Stressful grooming

[emmygoat]

We have 5 cats, all fixed, all indoors. Recently, in the last month or so, our second oldest has begun over-grooming herself. We think it's due to some kind of stress, because she never leaves my younger sister's room. She used to be a very healthy cat, but now she's missing patches of fur on her tail, tummy, chest, and legs (front and back). We're not sure what to do to get her to stop.

20151110_222923.jpg

• emmygoat
• Nov 10, 2015

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• emmygoat
• Nov 10, 2015

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• emmygoat
• Nov 10, 2015

Any help??

 

[tobilei]

If you think it's stress related you could try a combination of feliway plug in and feliway spray.

A vet check might be a good idea. We have a cat who overgrooms but he gets ridiculously itchy. I did have a friend who had a cat who was doing this and a short course of antianxiety medication helped him and he's never done it since (he's a big healthy 15 year old cat now!). Seeing as it's a new habit though I'd definitely get it checked. Cats can sometimes overgroom when it pain too.

 

[GoldyCat]

It could be stress, but I would get a vet check just to make sure there's nothing physical going on. It's possible that she's developed an allergy to something in her food or litter.