Anxious cat who over grooms

[OkPedro]

My boy is just over two years old. He's always been a bit of a nervous cat but got much worse when we moved house this time last year. I noticed he was over grooming in August. He began to lose fur so I took him to the vet. He's had two lots of steroids and antibiotics. He's up to date with flea treatment. The vet said he's healthy, the rest of his fur is in great condition
We're back at the vet next week and I want to know what to ask about treating his anxiety.. Will they think I'm over reacting? I just want him to be less anxious.. He's in an awful state 💔

Here are two pictures of my cat Micky. She overgroomed quite a bit as you can see.

What I did:

• Had her checked by the vet and discussed likely causes (anxiety and/or food allergy) and treatment. She was seriously abused by her previous owners and gets nervous easily.
• Treatment consisted of Feliway plugin, Zylkene and I reduced her food choices to only consist meat from poultry and zero grains and other fillers.

Micky now has no bald areas and the fur from the previously affected areas is growing back. I have stopped the Feliway plugin and also recently stopped giving her Zylkene and she has not returned to overgrooming. BTW, the food I feed her lists every ingredient like this: „Chicken (meat, hearts, liver), chicken broth, minerals“ so I now what meat sources are in the food.

According to my vet, it usually isn‘t wheat that causes allergies but rather a protein source. So it might help to switch to a protein monosource and stick to it for about 8 weeks.

@Mia184
Micky is gorgeous she has a beautiful shiny coat like my boy
What food do you have her on now?
I'm going to try the plug in and zylkine (sp?)

@OkPedro Thank you so much.

I am in Germany and feed Micky a German brand called Leonardo.
www.leonardo-catfood.com/detail/55d64e3ed45245909649d1cd49a2be25 Their website is available in English. Maybe Zooplus offers it in the UK?
But I think any brand that offers food with a similar composition might help to find out whether your gorgeous boy suffers from an allergy.
BTWI was quite sure that Micky‘s overgrooming was anxiety related because of her past and given that she gets easily nervous. But according to my vet, most cases of overgrooming are caused by allergies and given that we made through New Years eve (lots of fireworks which freaked Micky out) without her restarting the overgroom, she may be right.

Thank you @Mia184
I'm going to implement a few things now and see how we go.

Thank you to everyone who replied with advice and your experiences, it's much appreciated.

I'll report back if anything works

Sorry for the late reply! Vet didn't think it was worth it. As long as she doesn't cause actual skin damage then we leave her to it. They just said to ignore her, as reacting would make her worse. He just looks like a kiwi sometimes!

@AnonKat Yes my boy looks like a kiwi at times 🤣