Kitty people! I have a question

[hyphenate]

In all my time as a kitty momma (35+ years) I have never seen a cat balding around her legs. It's baffling! Anyone else have a kitcat losing hair just on their legs?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Is she licking her legs a lot?

She might be wearing the fur off by excessive licking, maybe on account of an allergy or other irritation. I had a cat who licked all the fur off his belly; a shot of cortisone took care of the problem.

[Corgigal]

2. never had a cat do that but

I had a dog that was allergic to flea bites and that is what happened to his fur on his legs.
I bought him some Frontline and the problem was solved. yeah I know it's winter but fleas can hide out for months in warmer areas..per my vet anyway.

[fizzgig]

3. what part of the legs?

is the cat indoor or outdoor? long hair or short? i've got an outdoor short hair that doesn't have a lot of fur on the back of his lower legs, i assume because that's what is rubbing against concrete, etc. i also have a short hair kitty that gnaws at the backs of her legs in the similar spot but i have no idea why.

it could also be mites or something, we had a cat with that and she lost all the fur in the effected area.

i don't know if this is any help, but good luck.

[Jamastiene]

4. Domino has no hair on her heels, elbows, parts of her front

legs and part of her back legs. It's a chewing thing. Usually due to allergies. She's already on what they'd put her on for allergies for her asthma. As is stands now, we have to try to stop her when we see her overdoing it and deal with it as best we can. Any more prednisone and she'll become diabetic and have to take insulin shots and the problem still might not be solved.

Solution: Work with the vet to try to find out what's causing it. It could be itching flaky skin and omega3 vitamins help in some cases. For the rest of us who haven't found how to stop it, love her and try to soothe her skin with mineral oil supplements even though it doesn't seem to be helping the skin. The fur she DOES have is shiny and beautiful though. :eyes:

[Skittles]

5. my black cat Clancy always has a bald spot on his leg

you can see it in this pic, with Riff Raff:

[Dangerously Amused]

6. When I got Henri from the HS about three years ago,

...he had diabetes so badly that he nearly died from it. No one told me about it before I got him either, my firt clue was him going into a blood sugar crash a few days after I brought him home. :mad: Anyway, we pulled him through that with insulin injections over the course of a year or so, but then Henri started licking his entire belly and legs so badly that he licked himself raw and bloody in some spots. It was horrible. I took him to several vets including a pricey "feline specialist" about 40 miles away, but no one seemed able to figure out what the problem was, or how to help him. The "specialist" gave him steroids and topical stuff and a big Elizabethian collar which he wore 24/7 for months, none of which helped. I was worried sick and my poor little guy was just miserable. Finally I took him to my hometown vet 30 miles away - which I should have just done in the first place, that man is fabulous and an absolute angel besides. Anyway, he nailed the problem after a few tests, it was a severe allergy to God-knows-what. He put Henri on the allergy med Cyclosporine, and it worked like a charm. Cyclosporine is an alergy med currently approved for dogs but not cats, but my vet said he has had good luck using it "off the label" on cats, too.

Henri took Cyclosporine regularly at first to bring him out of that allergy hell, but now he takes it only occasionally. I give it to him whenever I see him start to lick his legs again, more than normal grooming. And it doesn't take that much to bring him relief anymore either, he gets it twice a week until the allergy seems to be well cleared up, and then he's good for another few months or so. Which is good, because the stuff is pretty expensive. But my baby is soooo worth it.

As an aside, the hometown angel vet said that Henri's previous vet (before I got him) probably gave him steroids to deal with his allergy, to the point of pushing him into diabetes (as another posted mentioned can happen) and then didn't know what to to with him after that. And then the feline "specialist" I took him to gave him more steroids even though he knew about Henri's history of diabetes, which the good new vet said was just about the wost thing he possibly could have done for Henri. :grr:

Anyway, I hope you figure out what is wrong with your poor kittie, and I hope this helps. Good luck, and please post an update.

[hyphenate]

7. I think I figured it out

I looked at some web results that indicated that stress could play a crucial part in some behavior like this, and that's what I think is going on. Delenn (kitcat) is the only female left with 3 boys, as a result of me having to put my babygirl Jessica down in August because of age and illness. Not that Delenn and Jess were great friends, but since Jess was the alpha female, Delenn muust now deal with the boys on that level. She probably also misses Jess since they often slept together.

All my cats are indoor cats, with no fleas or otherwise, and everyone eats the same food and drinks the same water, and the rest are all healthy as horses--the other day I posted a pic of Delenn's brother, Garibaldi, as the stupidest cat in the world, and he weighs in at about 22-25 lbs, so health is not a factor (he's part Maine Coon, so he's huge) with them.

I will watch her over the next couple of weeks to see if she appears to be gnawing during her cleaning, and then I might be able to bring her to the vet to get her on some meds.

[Roon]

8. and you can get her another little girl!

:o

[Lars39]

9. Yes!

I was gone from home for over a week and my cat chewed a patch of fur off one of her front legs.
I think it was stress from missing me. :(

[Critters2]

10. I have a parishioner whose cat lost all the hair on his tail

Really strange looking. I don't know what the actual diagnosis is, but they put him on prednisone and the hair grew back.