Help! my cat is mutilating herself!

i have a 5 year old cat and she has started biting and scratching herself constantly. she has bitten most of the fur off of her rear end and some off her tail and all over her body. she has sores on her neck and face and all over her body from constant scratching and biting. noone can even touch her anymore. she is always bloody and scabby and all we can do is put her on the porch. i hate to isolate her but she is extremely aggressive towards my other cats and people. i wish i could take her to the vet but my family cannot afford to do so. i am wondering if there is anything that me and my family can do. also im affraid that if we did take her somewhere they would think we did all of those things to her body. i dont know what to do. she has lost so much weight and she looks very bad. someone please help me out. thanks.

First of all, there are several different things that can be causing this problem. You NEED to get her to a vet. Most vets will allow payment arrangements, some may have other creative arrangements as well. The bottom line is that your cat needs to be seen by a vet. You also can call your local SPCA or Humane society to find out if there is a low-cost vet clinic available.

It sound like your cat is in pain, or at least mighty uncomfortable. Think how you would feel if you were sick and no one would take you to the doctor.

If you keep her and don't treat her, that is technically neglect, and is a form of animal cruelty.

The last option, of course, is to take the cat to the shelter and surrender her.

ALSO: If you have other cats, this could be a problem that could spread to them from the cat with the problem. If the cause is something like ringworm, humans can catch it too. You really, really, really need to get the cat to a vet ASAP.

thank you very much for the help. ill do my very best to get her to the vet asap.

Please keep us updated! I will be sending get-well vibes to her!

Your cat is either pulling out his fur from pain (from another injury) or internal problems, or he could have a skin allergy.

Have you flea treated him lately? If so, what did you use? If you used over the counter flea treatments, he could be reacting to that and be in a lot of discomfort.

Trust me, I know about not being able to afford vet visits. But this cat in dependant on you and no one else to help him.It is clear he needs a professional to help him out of his pain. He needs to see a vet.

Most vets are really good about taking small payments. I have even mowed my vet's lawn, and done yard work in exchange for services. I also regularly dropped off sandwiches and homemade pastries for the people in the office.THERE is always a way. You cat really needs a vet. No one on this board can help you with this.

my inlaws cat has to go to the vet every two monthes or so and get a shot because she has an skin allergy that flares up.

im pretty sure it has nothing to do with fleas or allergies but more of a psychological problem.

i got my first cat when i was 7 and i still have him. 5 years ago my cat that has the problem showed up under my window seal when she was a little itty baby and weve had her ever since. it was always just the two of them. they got along great.

2 years ago i got another cat to add the the family and that really didnt sit well with her. i had no idea getting another cat would cause a problem or do what it did. she was very mean to my kitten and got really depressed after awhile. she stopped grooming herself. she stopped eating. she stopped coming out. but eventually everything worked itself out and she went back to normal and eventually got along with the new cat. a few months later she was back to being mean to the new cat and i think it was because the kitten was no longer a kitten and had just started going into heat.

it was kind of off an on after that. sometimes they would get along..most times they didnt. and finally. a year ago i got another kitten. not because i wanted to stir things up again but i wanted to save another kittens life and i just cant resist a cat.
it really wasnt as bad as when i brought the first kitten home but she didnt get along with it that much.. only sometimes. all of my cats except her get along. my oldest cat and her get along but thats it.

i think she feels my other cats took him away from her and she feels maybe abandoned by him and threatened by the other cats maybe even betrayed. however she just started doing this a few months or less ago and i dont understand why now.

i think i should metion all of my cats but her have been fixed. this could also be why but im really not sure. we never got her fixed because money issues also she never had problems while she was in heat. but now she constantly pee's all over the house. mostly in one corner. even after my mom has put a bowl of food every where she pee's so that maybe she wont pee where her food is but she still does it.

she is a wild cat to begin with. we dont know anything about her up until she came to us. she has always been very aggressive towards us and our cats but we just dont know why.

monday im going to call around for prices and hopefully be able to take her and get her taken care of. thank you all for your help so far. i will keep everyone updated. thanks again.

when you take her in, I strongly suggest you get her spayed as well.

im wondering if after a certain age its bad to spay a cat?

No it's really not, it is actually more harmful to her to not spay her then it is to spay her. Leaves her open (unspayed) for high risk cancers and other problems.

Getting her spayed will prolong her life. I had a (non-spayed) Siamese when I was a child, and she only lived to be 8, and died of uterine cancer. I rememeber being 14 yrs old and hearing the vet tell my mom that if she had been fixed, she probably could have lived another 5-8 yrs.

oh no! im so sorry to hear that . i had no idea about that. ill deffinitly let my family know. thank you.

Any updates? Did you get her in to the vet yesterday?