Hair loss in two cats after only 1 weekend

Hi,

My parent's cat is 7 years old and about 1 year ago started licking her front legs to the point of baldness. Her vet told her it was boredom. She was given a steroid pill which helped for a while, but then it got expensive and less effective. They took her to another vet who said it was food allergy and gave her a cortisone (or steroid) shot. It lasted about 3 months. Now she has no hair on her front paws, under belly and top of tail.

Now my cat is 14 years old (black short haired domestic) who lives alone with me. He has been in contact with Biscuit (parents cat) without any baldness issues. I had him with me last Sunday at my parents. They go outside on harnesses & leashes only.

Now Boomer (my cat) has no hair under his belly (lower abdomen) under his left back thigh and under his right underarm.

If Biscuit has affected by boredom or food allergy, how could Boomer "catch this"? I'm now thinking it has to be something else, but what? Neither have any redness, bumps or wounds - it's just no hair. Both seem to nibble at the areas and lick them a lot. There no signs of fleas, mites, or lice.

They both eat the same brand of dry food (Blue Buffalo Mature aging). It has no wheat or brewers yeast in it.

I did have ringworm over a year ago on my leg, but Biscuit's vet has checked her for that and says no.

I'm VERY worried about Boomer and just don't know what to do - any thoughts?

Thanks.
T

Hi, BlackCat! Welcome to TCS!

Something like that would bring to my mind only one of two things - a reaction to a diet, or some kind of bug. You can't catch a diet reaction and it would be amusingly coincidental if they both had the same exact reaction to the food, so I'd take Boomer to the vet. Maybe a skin scraping will show something?

Hmm, I just looked up the ingredients for that food and it has more grains than it does meat and a really long ingredient list (not something you really want to see), so maybe there is something diet-related going on after all. Cats fed the same thing for extended periods of time can develop food intolerances, especially if it's got a lot of additives (as that food does). Dr. Hofve talks about this in her article, "Switching Foods":

"Another pitfall of feeding a single food is the potential for your animal to develop an intolerance or allergy to one or more ingredients. A dietary intolerance is a reaction to something in the food, rather than the food itself.

The list of suspects is a long one and includes flavoring agents, coloring agents, emulsifiers, humectants, stabilizers, thickeners, texturizers, and dozens more. Different manufacturers use different additives, so changing foods periodically may avoid constant exposure to certain ingredients that could become a problem for your animal.

True food allergies are thought to be uncommon (though more common in cats than dogs), but many practitioners and veterinary nutritionists are coming to the conclusion that most, if not all, cases of inflammatory bowel disease are linked to food."

Click to expand...

It could be some type of mange or something similar, or it could just be time to offer another food, or three. No way to tell without a vet visit to rule out the bugs, or a big enough change in his food to help him over whatever intolerance he may have developed. A grain-free canned might do the trick. (If it does, once you get him switched over, you'll likely want to feed him a rotation of several different types of grain-free varieties.)

Hope you find an answer for Boomer soon!

AC

It could also be something in their litter is irritating them or something in the floor/carpet cleaner.