Any ideas on stopping my female cat constantly licking and scratching her fur?
Thursday, March 18th, 2010 at
7:58 am
You are currently browsing comments. If you would like to return to the full story, you can read the full entry here: “Any ideas on stopping my female cat constantly licking and scratching her fur?”.
Filed under: Cat Behavior
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
If she has fleas,there is a product called Frontline you get from the vet that you apply once a month.If she has developed a nervous grooming habit,ask your vet.He may put her on other medication.
She has a allergy, get her to the Vet quick.
It’s best to find out what is causing her problem so you can treat it properly. Flea collars are not very effective, there are medicationns that are much safer to use and more effective. However, if her problem is not fleas, clearly flea medicatio won’t help her. Some cats have a disorder called psychogenic alopecia – where they pull out there own hair, or lick obsessively. Allergies are also another rule out, often animals that have allergies will have issues with the skin.
So again, find out what’s wrong with her first, than you can deal with it properly and make her comfortable. Nobody can tell you for sure what it is without seeing her.
try frontline or advantage, and you will need to treat your house with a good flea control product, if you only kill the fleas on the cat they are still in the house and will reinfect your cat.
I agree-take her to a vet. If the vet can’t find anything truly wrong with her, or if medication doesn’t work, she might be allergic to her food. Something very similar happened to 3 of my families’ dogs-they had the exact same symptoms as your cat -they could not stop scratching to the point where they were leaving open sores on their skin, their hair was falling out, and the areas most affected seemed to be the tail, ears and legs, but the more sensitive one came to a point where she was almost bald. We could not stand to see them suffering; they were treated for everything from fleas to mange, and were even given oral antibiotics, and nothing worked. I found some information on food allergies in dogs, and it turned out the food they were being given had ALL of the ingredients most likely to cause allergies in dogs! (It’s usually the fillers, like wheat gluten and corn, that cause them.) We switched them to Purina One’s Low Allergen food, and days they had stopped scratching. Within a week their skin looked so much better! Eventually we discovered other foods that didn’t contain the offensive ingredients that weren’t as pricey as the Low Allergen, and they’ve been fine ever since. This might be the case with your cat.
I found this information for you on http://www.flint-river-dog.com/articles/cat-food-allergies.htm. They list the basic symptoms, but like I said, our dogs showed the same symptoms of your cat, which are more concerning than what they mention here. Here goes:
"Cat food allergies may show up in your cat in the form of dry skin, dandruff, brittle or dull looking fur, itching, loss of appetite, loose stools, or even constipation. Unfortunately, your cat cannot tell you in words what is bothering him or her, so you must try to look for signs and symptoms yourself and be aware of any changes in behavior. Many pet owners are shocked to learn that what they are feeding their dog or cat can be what is causing the problem.
So how do you know what brands cause cat food allergies? Well, a good way to narrow down the list of acceptable cat foods is to know which food triggers cause the above-mentioned symptoms. It is thought that approximately 90 percent of cat food allergies are related to beef, dairy, or fish. Of course there may be other triggers that set off reactions in your cat, so you may have to spend a bit of time trying different formulas of food to see what works best for your cat."
You can do additional searches on the web; there’s lots of information out there. But yes, have a vet check her first to rule out any other more serious possibilities. Good luck!
It sounds like she has flea allergy dermatitis, but it could be ringworm, mites or a food allergy, it could also be a symptom of something more serious, like hypothyroidism or FIV. The best thing to do is take her to the vet for diagnosis.
Trying to treat it yourself could cause further problems while the underlying cause is not known.