Injury ? related hair loss

My cat was fine yesterday morning when I fed her. When I returned home several hours later, she was missing a fairly large chunk of fur from her back, right down to bare scalp. There do not appear to be any scratch or bite marks. She seems OK but is understandably hiding out in dark places. She is an indoor-outdoor cat, mostly out. I did leave her in last night and am watching her closely today.

I am assuming a dog or other varmit may have tore off a chunk of fur. Not sure if I should be applying any sort of lotion (aloe vera?) or just let nature take its course. The skin does not appear irritated in any fashion. I am hoping her hair grows back.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

I live on a small farm (15 acres) and have had the cat for about 8-9 years. She's always been healthy and self-reliant (good mouser). She mainly lives in the barn. I feed another cat who technically belongs to the neighbor, have a fairly new dog, a pony, and a pig. All the animals co-exist peacefully. The new dog is very mellow and lets the cats rub up against her. I do have a rather annoying gang of 5 neighbor dogs who routinely come into the yard, but I haven't noticed them harassing the cats. We also have coyotes and owls in the surrounding woods, and the neighbor next door has llamas.

Thanks for any insight.

Deb

oh that is odd, especially as you mention there is no red marks or sign that there has been a bit of a 'to do' ..... ....so all a bit odd really, do you think she could have caught it in something and she has just pulled away and the hair has come out ? As you mention I think best to keep an eye on her, if it does go red or irritated, then maybe your vet can offer some help

Do keep us posted !

This has happened to my cat twice in the past year (the second time was a couple of weeks ago). The first time I thought maybe he had scraped the fur off scooting under a fence (although there were no scrape marks). It scabbed over and the fur grew back. This second time -- same thing -- went outside fine, came in with a quarter-size spot between his shoulder blades with the fur completely gone. Totally smooth. No redness. No blisters. No infection. No marks whatsoever. As the day progressed the blood came to the surface and it became raw. Because he could scratch it, I put a baby T-shirt on him. The wound increased in size a bit. I took him to the vet initially and again the other day for follow-up. Seems to be healing okay (slowly). The vet has been in the business for many years and has seen nothing like it. No explanation whatsoever. It is driving me nuts that I'm unable to figure out what happened, so that I can take steps to prevent it. I would appreciate any insight anyone may have.