Excessive Cleaning / Hair Loss

harbisgirl

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Hello all,

I have two kitties: Miss Kitty, an 11 yr old female, and Tacoma, a 5 year old Male. Both are indoor/outdoor kitties and are up to date on all of their shots and vaccinations.

The problem I am having is that they have both been excessively cleaning the last few weeks. Poor Tacoma is now almost totally bald on his rear and the back of his legs and his inner thighs. Miss Kitty has been cleaning alot, but no hair loss. They don't appear to be more lathargic than usual - I have been quite ill with a very bad sinus infection and have been home from work for the last two weeks, so naturally they are next to me cuddling all day rather than off doing their normal kitty things. The skin on both kitties appear perfectly normal - no redness or irritation, lesions, scaling or anything like that. I see no outward reason why Tac would be balding - His skin is a perfectly smooth pale pink cuteness.

Nothing has changed in our home to cause stress. Both kitties are fed the same expensive high quality kitty food which has not changed. We did change kitty litter recently. We were getting the perfume/dye free clumping litter but the cloud of dust each time i cleaned the litter got to be too much so we switched to an 'herbal' litter that Sams club had. Didnt like it so we switched again to the Arm & Hammer Multi-Cat clumping litter. But we've changed litters before without incident, just thought I'd throw that in there in case it meant something to someone


I'll be taking them into the vet to get checked out but I thought I'd post this on the forum to see what you kind folks might think.

Thanks
 

carolina

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Since they are indoor/outdoor, I wonder if that could be flea/flea allergies?
 

sharky

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what food are you feeding?? I ask as many change formulas without telling the consumers..

Do at the vet get a senior blood panel done on the older one..

Are you living in an area where the weather is changing drastically?

Fleas are an option depending where you are
 

carolina

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Originally Posted by sharky

Do at the vet get a senior blood panel done on the older one..
True, the 11 year old could have a thyroid problem, making the hair fall down...
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by Carolina

True, the 11 year old could have a thyroid problem, making the hair fall down...
also a sign of CRF, liver and other senior issues
 
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harbisgirl

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Yes, we do have fleas in the area, but they don't have them. They are treated with Frontline Plus for flea and ticks

I feed them Nutro Max Cat Indoor Adult. I use the indoor formula because Miss Kitty is mostly indoors. She likes to sit on the deck in the sunshine and stroll around the backyard a bit, but mostly she stays inside.

Originally Posted by Harbisgirl

Miss Kitty has been cleaning alot, but no hair loss.
No, I don't think anything that drastic is happening with her, thank god. She has no signs of health issues or behavioral changes, except for the excessive cleaning lately.

No, we don't really have drastic weather here. I live in N. California. Its been raining for a few weeks, but thats about it. Strange, huh?
 

jennyr

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It does sound like flea allergy to me too. Even though they are treated, the fleas that arrive on them could be causing it. And the fleas may have a resistance to Frontline - try a different treatment, Revolution or Strongid.
 

fifi1puss

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I would switch back to the other litter. They are over cleaning on their thighs and back which is where litter would effect them more than anywhere else. It is also an "herbal" litter which even though it is "natural" could have properties about it that they are allergic too or they just don't like how it feels/smells on them and are trying to get it off.

I think that would be the easiest thing to do first and see if that helps at all.
 

otto

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I, too, think that litter is the issue. Many cats cannot tolerate any perfumes or additives in litter. My advice is to go back to your original litter.

Cats are very sensitive, and the tiniest thing you would not notice, including a litter brand change, could cause stress.

However, Nutro is not really a very good food. It's very inconsistent, as Nutro, while not changing the actual ingredients listed, will go for the cheapest of those same ingredients, so sometimes the quality of the food is not as good as other times.
 
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