My kitty is losing his hair....help!!!

Michael, my 14 year old long hair tuxedo, seems to be having some hair loss on the base of his tail and the back near the base of his tail. I've been reading about some possible problems but none of them seem to be it. He doesn't itch it more than usual, but I have noticed some weight loss. I definitely plan on getting him checked out by a vet soon, but wanted some additional insight. Also, right now he's sneezing and has a runny nose, but he's always had this kind of thing, never before accompanied by the hair loss. Any help? Also, I can provide pictures if needed.

I would go to the vet.
Some of my crf cats did that.

sorry, new to the forums, what does CRF mean?

Thanks for your response. if your cats had it in the past, what did they say it was?

CRF means chronic renal (kidney) failure. I had a CRF cat and have 2 that area in early stages of it and I can't say I ever noticed any missing fur, I've never heard of that being a symptom.

Does your kitty go outside at all?

Do you have any other pets in your home / pets that go outside?

Any chance of fleas?

Have you changed kitty's diet at all?

A good check-up at the Vet would be a great idea, sooner than later......and be sure to include a senior bloodwork panel, to rule out any underlying health issues that are common amongst older kitties (diabetes, liver disease, kidney disease, hyperthyroidism, etc). Allergies can also cause this.

What do you feed your cat?

Here's an article written by a Vet, it refers to hair loss at the base of tail:

http://www.manhattancats.com/Article...s_in_cats.html

Another thought that you might want to ask your vet about. Older cats can go thru metabolic changes and food that was once working for them doesn't work so well when they get older. I had a 15 year old that developed food allergies out of the blue one day and not only lost weight, but lost hair.

In an oldster, it could be just about anything. A senior blood panel is definitely in order.

Stormy loss her fur when she had kidney failure but my other cats did not.
She had arf with kidney cancer they think.
My Coco lost all her fur once to allergies.
Once the food was changed her fur grew back.
There are alot of things then can cause it.
Fleas can cause it also.

Michael has gone outside since he was little, but I doubt that he has fleas because he doesn't seem to be scratching more than usual....but I'm always open to possibilities...I have another cat, a shorthair, Lily, and she's 10, but she doesn't seem to be bothered by any of this...and we did recently change food from Deli Cat to Meow Mix, I'll have to ask my parents if it has affected him as I was away at uni when they changed it.

I plan on bringing him to the vet ASAP, because the weight loss really causes the concern. The hair loss is kind of a concern, as it's never happened before and he used to have such a thick bushy tail....

I'll update it and let everyone know how he's doing!!! Thanks so much for your responses!

I second asking the vet about possible allergies. Have you changed food lately??

so we plan on still bringing him to the vet ASAP, but I asked my parents about the food change and they said that he did start losing the hair around the time we changed the food. I told them they should probably consider a different brand. It's too bad, they discontinued Deli Cat or something, but Michael has eaten that since he was a kitten, and this is the first time we've ever switched cat foods with him. Because of this, I really hope it's only the cat food change and not that CRF....we had a cat die from renal failure and he went pretty quickly :-(

thank you all SO MUCH for all of your help!!!!