I've been participating in online automotive forums for years, now, and I've learned a lot about cars. As long as this cat action has been going on, I can't believe I hadn't thought about a cat forum sooner. Hopefully you experts can help me figure this out.
I've had Tigger going on nine years, now, since she was a kitten. The last of a litter of supposedly "half-siamese" kittens, she was an orange and white little furball with blue eyes. They turned orange a couple weeks later, but she's still smart as a whip. I like to think she got the Siamese attitude and alley cat swagger.
For the longest time (approximately 3+ years), she's had this sort of skin condition on her back. When you go to scratch her anywhere behind her shoulder blades, she will sort of nip and begin to aggressively groom her front paws. She has some hair loss between her shoulder blades and along her rear flanks. It's minimal hair loss, but there appears to be a random patch of dry skin in the shoulder blade area, otherwise, there is no discoloration or spotting of any kind. At one point, I was married to a groomer and we would shave her down, bathing her monthly with a medicated shampoo of some sort (Maleseb?). Can't say I remember it doing anything.
After the wife left us, I continued to use a slicker brush on brush her. She is a short haired cat, but there would be plenty of hair on the brush and she would act much more at ease afterwards. One day I noticed the metal wire brush was removing these patches of dry skin and there would be a little blood. Not bleeding, mind you, but seeing fresh blood on the surface made me feel horrible. Switched to a plastic brush with much softer bristles.
I've seen threads mentioning ringworm, but this has been going on for some time and no one in the house (including another cat) has any symptoms. I have just recently noticed what looks to be flea droppings in her fur at the base of her tail, but can see no fleas. Furthermore, I'm unable to get any of these small, darker flecks off so that I might get them wet on paper to see if they are dried blood, which I've seen before in another cat that did have fleas. Again, the other cat shows no symptoms. I would think, as long as this has been going on, ringworm would have showed up on the other cat or myself.
She is overweight and a vet one time told me that she was, perhaps, too fat to groom herself, but I've kept an eye on her and she is fully capable of fully grooming herself. She is on prescription Science Diet R/D and gets 1/4C in the morning and a bit less than that in the evening when I come home from work.
While she can groom herself just fine, she seems to neglect her backside a bit. On the higher fiber R/D, it's not so bad, but a couple days of Iams or other retail "premium" food results in the "Hershey Squirts." On that note, she and Scout (her buddy) have been using the Arm&Hamer scoopable litter for years now. It's all I buy. Not sure if this is the "cheap, clay litter" I read mentioned elsewhere as a potential allergen.
She's my little buddy and I feel like such a troll for not addressing this sooner, but, for the most part, she's a healthy cat. I can just tell she's uncomfortable and I'd like to make sure she's okay seeing as she's getting up in years. If anything, I'd suspect the issue that most bothers her manifests itself between her shoulders and she is overcompensating elsewhere, resulting in hair loss.
Thank you for taking the time to read such a long post, but I wanted to give as much information as possible, based on what I've read in the search. pictures below.
Tigger chillin' just now while I surf.
The dry spot on the shoulder blades (towards the right edge of the bald spot).
Scout (perfectly healthy, thin, quiet and stereotypical cat on the left) and Tigger (Chubby at right, annoyed at the flash).
I've had Tigger going on nine years, now, since she was a kitten. The last of a litter of supposedly "half-siamese" kittens, she was an orange and white little furball with blue eyes. They turned orange a couple weeks later, but she's still smart as a whip. I like to think she got the Siamese attitude and alley cat swagger.
For the longest time (approximately 3+ years), she's had this sort of skin condition on her back. When you go to scratch her anywhere behind her shoulder blades, she will sort of nip and begin to aggressively groom her front paws. She has some hair loss between her shoulder blades and along her rear flanks. It's minimal hair loss, but there appears to be a random patch of dry skin in the shoulder blade area, otherwise, there is no discoloration or spotting of any kind. At one point, I was married to a groomer and we would shave her down, bathing her monthly with a medicated shampoo of some sort (Maleseb?). Can't say I remember it doing anything.
After the wife left us, I continued to use a slicker brush on brush her. She is a short haired cat, but there would be plenty of hair on the brush and she would act much more at ease afterwards. One day I noticed the metal wire brush was removing these patches of dry skin and there would be a little blood. Not bleeding, mind you, but seeing fresh blood on the surface made me feel horrible. Switched to a plastic brush with much softer bristles.
I've seen threads mentioning ringworm, but this has been going on for some time and no one in the house (including another cat) has any symptoms. I have just recently noticed what looks to be flea droppings in her fur at the base of her tail, but can see no fleas. Furthermore, I'm unable to get any of these small, darker flecks off so that I might get them wet on paper to see if they are dried blood, which I've seen before in another cat that did have fleas. Again, the other cat shows no symptoms. I would think, as long as this has been going on, ringworm would have showed up on the other cat or myself.
She is overweight and a vet one time told me that she was, perhaps, too fat to groom herself, but I've kept an eye on her and she is fully capable of fully grooming herself. She is on prescription Science Diet R/D and gets 1/4C in the morning and a bit less than that in the evening when I come home from work.
While she can groom herself just fine, she seems to neglect her backside a bit. On the higher fiber R/D, it's not so bad, but a couple days of Iams or other retail "premium" food results in the "Hershey Squirts." On that note, she and Scout (her buddy) have been using the Arm&Hamer scoopable litter for years now. It's all I buy. Not sure if this is the "cheap, clay litter" I read mentioned elsewhere as a potential allergen.
She's my little buddy and I feel like such a troll for not addressing this sooner, but, for the most part, she's a healthy cat. I can just tell she's uncomfortable and I'd like to make sure she's okay seeing as she's getting up in years. If anything, I'd suspect the issue that most bothers her manifests itself between her shoulders and she is overcompensating elsewhere, resulting in hair loss.
Thank you for taking the time to read such a long post, but I wanted to give as much information as possible, based on what I've read in the search. pictures below.
Tigger chillin' just now while I surf.
The dry spot on the shoulder blades (towards the right edge of the bald spot).
Scout (perfectly healthy, thin, quiet and stereotypical cat on the left) and Tigger (Chubby at right, annoyed at the flash).
