Two cat problems. 1. Cat is losing fur on back legs. 2. Other cat is behaving oddly

[pavlovthecat]

So.
Cat 1. Male aged 4. Healthy, eating well, drinking water, has good weight on him, behaving normally, but is fighting a bit more.

He has lost most of the fur on the underside of his back legs, and belly. No sores, no skin issues, it has not been pulled out in a fight. It is soft and looks a bit like he has had an operation, except it gradually gets thicker. He does not have fleas, has not been itching/biting/scratching, it does not appear to be bothering him.

Any ideas.

Cat 2. Sister of male, same age. She has started knocking things of the sides, pouncing on us in the night, meowing a lot, generally being very scittish (sp). She is driving us insane, we have had to look her out of the bedroom. she used to sleep on the end of the bed, no hassles.

She is also being picked on by the male cat. Behaviour is not normal for her.

Any ideas?

are they netuered? (sp?)

Yes, both of them.

Yes we have redecorated, only minor - painted the kitchen and the hallway.

We also have an almost 2yo who is becoming much more lively.

The scittishness of the female cat is mainly at night-time, and the male cat is as he always is, they both get lots of fusses by us, mainly at night time when DD is in bed, but also during the day too...

A friend has just said that female is behaving as some cats do in the mating season, and that this can affect females even if they have been spayed. Anyone else heard of that?

And, the thing with the loss of fur...its not patchy, and the skin is not sore, or marked. Its like it has been shaved, and then grown back a little, very cleanly not there, if that makes sense?

Oh my poor poosecats I must be neglecting them more than I thought

We have also decluttered the house, with the anticipation of moving, so its more tidy than it used to be, significantly so! Could that make a difference? We have moved house twice with them and it did not effect them

My cat over-grooms herself, which results in her pulling out big patches of fur just as you describe. She gets stressed out very easily, and that seems to be what triggers it off. It's not obvious she's doing it - we just find the bald patches and the big lumps of fur on the carpet.

The female cat's behaviour sounds a bit like attention-seeking; maybe she is competing with both the male cat and your two-year-old for attention? Although it has to be said that cats are nocturnal by nature, and it's pretty normal for them to be skittish in the evenings.

wigwambam thanks for that. There have been clumps of fur around from time to time, but as the cats are fighting more, we put it down to that...and he is not normally a stressy cat, very easy going, chilled, and usually displays his stress by getting testy/fighty with us, which he has not been doing. Just usual self.

And the female cat - I do know a few friends with females which behave like this, but she has not been like this, well once last year, lasted a couple weeks, never figured out what, but normally, yes she is more fussy than the male, wants more attention, but she usually either goes out for a stroll or sits on our bed at night, not be all hasssly.

I will fuss them more, to start with. Maybe they feel left out.

this happened to one of my cats recently (I also have 2) - we thought she was really ill.

But we think it was down to stress - in our case too, we thought she was being bullied by the other cat and we think this caused the hair and weight loss. I really pampered her, and did things like feeding her when the other cat wasn't there (I think she was being stopped from eating by her sister). There are also boisterous children in our house but the cat is better now, and the children are still boisterous .

Another friend said her cat - female gets like this in the hot weather, and also loses her fur back legs/underbelly when she molts for the summer. Like my cat, there are no clumps of fur missing, it is soft and even, and fine, it has not been pulled out.

I feel a bit more reassured, for now.

But I am fussing them more anyway, just in case its that!

hormone imbalance?
one of mine loses her hair and gets really moody - happens a couple of times a year - takes some hormone pills from the vets for a while - sorts it out and back to her normal loving self.

NIgella - one cat is in an odd mood, the other has the hair prob, all started the same time. I will talk to vets tho, sounds plausible, and it might sort them out!

Thanks for posting.