Ripping her fur out!

[ramanth]

I think Zam is ripping her fur out!

She has some bald spots on her chest and in the "arm pit" area of her front legs. And I find clumps of white fur on the floor.

I know Kia isn't doing it to her because I'm in the room with them when I'm home and they leave each other alone and when I'm gone, Kia is crated.

She doesn't appear to be in any pain and the skin that is showing does not look like there is a rash nor is it bleeding.

I noticed the bald spots a few days ago shortly before she went into Heat again.

Her personality hasn't changed any.... what's wrong with my baby!?

[Cataholic]

Hmmmm...this is strange...is she long haired, and she is attacking matts? Or allergies? Dried skin? Sticky with something? Maybe itchies? I hope others post on this..but, I might consider making a vet appointment for next week???

[ramanth]

Zam is short haired, no allergies that I know of, she has no matts and is clean, no sign of dry flaky skin, and she isn't scratching excessively.

Kia on the other hand is itching herself raw again. She gets winter itches bad.

Maybe she does just have some itchies and that's her way of dealing with it.

[boscibo]

My cat Boo ripped his fur out. It never grew back. I took him to the vet and they ruled out any medical problems. It was from stress, my vet said. There was no medical reason why he would rip it out. He saw (I think) my other cat get hit by a car, it started soon after. Then he stopped ripping it out, but it never grew back.

[ramanth]

I'm sorry to hear that about Boo.

Zam sure doesn't act stressed.... unless she stressed that she's in Heat and there are no males to answer her call.

I'm sure if I was in heat and no male came calling, I'd be ripping MY hair out.

j/k

[Rocky'smomma]

I had a dog once who would scrathe her back against bricks when she was outside and it caused really bad scabs on her back...she had severe allergies...do you think she has some allergies that you aren't aware of?

[lizbud]

I've noticed my kitties sometimes when grooming
themselves, leave little clumps of fur behind. They don't
leave the area bald though. Could be an allergy or stress
from being in heat.After she's spayed, I'll bet you would
see a big difference in her behavior.

[ramanth]

I'll do that. She doesn't really like "strangers" (my friends) coming over. She'll go to the bedroom and hide. Unless it's Andy. She LOVES him. LOL! Maybe that was stressing her out.

Her bald spots aren't that apparent. You have to pick her up, flip her over and move her remaining fur around to see the small bits of skin showing here and there.

I actually caught her doing it on her inside leg.... she was laying there grooming herself and after a few licks, she'd grab her fur and pull!

I distracted her with a toy and she stopped.

Silly, odd kitty.

[sasvermont]

Have you given her the brush test yet? My guess is that she is trying to groom herself - but sometimes they get carried away. Gabe does lots of licking of his fur. I brush him every morning, when he is sitting on the basin watching me get ready for work. The other two monkeys never get brushed. They have very short, silky fur and just don't need brushing. Maybe as they get older they will, but right now they are just fur and bones, no meat on them.....

Once she gets spayed she might lighten up a bit.

[ramanth]

I tried brushing her and she flinched when the brush came in contact with her. She just seemed startled, but when I did it again, she flinched again. Eventually I just stopped. She didn't flee in terror, so I hope she wasn't beaten by a brush.

On the upside, it looks like her hair is growing back. Yay!

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

I would say it is stress too. Peanut used to do this too. She'd have the underside of her front legs licked clean. Then later I'd see the hair growing back. So I asked the vet about it and he said it's probably stress, and whatever was stressing her stopped, so the hair grew back.

Glad to hear the hair is growing back, so maybe it was being in heat, or your friends, or maybe just the change of being in a home instead of on the street. I remember one time when Peanut was really bad was when I first moved in with Terry. Didn't seem like a real stressful time, but I guess just the change was too much for Peanut until she got used to the place.

Good luck, and I'm sure she'll settle down a bit more once she spayed.