cat has psychogenic alopecia...

I'm new here, but hope to find some help. I have a kitty who is just over 3 years old. About 4 months ago she started chewing the fur off her legs. This was after we'd moved. After trying flea treatments (even though she didn't have any), prednisone to help w/inflammation and/or itching, and antihistimines, our doc has diagnosed her with psychogenic alopecia. We're trying that horrible e-collar right now and my cat just sits in the floor, hunched under the collar. Next step is trying some prozac, but I'm just not that excited about that. I would like to try putting a shirt on her that has sleeves or something like that to see if it can distract her enough. Has anybody done this? What we really need is like some leg warmers for her! If anybody has ideas, I'm open. A lot of the clothing I find for dogs (because there's not much for cats) is short sleeves and she would need long sleeves to cover the whole leg. Yes, this sounds ridiculous, but I'm desperate!

I would try the Prozac - in this case I think it will help. Something else you can try to to plug in a Feliway diffuser on the wall - it releases pheromones that helps calming cats down.
As far a clothing goes, you might have some luck at Petsmart.
Good Luck!

You might have to resort to Prosac. But first, do you have wall-to-wall carpeting? Was it cleaned just before you moved in? The reason I ask is that on another board a dog with similar problems turned out to be allergic to the carpet shampoo. I don't know why a cat couldn't have an allergic reaction to carpet shampoo. You might try steam cleaning with plain water to get any residual shampoo out of the carpet and see if that helps any.

The Feliway is also a good idea.

Below is a link to an article on psycogenic alopecia by Dr. Alice Moo-Fanelli, PHD of Tufts University. There are some good suggestions for managing/treating this problem.

http://www.tufts.edu/vet/vet_common/..._march2005.pdf

I hope you can find away to help your cat. Best wishes.

hi lanab AND ALL cat people

my 3 year old boy developed this problem in November 2012.

i think the stressors were:

1. change of cat food due to his brother having urinary track problems

2  brother cat going to vet with out him

3. quick cold snap where boys had to come inside and use litter box, it got cold very quickly.

4. Perhaps house too small now that they are not kittens?

Within a month I noticed the alopecia.

Vet says stress

and says prozac

I say wait till spring when weather gets better and he can go outside and play cat again

Come March hair loss gets even worse.

Blood test are clean.

PROZAC OR NOT ?

And for how long?

Did this work for anyone?

TX

KATE