Cat Chewing/Biting Base of Tail

[pusheen]

Hello, fellows! My 10.5 year old male (neutered) Siamese cat has been chewing the base of his tail recently. This started a couple of months ago. I believed it was a scratch he'd gotten that he was worrying at, because it was scabbed over, and eventually it vanished. However, today, I came home and the base of his tail is bleeding and irritated and a small area is hairless (smaller than a dime). I hope to get him to the vet, although he was there a week ago to resolve constipation issues (luckily that's getting better), and I like to give him some time between visits to avoid stress. I had two questions:

1. Why would he be doing this?

2. How do I get him to stop licking it while it heals? 

3. Is there something I can apply to the area before I go to the vet (it won't be before next Saturday, unfortunately--my vet is booked straight 

). Something like Neosporin that would be safe for cats?

Other information that may help:

1. He's the only cat in the house. However, he had a brother before we adopted him. For some reason the shelter adopted them separately, despite them having lived together all their lives.

2. He likes to go outside, but he only goes out on a leash. It's winter in Boston, so the amount of time he can spend outside has been a little limited. However, even in warmer months he doesn't spend longer than 20 minutes outside.

3. He eats well, and must have a varied diet. If I feed him one brand/flavor for too long, he gets tired of it and refuses it. I don't believe it's a food allergy because of this.

4. He plays, but only for about 15 minutes a day, and he doesn't play on his own. When I am at work I believe he just sleeps all day, or roams around yowling (oh, Siamese cats...)

Thank you for any and all help!

 

[lykakitty]

Definitely get him checked out by the vet. It sounds like something is irritated and he's trying to make it feel better. I'm not an expert on medical issues but he may have gotten something in his fur that made it itchy or be having some kind of reaction to something. I had a friend whose cat had a similar problem and it turned out the cat was allergic to something in the flavor of food they were feeding her. They switched flavors and it cleared up and she hasn't had a problem since. Have you fed him a brand or flavor you've never tried before recently?

I don't know of anything you can put on his tail that's safe for cats but you might be able to wrap it in something so he can't get to it? The base of the tail is a tricky spit for that kind of thing, though. Hopefully somebody with better medical knowledge will chime in.

 

[cinqchats]

I would guess that it's related to his constipation and discomfort. I don't think Neosporin is safe for cats though. Can you get some hot-spot spray or foam from the pet store and try that? I know I've seen it for cats, and even some that have a bitter taste agent in them so it's a one-two punch.