.... of my cat :)

[crystaltips]

I have a 11 year old persian cat and she's beautiful.
However I noticed that she was losing a lot of her coat and thought nothing of it - as this is the time that they lose the winter "fluff"

However I have noticed that she is going bald on one side and that the skin underneath is rather scabby ...

She is in great form and eating well ...

Advice please

Has she developed an allergy to her flees? Although I am not sure if its the right time of year for fleas, but my cat was allergic to her fleas and lost her fur and was all scabby and quite horrible to look at for a while - poor thing!!! Or allergic to something else round your house?

Can you take her to a vet?

mmmm - just put on a new flea collar !!

Good thinking

Thanks

ct - I posted a similar problem with one of my cats and mothernature very kindly made some suggestions. She said it could be flea allergy (we have since used frontline diligently and will do every month - it's much better than the stuff you get from petshops but you need to get it from the vet I think). The other thing she suggested was anxiety and subsequent overwashing. This seemed quite likely as we were also seeing a bit of weeing in corners. To combat this (we have a new baby and our cat is quite a sensitive soul) we got a plug in Feliway diffuser. This sends out relaxing pheromones which make a cat feel better about itself. So far it's worked really well as he seems chilled out and happier and his fur is growing back. Someone (sorry I can't remember who but it was also v helpful) suggested thyroid might also be an issue with fur changes. In the end because our large fluffy chap got a lump on his neck too we checked with the vet. Turned out to be an abcess and he's clear for thyroid but may be worth checking in your case.

Has she been neutered ?? Our old male cat(he was about 12 at the time) had a hormone imbalance and he used to regulary have 2 bald stripes down his back, and I think my sil's female cat used to go bald down her tummy. We had pills one a day for about a week and it worked a treat (if you can get a pill down them that is).

might be fleas ... is this the right time of year ...

Rather a lot of scratching going on ??

Fleas are around all year with central heating. Flea collars are really quite useless especially for an allergic cat, they only need one flea bite to set the whole allergy going. The fact that the skin is scabby suggests flea allergy rather than stress etc. Second the use of frontline, your vet can sell it to you without you having to take the cat in, if you are registered there and they have seen the cat before. Would be worth doing that and then taking cat in if no improvement after a month. Would also be worth buying a can of household spray and treating house at same time, fleas breed in the carpets not on the cat. For every one flea you see there are 99 eggs/larvae in the carpet. Something like Acclaim will treat average 4bed house and lasts 12mths.

sounds like flea allergy to me - my cat was prone to this,despite being treated with Frontline every month...

Our dear departed Prudie had that, and it was a flea allergy.