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- May 26, 2007
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Hi. I have a five year old white cat who happens to be deaf since kittenhood when I found her abandoned. She has a history of a couple REALLY bad episodes with a cat cold that compromised her health and could have killed her. I just thought I'd mention that in case anyone thinks it is related at all. The vet checked her for feline leukopenia and she's negative.
Okay, so... half a year ago she started licking bald areas around her body with some raw areas and little black plugs coming out of the pores near her tail. So the vet treated her for fleas and he thought it was an allergic reaction to flea bites (although we didn't see any or know she had them)`. She's been on flea treatment ever since and was on oral steroids for two months duration during the initial balding. Well, she kept on licking and balding herself in all sorts of areas: her front legs, belly, neck, tailend, back legs... wherever she can groom and reach. So he gave us topical antibiotic stuff to put on any raw areas and said it's probably now behavioral and to keep an eye on her and try to distract her. We've done it all, we've showered her with attention, try to distract her when she's licking (it does NOT work, she just gets more voracious!), tried putting lemon juice on her fur to stop her (she obviously LIKES lemon, cuz she kept on licking!)... She just keeps on licking. She's not stratching herself, not acting stressed at all. She's still behaving like her normal, happy self, except that she's licking too much. Her condition pretty much remains constant, but not much worse or better.
Anybody have ANY ideas on how to get a cat to stop licking itself? What can we be trying here? The vet is out of ideas besides a painful and expensive skin biopsy but he still thinks it's behavioral, not some medical condition. Help please!
Okay, so... half a year ago she started licking bald areas around her body with some raw areas and little black plugs coming out of the pores near her tail. So the vet treated her for fleas and he thought it was an allergic reaction to flea bites (although we didn't see any or know she had them)`. She's been on flea treatment ever since and was on oral steroids for two months duration during the initial balding. Well, she kept on licking and balding herself in all sorts of areas: her front legs, belly, neck, tailend, back legs... wherever she can groom and reach. So he gave us topical antibiotic stuff to put on any raw areas and said it's probably now behavioral and to keep an eye on her and try to distract her. We've done it all, we've showered her with attention, try to distract her when she's licking (it does NOT work, she just gets more voracious!), tried putting lemon juice on her fur to stop her (she obviously LIKES lemon, cuz she kept on licking!)... She just keeps on licking. She's not stratching herself, not acting stressed at all. She's still behaving like her normal, happy self, except that she's licking too much. Her condition pretty much remains constant, but not much worse or better.
Anybody have ANY ideas on how to get a cat to stop licking itself? What can we be trying here? The vet is out of ideas besides a painful and expensive skin biopsy but he still thinks it's behavioral, not some medical condition. Help please!