He's losing hair on his ears!

My cat Archie has little pale patches on the backs of his ears, kind of mottled looking, almost as though he's had bleach dripped onto them (he hasn't I promise!). And now the hair from the base of his ears to his collar is thinning too!
I'm wondering if he has ear mites, but I haven't noticed him scratching his ears more than usual.
I was wondering if the collar is rubbing a bit and causing the hair thinning, but then I don't know what is causing the ear blotches.
I was wondering if the ear blotches were sun damage, but its the middle of winter, and he's not exactly a sun worshiper.
The hair loss is thinning, not balding and its not remotely circular so it can't be ringworm (right?).

Basically, I'm at a loss to explain it. We're calling the vets tomorrow, but my dad's worrying about him (bless! ) so I said I'd ask on here to ease his mind.

Any ideas?

Could be an allergy to something, or so some sort of mite

I'd go and see the vet - it could be a skin parasite, or it could be allergies. (One of my guys has food allergies, and he lost fur behind his ears.)

Okay, he's been to the vet and she has NO idea what the problem is.

However it did occur to my mum that he had spot-on worming treatment on the back of his neck about 2 weeks before he started losing his fur. Plus he can be quite sensitive to meds and flea/worming treatment sometimes. we've decided to never use that brand again, and see how he does.

His fur is also beginning to grow back and his skin now looks undercoat coloured, instead of freakishly pink.
The vet did wonder if its an Abyssinian thing, since he's an Aby mix, but I always thought Abys were pretty healthy as a breed.


One thing he does have though is plaque. The vet gave us some samples of Hill's t/d and Royal Canin Dental and told us to stop feeding him wet, which I'm not thrilled about. The trouble is he eats really weirdly, and has a funny way of picking up his food in his mouth, so I'm not convinced he's getting much benefit from it. And he's only 2, so must he be prone to teeth problems?

I did some research and found that t/d isn't a fantastic food and I'd just found a dry I was happy with, so I'm thinking of buying some cat toothpaste and trying that instead. He's willing to lick practically anything and is quite dopey so I have high hopes for his teeth.

My mum is wondering if its better just to get his teeth cleaned once a year, but since he's a bit sensitive we're both worried about how he'd cope with the anaesthetic, even though he'd probably be fine.

Any advice? Anyone in the UK know of somewhere I can get toothpaste/teeth cleaning implements?

How is it possible for me to fuss so much over one kitty? If its not one problem then its another...

Originally Posted by cata_mint

And he's only 2, so must he be prone to teeth problems?

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Aby's are prone to dental problems.

I wouldn't stop feeding wet, dry food doesn't actually clean their teeth. They don't really chew it, just crack it and swallow. I would at least feed a mix of both, a meal of wet and a meal of dry.

I feed mine bones for their teeth, chicken wings/necks etc.

Originally Posted by missymotus

Aby's are prone to dental problems.

I wouldn't stop feeding wet, dry food doesn't actually clean their teeth. They don't really chew it, just crack it and swallow. I would at least feed a mix of both, a meal of wet and a meal of dry.

I feed mine bones for their teeth, chicken wings/necks etc.

Click to expand...

He is normally fed a 50/50 mix of wet and dry, but the vet was so insistent that his teeth problems stem from/ are aggravated by his wet food that my parents were thinking of switching him to all dry. my mum has heard of the problems an all dry diet can cause so i'm working on her

I have found this PlaqueOff stuff I'm thinking of trying- its just added to food. It sounds a little too good to be true, but I can hope, right?

http://www.plaqueoff.com/proden_plaq...off_animal.htm