Help!! Cat losing fur...

Peace n Quiet · #1 02/15/04, 02:55 PM

Our seven year old female kitty is losing fur in a strange way. First, she had small patches missing on her legs - about the size of nickels - on all four legs. After a week or so, the bare spots increased in size... now her legs are almost bare. This started about 3 weeks ago, and I'm noticing that the rest of her coat is starting to show thinning and tiny bare spots as well.
The vet has no idea what's causing this. He gave her Proban two weeks ago, thinking maybe ringworm was a possibility. He also put her on an antibiotic for ten days. No improvement!
She's eating as usual, no change in diet. Any thoughts?

DAVID In Wisconsin · #2 02/15/04, 03:49 PM

We had the same trouble a few years back. We finally changed the cat food and things got back to normal fast. We still cannot figure out why after 3 years on one food, he needed a change.

Corgitails · #3 02/15/04, 04:44 PM

If it's not ringworm, I'd suspect she'd gotten into something- or is having a bad allergic reaction to whatever you are feeding her. If you haven't changed foods, perhaps they've changed the formula (or changed suppliers for their ingredients!)

Cait

mysticokra · #4 02/15/04, 06:32 PM

We had this kind of misery with our ferrets, dogs, etc. It really is a problem in the food. Upgrade to Eukanuba or one of the better foods that are not made with diseased animals from the rendering plants. Avoid Walmart's food, Purina, etc. For details on this see Martin Goldstein's "The Nature of Animal Healing".

Also, the single best miracle supplement we have used is "Dream Coat" by Halo. The hair grew back within a couple of weeks. You can find it at most health food stores. I got it on-line at http://www.samsstore.com/dreamcoat.html

Peace n Quiet · #5 02/15/04, 06:45 PM

Really?! I hadn't thought the food could be a problem... same kind we've fed all along. I'll give it a try though and buy another kind tomorrow. We'll see how it goes. Certainly can't hurt! THanks!

#6 02/15/04, 08:24 PM

I had a cat thathad the same problem. The vet said it was allergic to its food a i started feeding it science diet prescription diet. It is expensive and didnt work. My cat had toxoplasmosis and almost died when it was younger before the vets diagnosed it correctely. The vet stated giving it shots but ddnt help . The problem with my cat is that he was drooling slightly most of the time and was licking himself to where he was getting bald spots. We started to give him oral steroids and he got better and he healed up but lost him this fall. If you take your cat to a vet they can test for toxoplasmosis. It could just be an allergy too

Don Armstrong · #7 02/16/04, 12:39 AM

One of the other possible allergies is to fleas. Check out the places where the dog settles down and sleeps - there may be slow-growing infestations of fleas you just haven't noticed yet. In fact, if they develop that allergy, it doesn't haven't to be many fleas at all to keep the allergy going.

Oh, yes - could be plain old-fashioned skin irritation. Make sure the animal isn't resting on a fibreglass curtain or a bit of rockwool insulation or anything like that.

Peace n Quiet · #8 02/16/04, 06:51 AM

The first thing we did was check for fleas, but didn't find any signs that she had any. Also, it's strange... the skin itself is not red, irritated, or broken in any way. I think that's why the Vet is stumped.
Thanks for the bit about Toxoplasmosis. I'll ask my Vet what he thinks.