one steroid shot cured her fur loss/itching, I don't know, but I do know the FD did not last and she's a very happy young lady.
 
We can't use the Feliway diffusers because of Jack's asthma, otherwise I would have tried them because I know people have had success with them. We haven't gone to a single source protein food. Between our four cats, there are only a few varieties of food that they'll all eat, so we've pretty much tried to stick to them. We did do the Merrick BG dry and canned for awhile, but made no difference and they weren't fond of the canned.

I'd love something I could rub onto his skin, like a natural cream or ointment.
 
My civie started to do the same thing after Squeak was diagnosed. I thought I'd changed her diet enough but realized that it was the few kibbles of dry food a day that she was getting as a treat that was the culprit. Took a round of antibiotics and steroid pills to realize it (doh!). Not saying this is your issue but sometimes we overlook things. THe kibble was food she'd been eating for a long time but developed a sensitivity to it once I'd mostly eliminated it.
 
Have you had him tested for Hyperthyroid?

One of my cats licked his fur off -- he turned out to have Hyperthyroid and he gets Tapazole every day. His fur has grown back.
 
I've thought about it being a thyroid issue, but he has none of the other symptoms, plus he's just over a year, which would be pretty young for a cat to get thyroid issues. Not saying it couldn't happen, just that all the cats I've known to have issues with it were much older. Something to consider though.
 
Hi there!

I'm dealing with this with my Porkchop right now. I noticed last August that whenever I petted Porky along his back, he would start to frantically lick his chest and legs. I thought it was kind of wierd (and funny!), until I noticed his scratching a lot and licking more, then I noticed he little scabs and patches of dry skin all over! Then...he licked the fur completely off some areas on his side, and even licked the skin raw, so that it was oozing!

We first tried an antihistamine (chlorpheneramine), but it didn't seem to help, and I'm still feeding him a hypoallergenic diet (you want only a two-ingredient cat food, a meat plus a carb source, and the meat source must be a novel protein, like rabbit, duck, venison, or lamb), although it's a little soon to say whether this is helping, as it can take months to have a positive effect.

I finally went with a steroid pill (Temaril-P, which is prednisolone plus another ingredient). Luckily, these pills have not sent his BG back up into diabetic numbers (Porky is OTJ), and I think they are helping him. I will gradually cut the dose, and hopefully I can get him off the pills eventually.

Hope this info helps...
 
KristenP&Sam said:
I'd love something I could rub onto his skin, like a natural cream or ointment.
Click to expand...

He'd just lick the ointment off.

In the past I've used a cortisone shampoo (Cortisoothe) on my cat. It works, although I have to shampoo him several days in a row to get good results. The vet says to leave the shampoo on for ten minutes. We've managed five. It's something to try, if you think you could shampoo your cat several days in a row.

J.
 
I owned an organic flea control business for years and it is amazing how many skin problems are
caused by fleas .... even in winter. You may not see them and maybe your other cats are not being
affected but 85% of the time when we got rid of the fleas, the cat(s) dog(s) got better. I worked
for years with a dermatologist vet with a VERY lucrative practice where she sold gobs of products
for EVERYTHING. When nothing helped she would call us to Fleabust the house and that almost
always worked. Not saying you have fleas but I owned the business for 15 years and I saw it
work over and over again.
 
I had a cat who constantly licked her belly because she suffered from low-grade UTIs a lot and was trying to get at the pain from the outside. After we cleared those up, she kept licking for no apparent reason. Our other cat who had lived with her for 10 years died around that time and she retreated under the bed for three weeks afterward. I believe the ongoing furlicking behavior was emotional, and if I had known about transdermal clonipramine or prozac at the time, I would have given it to her. Prozac makes them sleep a lot; clonipramine is gentler but not quite as effective, so I would try that first.

Have you gotten a conclusive diagnosis from your vet that your kitty's problem is physical, not emotional?
 
I too have a civie that had issues with licking her legs and belly until the hair was gone. While I never noticed any bites, flea dirt, or sores, as soon as I started regular flea prevention treatment, the behavior stopped and within days LB started growing her fur back. None of my other cats ever showed any evidence of fleas either, but are now regularly treated as well.

What can happen sometimes is that an animal is overly sensitive to a single bite. So while the flea goes away and you never see any other evidence of their existence, the animal's body goes into a reaction overdrive. The overreaction makes them think they still need to get rid of the irritation. And unless something interrupts the body thinking the irritation is still there, it will go on and on (kinda the same thing with allergies, although the irritation is the allergan and that does continue to be present).

Good luck!
 
I have a kitty named Riley who is in the early stages of CKD and she licks her fur off one of her sides and leg. The old vet diagnosed this as emotional in July at the same time he diagnosed her CKD. He put her on an anti-anxiety medicine called Anxitane. I gave 1/2 pill twice a day for a month. He also prescribed Winstrol (anabolic steroid) every other day as well. After one month I took her off the Anxitane as she had stopped licking and was getting really sick of taking the pills (I would squish a treat around the pill). I took her off the Winstrol in October when I met Dr. Pierson. I had no idea Winstrol could be so terrible.

I don't know what to do for Riley because she just licks, licks, licks all day long and the throws up hairballs. If any of you find a solution, I would love to hear it.

Does anyone know about the safety of Anxitane? I hate to make her take so much medicine, though. She just started Calcitriol this month.

Jenny
 
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