Kitten nearly bald in a matter of hours?

We had to leave our kitten with someone for a few hours while we took our son to the doctor and when we returned, its back and sides are nearly bald! There are big patches of fur all over our living room. The cat is acting normal and the skin isnt red or anything, the fur is just mostly gone! My first thought was that the person we left her with did something to her, and I just want to know what happened to my previously fluffy kitty! She shed quite a bit before this but shes a long-hair, I expected that. Nothing like this though, I dont know what to think...

Added pictures hoping it might help!-- You can see how fluffy she used to be and how she looks right now.

feline alopecia is tricky to diagnose.

start here...http://www.peteducation.com/article....1+2141&aid=195

I looked at the site- thanks for the reference!
Looking at the chart I think the "feline acquired symemetrical alopecia" fits her the closest maybe....
Like I said, there arn't any problems with her skin. No redness, blisters or scaliness... there isn't anything unusual- just the sudden baldness!
Also, another reason it really freaked me out was the fact that her headful of fluffy hair is still the same! Its just her back and sides that have gone bald. There is still some really short hair there though,
We just took this kitten to the vet alil over a week ago (constipation) and it would be a bit of a stretch financially to take her right back again this week. She is still playful and eating well, could a vet visit wait for a bit?

(pictures added to original post)

Will your vet let you make payments? Personally, I wouldn't wait.

Well, we did some searching on the hair loss in cats and alot of places say its usually because of fleas. We didn't find any fleas on her when we picked through her fur but I've noticed over these past couple of days just how much she's been digging at the bit of fur she has left on her legs and head so we're still thinking it might be a flea allergy. I'm really sensitive to flea bites myself so I feel so sorry for her!

We're just going to go ahead and get her checked out. Hope that helps her....I'll update after her vet visit on Wednesday!

Poor little baby cat! And poor you! I'd be really upset.

I'm so glad you are going to take her to the vet. If it is fleas, the safest way to treat her is to get medication for this from the vet. There have been countless cases of people, well meaning people, treating their cats with over the counter flea medication with tragic results.

I sure hope you can solve this mystery and get the little one what she needs. Please let us know, because we care!

Robin

From the looks either they cut the fur(kids in house maybe?) or possible this kitten was licked by a dog/adult cat.

this kitten looks very young-is it still with mom? most kittens i have been around dont shed at all for the first month or two

Hmm..it does kind of look like her hair was cut in the picture, but it doesn't really look quite like that irl. All the tiny hairs that cover her skin are just fine, it would be hard to cut away all the long hairs completely and not cut her little hairs at all, I think. Did that even make sense? I don't know how to word things like this, lol. Besides that, this kitten has never been around kids, other than my 1yr old, and the kitten never, ever gets left alone with him. He is just waaay to curious....and rough! Also, there arn't any other animals in the house. Honestly, I had no intentions on even owning one until we find this lil lady all by her lonesome!

~~I've also been noticing small clumps of hair in the box she sleeps in, so the hair loss is still happening. My biggest worry, other than the hair falling out/ being pulled out in the first place, is the fact that it didn't seem like nearly enough hair laying around my living room for all the hair missing off my kitten. I'm worried she ingested a bunch of it! Can't wait till she sees the vet, I'm so worried about her! :/ She hasn't really been eating as well today, but maybe she's just not been that hungry...

How old is this kitten? She looks no more than 3-4 weeks old. Is she getting kitten formula?
When they are this small they are super fragile, especially if they don't have a mom, so everything is an emergency. Little things that would be nothing for an adult can kill a tiny kitten.

Im not sure how old she is exactly, my dad found her in his garage and waited for her mom to come back and get her but the mom never showed so I took her in.

Ive had her for about 2 weeks I think. She was barely walking when I got her, and her eyes were open but they were blue and they are greenish brown now. She has teeth now, but she didnt when I got her. She moves around really well and just started grabbing hold of fingers and toys, etc and play-bitin a few days ago. I know thats a bad thing to get started but I love that shes getting so playful!-- I would love to know how old she is!

Shes on replacement formula, Hartz brand I think. I don't know if I'm even supposed to be giving her anything else yet, but for the record, thats all I'm giving her. She eats about 30ml every 6 hrs, although today shes ate way less than that and slept all day. Still purring up a storm though and playing when she is awake. I thought maybe all the hair loss was making her cold so I started heating her water bottle back up more often a few hours ago. I have no idea if that will help her, but I hope so.

Do you think slacking off on feeding today is something to worry about? I was just hoping she just didn't have much of an appetite today, I hope it doesn't mean anything. I even tried to syringe feed her again since she hasnt taken more than maybe 40mls today but she was just NOT having it, I still couldn't get her take it...

Sorry so lengthy! I hope this is enough info, I'll be checking back in in the morning. Thanks so much for the help everyone, goodnite.

Fever can cause a cat to blow its coat, but this is a tiny baby, it should be nothing but downy undercoat at this age, kittens typically don't start devloping guards hairs until they are several weeks older.

