Warm Weather Alopecia

[Lennie B.]

My Vinny has a spot on his back where the fur doesn't seem be as thick as on other parts of his body. In the spring and summer, which are naturally the seasons when he sheds the most, you can actually see a patch (about the size of a a quarter) of white skin where the fur should be. There's no sign of any skin irritation, and the vet told me not to worry about it. I'm curious as to whether anyone else's cat has experienced this.

[Jayna78]

Well, it wasn't during the spring and summer months last year that we noticed it, but our Leo, who we adopted in April 2004, started licking and picking at his belly fur quite a bit from the late fall on, when we started to have to use our heat a lot more. We think it's b/c it's far too dry in this house we're renting - there's no humidifier. We're about to move into the house we bought, so hopefully that will change. Leo doesn't seem to be messing with the patches of fur that he licked/agitated off as much now, so instead of bare belly, it's belly with peach fuzz. We even took him to the vet in December and got him a steroid shot for potential allergies, and nothing seemed to change, other than him not messing with that area much after that.

I guess it just takes a long time for fur to grow back - I had no idea - our Leila had a bare belly when we first adopted her b/c of her spaying just before that, and her fur grew back so quickly, but her fur is a lot thinner and shorter than Leo's.