Bald patches on 2 cats

Okay, this morning I noticed that Finn had a bald patch on his neck behind his ear. I checked it over and the skin appears healthy, there's no redness, rash or other sign of irritation. So, I assumed that maybe it was pulled out in a heated wrestling match with one of our other cats with whom he play hard with.

Then Ramsay, the third cat that is lazy and doesn't get involved in the wrestling matches, comes out from his hiding place and I see that he has a tiny bald patch on his eye brow. His has a tiny red spot in the middle that looks as though it could be a bite mark.

Is it possible that its purely a coincidence that they both have this at the same time or is there some other condition happening. I don't want to haul 3 cats to the vet for skin scrapings to have them tell me it's a bug bite, but I certainly don't want to find out later that it's ringworm or something!

Finn:


Ramsay:

Great pics.

Neither look like ringworm to me. (Kizzy had RW for a while)

Personally, I would just watch the cats closely for a few days, make sure there is no inflammation/redness/sores/etc. no change in size of the balded area or behavioural changes, and if there isn't, I'd chalk it up to rough play/coincidence.

The first pic, looks similiar to an area on Kizzy which I had the vet look like and we came to the conclusion that his fur either was groomed too much, or he had a small mat that stuck on something and the fur was pulled out. It grew back in

The second pic indeed looks like a bite or a scratch. I wonder if he scratched himself possibly... or caught it on something. That area in most cats is fairly scarce in fur to begin with (thin) so any little thing makes it look bigger than it is.

That is just my opinion (I'm not a vet) and what I would do.

If in doubt, check with your vet....

I've never had experience with ringworm, so I'm glad it doesn't look like what Kizzy had with ringworm. (Googling bald patch on cat all you get is "ringworm" .)

Originally Posted by whiteforest

I've never had experience with ringworm, so I'm glad it doesn't look like what your kitty had. (Googling bald patch on cat all you get is "ringworm"

.)

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Yup.... it is fairly common because it is easily spread and the spores can live up to 18mos in an environment...

This is not the best pic, but:



Kizzy had it on his tail only.... this pic was advanced RW, and it was alot more red than the pic shows... in the middle (closer to the right, where you can see a little more fur) there was a sore. Other parts of his tail had the beginnings of rw and it starts off as a raised red sore...then expands to what you see in the pic (dry, flakey with redness). Although it can vary kitty to kitty, it usually starts with the sore (not with what you see in the pic....). He still had fur growing out of that area, but limited fur, as it would grow a bit then fall off, leaving behind what you see in the pic.

I also have noticed both on my cats. The bald spot is usually if they over due it grooming and it does grow back. The second one in my case is brother and sister. Brother teasing sister and sister getting her claw stuck in the head of her brother. You can almost hear the sound of the claw coming out of his head.

Okay, so they are officially lick spots based on observation. The question is how in the world do I get the one cat to stop licking the other cat bald???? It's getting WAY worse to the point where the hair on the back of Finn's head is now extremely thin, he has large bald patches on either side of his neck and a bald patch on the top of his head.

Separating them is not an option for a few reasons. 1. I obviously cannot keep them separated forever. 2. If Gus (the licker) is separated out from everyone he'll get mad and then pee all over. 3. If Finn is separated out from everyone he'll scream ungodly noises nonstop. He's deaf, so if he can't see what everyone's up to he freaks out.

I really think you need to take atleast the one with the worst symptoms to the vet. This isn't normal, cats don't lick each other to the point of bald spots. There could be a common allergy, parasite, you need to have it checked out before it gets out of hand......

IMO those look like scratches and "ouches" from rough play time - When Lucky started showing up with these, I started observing and found out it was Hope with her tough, mean little nails - now she wares soft claws, and both Lucky and Bugsy thank me for it

Originally Posted by cheylink

I really think you need to take atleast the one with the worst symptoms to the vet. This isn't normal, cats don't lick each other to the point of bald spots. There could be a common allergy, parasite, you need to have it checked out before it gets out of hand......

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They really are lick spots. I realize this isn't really normal, but that's what they are. Example of my observation: Last night Gus and Finn were playing together. Finn came to sit on my lap and his head was all wet on top of his head from Gus's licking, and there was yet another bald patch the size of a dime in the middle of it. We've only had Finn for 3 weeks as of tomorrow. The day he came there were no bald patches anywhere, and he had a full complete work up of testing (inc. blood and fecal) , vaccinations, etc. before coming into my home.