Based on this and the fact that her eyes have started to change, I would guess that she is around 5 weeks old and has stunted growth, or a retarded growth rate.
You can, in fact start her on solid foods if she has teeth.
Start with canned kitten food, and work up to dry as she learns.

If this were my kitten, I would definitely not wait until Wednesday to see a vet, kittens fade far too fast.

Stumbled across this picture randomly! It made me pause for a second because this is EXACTLY what my kitten looked like up until a few days ago, when it lost its fur. The only difference is that mine has a couple of white "boots"! (The black one ofc:])

http://ciderantiques.blogspot.com/20...-week-old.html

Anyway, I think I will start trying to move her up to more solid food. I tried to get her to lap her milk from a saucer by letting her lick it off my finger first but after sticking her nose in it and sneezing a couple times, she wasn't interested in the saucer at all. I ended up putting it back in her bottle and she actually ate pretty well this morning! Not as well as she usually does but she hardly ate at all yesterday, maybe it will just take a couple feedings to get back up there. Maybe all she needed was a good nights sleep!

Shes still so playful and still seems content so while I am concerned, I'm not ready to freak out (yet!). I'm usually the biggest worrywart ever! I wish I were able to take her to the vet sooner though, since I'm pretty sure that she is at least itchy. Shes been digging at herself quite a bit. The soonest he is able to see her is on Wednesday though, since he is out of town right now. She is the first appointment that morning however, so thankfully I won't have to wait all day!

I would NOT wait until Wednesday if you want this kitten to survive. A tiny kitten like this can go down in a matter of hours and her not eating is not a good sign. For now I would go get some pate style cat food, like fancy feast, and mix a bit of the formula in it and see if she eats that. She is ready to start eating solid foods. It's messy at first and most of the food end up on the kitten than in the kitten but they get a hang of it soon.

I would highly recommend that you get this kitten in today and definitely no later than tomorrow. Banfield hospitals are usually open on Saturdays and Sundays. If it was me I'd call right away and see if they can get the kitten in today. Something is definitely very wrong.

It looks like this kitten is way too small for her age too. That's something I would bring up to the vet. If she has teeth and walks around she should be bigger than that.
Do you have a small scale to weigh her on? If not I'd get one. You can get a food scale that weighs grams and weigh her every day to make sure she's gaining properly. Frequent weighings are super important when dealing with an orphan kitten. It's the only way to know if she's getting enough food.

Please get this baby in. Wednesday may be too late.

I appreciate that you are so concerned, and I hope you don't think that I am not. Normally, affording a hospital visit wouldn't be much of an issue for us, but we've had a couple of run-in with bad luck lately. I would definitely love to take her in now since I am such a hugely nervous person, but its not financially possible for us right now. Please, please don't think I don't care about this baby!

That being said, I think its worth noting that she is back to being my lil piggy! Shes been active and so very playful today. Shes been using the bathroom normally as well. I know they can go downhill quickly but I'm doing all I can to keep that from happening. I know I've never taken care of such a small one before and that makes me very, very nervous but I'm doing what I can. I would feel lost without all the advice and support I've been getting.

I truly feel like her problem is fleas. Other than itching herself, she seems to be acting normally. Honestly, I tend to overreact, so it should be of some comfort that I'm not freaking out, lol.

Her size is a new concern for me, however, I wasn't sure how big she should be right now. The vet I took her to previously never said anything about how old he thought she was or how big he thought she should be so I didn't really think about it. As a side note, I felt like that particular vet either wasn't as attentive with her as I would have liked or he wasn't comfortable tending to such a little one. Either way, we are taking her to a new vet now. I'm glad you mentioned her size, I would have never have thought to ask about this. I don't have a way to weigh her but I'm interested in getting the scale you mentioned for her. I'm definitely going to look into that.

Please don't think that I am being rude. As I said before I truly appreciate you taking the time to care about my lil one, and that goes for everyone!

I guess its time for bad news now. Whatever was causing my kitten to pull its fur is going to stay a mystery now I guess.

I started letting the cat roam the living room not too long ago and it didnt take me long to figure out that it liked to sleep under our couch so I blocked off the sides where it could get under it and that worked, it kept her out!

But we had company spend the night and I understand they didnt know not to move the stuff but that doesn't make me feel any better. I woke kitty up, fed her and let her down to play. By the time I realized the stuff blocking the couch had been moved, it had already been a few hours and the recliners on the couch had been kicked a few times.

I'm sure you can figure out the rest. I'm too upset to finish this story. Thanks for all the help in any case. I wish this had ended better, I was really starting to think I was going to get to raise this one.

Oh no! I am sorry to hear about the little kitten You did all you could. RIP little one.

Wow, that's just horrific. I am so sorry for this baby kitty.

I hope baby kitty didn't die in vain. If you are ever placed in a situation to rescue such a wee one again, please do not let them roam unsupervised when they're that little, and make everyone in the home aware of the presence of the kitten so they can be aware and take care.

Fly free baby.

I am so sorry for your loss. I have closed this thread. When you are able, please post a memorial to your little one in the Crossing the Bridge forum.