Cat licking fur off exposing skin

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It's getting worse. Large areas on both sides now have skin exposed.
Vet phone advice try Sudofed but googling has mixed views.
Can't get a vet appointment until Tuesday. Any advice please?

My cat did this, vet initially thought it was stress but turned out it was a flea allergy. Spot on wasn't working well enough although he didn't seem to have fleas. We changed to a tablet and it stopped.

Thank you for your reply. Don't think it's a flea allergy but my main concern is if he gets an infection before we can see the vet on Tuesday.
Any advice on how to minimise this. Is there a cream which isn't harmful to cats?
Don't know what to do for the best.

Discourage the licking in that area. Put coconut oil on his paws, they enjoy that and it's good for them.

Have a look at the quality of your food, could there be any allergic ingredients. Some cats are funny about chicken!

It's either something he's picked up, he's stressed ? Mine did it after I had to give prolonged ear drops, he was furious! Or a good thing

My cat does this every spring, I put a few drops of olive oil on her brush, it coats the hair and skin and is safe.

One of ours has always done this - he has a bald belly and legs pretty much year-round.

It started when he had crystals and problems with his bladder and was licking through discomfort, but he seems to be stuck in a cycle of it now and I'm not sure how to break it.

It grows back to a certain length, then he licks it off - I'm guessing because it's itchy or something. Sorry, no real advice but you're not alone!

My old boy was a committed over groomer and ended up having steroid injections. Needed them every 12 weeks or so but it stopped it

Can I ask, did he have the injections for life or just until his fur grew back?

I'm considering the options for our boy but he hates the vet and will pee on himself in his carrier so I don't want to have to take him anymore than necessary.

I presume you mean sudocrem not sudofed?
We used a cream that the vet had originally prescribed for our rabbits which soothed it (flamazine).
With ours it's not fleas, or stress, we never got to the bottom of it. It grows back & we think he's stopped & then we realise he's bald again.

Yes Sudocrem - sorry. Bit stressed myself!

We have had a lot of visitors and tradesmen to the house and he hates that so that could be at the bottom of it. In the meantime will look into flamazine.
Thank everybody for chipping in.
Hoping he will be all right until Tuesday.

Do you have or can borrow a cone? Breaking the cycle can help, especially if it's a stress thing.

I think we also tried some kind of silver wound cream/ointment from Amazon as well. He still pulls his fur out now but not to the point of becoming sore do we haven't used anything for a few years.

@fieldsofbutterflies they said it might just stop the cycle and he would be fine but with him he was on them for life
He was an over dramatic little weirdo though!

One of my cats had this twice. As a youngster (8) it was a flea allergy and as a senior (14) it was the start of hyperthyroidism.

My cat is diagnosed as “allergic to life” by the vet, and used to over groom something terrible due to allergies. Half a piriton each morning in a bit of ham pretty much solves the issue. Just regular piriton you can get in the shop

My cat did this with stress when there was a bereavement in the family. Cat went madder than the rest of us!

Yep, that sums mine up to a T 😂

Thank you! It's useful to know - he's always done it and is well otherwise, but he's so nervous and hates the vet so much that I don't really want him to be subjected to a lifetime of visits, lol.

Can you get hold of any Feliway spray this evening? If you've had all those tradespeople in, it sounds like a stress response to me.

You could also try putting several random cardboard boxes round the place, to give him something else to think about and to do.