Clyde's Excessive Licking

Clyde and I had gone to bed as usual, and after giving him a nice petting and rubdown, he moved and I laid down. After a half hour of the bed moving back and forth (he was grooming himself), I finally got up, and his whole right side just behind the front leg and the belly underneath was totally damp from over-licking. He's never done this in the two months since I've had him, and I don't know if this is abnormal or spells something wrong or not.

I've got him scheduled for the groomer on Monday for a clip, bath, and flea treatment, so I hope that will help.

His dog friend visited the other day, so that's the only place I know he could have picked up fleas since he's an indoor cat.

?????????? Help??

Mike

I don't think I would call it excessive licking just yet. Excessive licking, or overgrooming will cause bald spots. Some cats are just particular about being clean. It's possible that after that nice long petting session, he felt as if he needed to clean your scent and oils off of his furr. I think it's something you need to keep an eye on to see if it's going to become a problem in the future.
Usually overgrooming is a result of stress, so you can watch to see when he does it, and if anything out of the ordinary happened that day.
If he did pick up some fleas, you would probably notice some scratching rather than licking.

Fred does that and it annoys the hell out of me. He has no fur left on the backs of his back legs. I have been to several vets, and no one can tell me why he does it. He has no fleas, and for an old FIV+ cat, he is remarkably healthy. Even our guest cat expert on the forums a few months ago couldn't tell me why. You may just have to get used to it.

Hi Sandi,

I am new to the site and posted today about my cats excessive licking....it seems you have some knowledge on the subject.....I put it under health and my name on here is cstanley.  If you would not mind checking it out and letting me know what you think?  My vet mentioned perhaps behavioral but now she seems convinced it is only allergies....I think its both!  Thanks in advance!

cstanley said:

Hi Sandi,

I am new to the site and posted today about my cats excessive licking....it seems you have some knowledge on the subject.....I put it under health and my name on here is cstanley.  If you would not mind checking it out and letting me know what you think?  My vet mentioned perhaps behavioral but now she seems convinced it is only allergies....I think its both!  Thanks in advance!

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Welcome to TCS
I'm sure you didn't notice when you did your search that this thread is 9 years old. Not all of the previous members who posted are still active so you may not get a response here. I see that your other post in the Health forum. I'm sure you'll get more replies there. This is a fairly common problem. If you do another search you'll find more recent threads.