Cat nibbling her fur off - help!

[WishIWasHibernating]

We have a 4 year old previously feral rescue cat. She is now very domesticated and spends most of her days (by choice) by the radiator in the kitchen purring. Just before Christmas I started to notice thin/slightly bald patches appearing on the inside of her back legs and on her sides.

Took her to the vet in Jan. He checked her over and said she was perfectly healthy if a bit fat. He didn't know what it was but gave her a steroid injection to try to stop any itchiness. It doesn't seem to have made any difference.

What could it be? Nothing in her world has changed so I can't see that it is stress, but I'd like her to stop nibbling!

My cat does this, she is on daily steriods that dont make any difference.
Vet suggested a food allergy, have tried all different foods, still no change.
The spots she nibbles change, sometimes back legs, belly, under her paw pits, ive given up worrying as she is an old lady now, but like you interested to see if anyone has a solution.

Usually is caused by stress. Started around Christmas? Tree in the house, change in routine, visitors? even little changes can cause stress in cats. Can even be a new cat in the street.
Try pet remedy plug ins.

I have heard stress mentioned as a cause but honestly cannot see it here. We live on a farm so pretty rural. Christmas had no impact on the bit of the house she uses (guests/tree etc in rooms she doesn't have access to). Her routine hasn't changed and neither has her food etc. And I know it may not be visible - but she is so laid back she's basically a furry loaf of a cat.

No stress here either, she is 18, only cat adored and treat like a queen, have tried plug ins they didnt help, i think its become a habit now, tried antihistamines also with no effect.

Could be a new cat has moved into the area, or foxes possibly. Or a very slight change in routine?

Try a Pet Remedy or Feliway plug in, and maybe Zylkene capsules scattered on her food. Can't hurt, and may give you an idea whether stress is the cause. As a pp said, takes very little indeed to give a cat stress and it could be something a human may not notice.

Ours does this in winter at night when it's particularly cold, so this might be relevant given you say she is always sitting by the radiator. We now leave an electric blanket on at night.

Her skin is probably dry with the central heating and sitting next to the radiator. If the vet can’t find anything wrong would your cat be ok waiting till the weather turns to see if it’s the dry hot air?

Try a few drops of olive oil on cat grooming brush, it helps their coat and skin and is safe, also tuna/ foods in oil.

Ours does this. Have had him to the vet several times but our conclusion is there’s nothing biological going on. His skin is fine, but he’s always been an anxious animal so we assume it’s behavioural. Plug ins don’t help. It gets better and worse over time. He currently has pretty bare lower back legs. Otherwise very healthy so we’ve stopped worrying.

One of our cats was nibbling inside front legs near her armpits pulling off fur. It looked quite inflamed bare skin about size of a 10p.
We put Egyptian Magic on it twice a day for a couple of weeks and it seems to have fixed it.
Not sure what it was but so far no recurrence since we treated it in October.

We had this and found it was feeding him anything made by Purina. This was after lots of vet checks which found nothing wrong. There are news articles and facebook groups linked to this issue. Changed brand ( we moved him to untamed which he likes) and problem stopped.

he now only does it if he finds some on his outdoor exploring which isn’t often.

We had this with our cat. A vet tried her on Apoquel which is only usually used for dogs. It worked. I’d ask the vet for this.

Mine does this over winter too. She had a steroid jab once which made no difference. I've assumed it's mild SAD (cats aren't really evolved for cold wet British winters) with a touch of anxiety as it got much worse this year when I was away (though she had a lovely catsitter staying).

Interesting about the Purina link though as she does love Purina...

Could she have dry, itchy skin from camping out close to the radiator? Have you tried a humidifier?

My previous cat did this and it turned out she had a staph infection, so that might be a possibility too.
Old cay was also allergic to her food and when we switched to hypoallergenic food after her antibiotic treatment she never did it again.

IME, it’s often behavioural and sometimes doesn't go away. If you’ve tried the obvious ones, fleas, steroid treatments, food allergies, stress then I think you have to live with it as long as the skin isn’t broken or infected.

maybe for some cats it’s like a human biting their nails or pulling their hair out. It is habitual.

It can be fleas, or allergies? I put our cat on a different digestive mix cat food and it’s much improved.

@SingtotheCat one of mine had the same symptoms. After trying diet etc. vet put her on Apoquel, which did nothing. She's now on Atopica, has been since May and no more itching etc. We have been able to bring down the dose so she's comfortable but we're minimise effects on her immune system.