Excessive grooming.. vet trip?

[hazeydays14]

My 8yr old cat is excessively grooming herself at the moment. She has licked a bald patch on her leg which she did through stress when we first rehomed her (6 years ago). Her back is also quite scabby and we aren’t sure why so she has been licking that a lot too. Nothing obvious has changed, anything related to her (food, litter etc) hasn’t changed for years. As far as household things we have changed washing detergent but it’s a sensitive skin one and she has never had reactions even though we usually just get what’s on offer.

As far as what could be causing her stress again nothing has changed. Our routine is the same, she hasn’t been left alone for extended periods of time. The only thing that is different is there are some very noisy birds nesting above the room she spend all her time in. They are driving me and DH round the bend scratching and chirping day and night so potentially could be that?

She’s a house cat so not been in contact with any other animals or potential hazards outside the house.

Don’t know whether I am being over dramatic by taking her to the vet but also don’t want to let herself groom until she’s bald! Any advice would be appreciated.

Can you buy her a lamp shade collar thing to prevent licking?

Maybe some of Feliway?

My cat goes through patches of stress even though nothing changes. My last bill was eye-watering and thank goodness for pet insurance but basically they will tell you it's stress after some expensive tests. Obviously, if it carries on, I would but do try some Feliway or CBD oil.

I'd suggest buying something like anicura first and plugging in feliway before a vet trip. The trip to the vets might stress her out more and exasperate the problem.

Thank you both. I have ordered a feliway and some skin ointment for her. Glad it’s not an immediate vet trip, both of us are nervous Nellys so we can be somewhat dramatic 😂

I have a soft cone which I can try with her. I just worry she will get herself in a tizz using her litter trays as they have a lid (no door though so should be fine hopefully)

Take the lid off the litter trays and see how she reacts?

If she will go in the tray with no lid with the cone on, problem solved.

I'd be scared she'd get stuck in the tray with it on and be scared to try again. That wouldn't end well!!

Fir future reference I got the beaphar cheapo feliway copy and it's fab as well as half the price in petsmart (or whatever it's called these days).

My friends cat was licking plastic bags. Turned out she was getting older she needed older cat food instead of regular food. Something to do with vitamins. Just mentioning in case it could be relevant.

You could spend a bit more time petting and grooming her if she's needing some relaxation whike those pesky birds are kicking about.

As soon as they leave the nest get it binned and something up there to prevent them building another one!

Our cat has had this several times but she’s an outdoor cat. We were initially told it must be fleas or an allergy to flea bites but we spent months religiously de-flea-ing her and we’ve never had any sign of fleas so I was sceptical. I thought either stress or an allergy but it’s worse than ever and this is her happy time of year with lighter nights and so on.

They’ve now decided I was right all along and it’s likely to be an allergy - it could be to something in her food (but we’d have to run a strict exclusion diet for that) but I think it’s brick dust as it has often coincided with neighbours having building work. She is now on prednisolone, which is helping.

Hope you find something that works for your cat!

Definitely preventing the birds coming back next year! Have already had a chat with our window cleaner as the house is tall so we can’t reach with regular ladders.. the bastard things do laps of the gutters with their slappy little feet it drives me batty 😂

I will definitely look into her food. She is over 7 now and I think most ‘senior’ food is 7+ so something to consider for sure. She’s so fussy we’ve been reluctant to change anything but if it’s potentially causing skin irritation it will be worth it.

We do flea treatments even though she doesn’t go out/see other animals but we are lax with them so I actually can’t remember the last time but no signs of fleas on her or bites on me/DH. Will think about doing a treatment soon I just don’t want to exacerbate any skin issues.

Thank you!

From experience, baldness accompanied by scabs on her back make me think that it's flea allergy. Over-grooming from stress looks very different (I've had cats with both).

It doesn't matter that she doesn't go outside, you can bring fleas in from being around other animals or even from being around other people whose animals have fleas.

We had exactly this problem, and had the vet look at it. Vet couldn't see any evidence of allergy-related issues or mites etc and said it must be stress related. We got Feliway, which didn't seem to do much, but she did stop overgrooming in the end. I can't remember if we put her in a collar or not - I remember thinking it was counter-intuitive as it's pretty stress-inducing!
I assumed it might be something that would come and go (she's quite a nervous cat, so is easily stressed) but it's been about a year now that she's been lovely and hairy all over. It was her stomach and back legs that she really used to go at, but all grew back nicely.

Vet here- if her back is scabby there is a 99% chance this is a flea bite allergy. Take her to the vets and trial some anti allergy meds and flea control.