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Hello,
I have a 4 year old male shorthair cat (born March 2018) whom, in the past 5-6 months, has been excessively scratching to the point he's caused fur to fall out in some places (mostly around the ears) and given himself minor cuts and scabs. He's also steadily been losing weight, to the point where his pelvis/hip bones are pretty visible now.
I initially thought the issue was fleas, and tried a multitude of different flea treatment over months; Frontline spot-on, Vectra Felis, On Defence, Johnson's 4Fleas Tablets, as well as Johnson's flea spray for bedding, carpets and such. We even tried bathing him with Johnson's flea shampoo a few times. He would often start scratching even more for a few hours directly after giving him flea treatment, and generally seemed irritable. This is normal based on my previous experience with giving cats flea treatment, but no matter what, the scratching continues. We have 2 other cats (who received the same flea treatment all at the same time), and neither of them seem to be scratching any more, just the 4 year old male. We've been ensuring the spot on treatment is applied to the skin, not the fur, and applying it every 4 weeks (though since Frontline didn't seem to work for the first 2 months, we switched to the other aforementioned brands). Previously Frontline has always worked first time and we never need to reapply it, not until there was another obvious flea infestation, which thankfully has usually only occurred once a year, in the summer normally.
I'm now left wondering if the issue is even fleas. I've been combing him with a flea comb regularly but have found no fleas on him for nearly 3 months now. I've also wormed him with Beaphar worming tablets, in case that was at all related to his weight loss. I don't believe he's lost any more weight in the past 2 months, but he isn't gaining any either. His personality hasn't really changed much, aside from maybe being a little more nervousness (but he's always been a fairly skittish cat, a small bang or similar noise is enough to scare him). He's always been a very fussy eater and pretty much exclusively eats wet food, in gravy (he hates the jellied variety). He refuses to eat dry food no matter how much we've tried, it's like it doesn't even register as food to him.
We've tried giving him Kitzyme conditioning tablets to see if that at all helps, as it was recommended by a friend whom also had a cat that had issues scratching and having dry/scabby patches of skin. He doesn't eat them directly so we have to crush it up and put it in his food, we've given him around 3 tablets per day, but it doesn't seem to have improved his condition either.
I don't think he's eating any less than he normally does, so I'm unsure why he's been losing weight, other than the fact that he seems clearly stressed. We'll likely be taking him to the vets soon as we're out of ideas of what could be causing these issues with him being itchy and losing weight.
Could anyone here offer any advice? He's never had these issues previously.
I have a 4 year old male shorthair cat (born March 2018) whom, in the past 5-6 months, has been excessively scratching to the point he's caused fur to fall out in some places (mostly around the ears) and given himself minor cuts and scabs. He's also steadily been losing weight, to the point where his pelvis/hip bones are pretty visible now.
I initially thought the issue was fleas, and tried a multitude of different flea treatment over months; Frontline spot-on, Vectra Felis, On Defence, Johnson's 4Fleas Tablets, as well as Johnson's flea spray for bedding, carpets and such. We even tried bathing him with Johnson's flea shampoo a few times. He would often start scratching even more for a few hours directly after giving him flea treatment, and generally seemed irritable. This is normal based on my previous experience with giving cats flea treatment, but no matter what, the scratching continues. We have 2 other cats (who received the same flea treatment all at the same time), and neither of them seem to be scratching any more, just the 4 year old male. We've been ensuring the spot on treatment is applied to the skin, not the fur, and applying it every 4 weeks (though since Frontline didn't seem to work for the first 2 months, we switched to the other aforementioned brands). Previously Frontline has always worked first time and we never need to reapply it, not until there was another obvious flea infestation, which thankfully has usually only occurred once a year, in the summer normally.
I'm now left wondering if the issue is even fleas. I've been combing him with a flea comb regularly but have found no fleas on him for nearly 3 months now. I've also wormed him with Beaphar worming tablets, in case that was at all related to his weight loss. I don't believe he's lost any more weight in the past 2 months, but he isn't gaining any either. His personality hasn't really changed much, aside from maybe being a little more nervousness (but he's always been a fairly skittish cat, a small bang or similar noise is enough to scare him). He's always been a very fussy eater and pretty much exclusively eats wet food, in gravy (he hates the jellied variety). He refuses to eat dry food no matter how much we've tried, it's like it doesn't even register as food to him.
We've tried giving him Kitzyme conditioning tablets to see if that at all helps, as it was recommended by a friend whom also had a cat that had issues scratching and having dry/scabby patches of skin. He doesn't eat them directly so we have to crush it up and put it in his food, we've given him around 3 tablets per day, but it doesn't seem to have improved his condition either.
I don't think he's eating any less than he normally does, so I'm unsure why he's been losing weight, other than the fact that he seems clearly stressed. We'll likely be taking him to the vets soon as we're out of ideas of what could be causing these issues with him being itchy and losing weight.
Could anyone here offer any advice? He's never had these issues previously.
