It may be driving me more crazy than her.




It seems like she is always chewing on herself, mostly on her lower stomach. She keeps licking and chewing her front as well, and I can tell it's because her back itches and she can't reach it. I've got four cats, and she is the only one who is doing this. She's my favorite

I thought that maybe she had fleas, and I treated her with Advantage ($60 later) yesterday morning, but I'm watching her do it this evening, and it's driving me batty!!!

I've always found this site to be really helpful. Does anyone know what this could possibly be? Does Advantage take a few days to start working? HELLLLP!!!!

Could be as simple as an allergy. My best friend's dog (she happens to be a vet) has a problem like that. He's now on a very strict diet and medication.

Best to have your kitty seen by a vet.

He/She may have eczema. Cats can get it too.

Have her checked for allergies.

I don't know what that is...I have a cat who does that and I think she just has Cat OCD. No fleas, nothing wrong with her skin; she's fine. Only thing wrong with her is she's pretty high strung and that's it. If your cat's usually hyper then that could have something to do with it, but I don't know... Or if you changed foods, litter, etc.

One of my boy cats that I had since he was like 3 weeks old used to be on his back and fold himself forward and suck his own nipple and nead his paws back and forth on his stomach!

JustErin said:

It could be an allergy, most definitely. Or, it could be ringworm, which cats can sometimes get. Since I'm not an authority on this, I would take your kitty to the vet. Let us know what happens.

Forget your cat's health for a minute, how is yours? Are you doing better with your back?

when i moved into a different place my fat cat licked his belly clean. i took him to the vet and they ruled out skin conditions but i really think this normally contientious groomer was just bored and started grooming obsessively.

when i moved out of that place the grooming went back to normal. however i think he still licks there once and a while when stressed or bored.

Imago said:

Does everything have to be about you?

applekisses said:

applekisses said:

JustErin said:

Bummer. I was trying to avoid the cost, but I knew you were going to say that.

gemini13 said:

I'll talk to my friend tomorrow for you. She's in Thailand right now, but she checks in via MSN every day. I'll ask her about it the next time we talk and maybe she has some advice you can try before you take her to your vet.

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

Going to get an MRI Monday morning, check in at 6 frickin' 15 in the a.m.

gemini13 said:

Aww baby. Glad you're getting it taken care of

SupaFunkyOrgangrinderSexy said:

Yeah, it's cool. Remember that property I was going to manage in Pacifica? The seller took it off the market.

So they just gave me a sweet little property in Menlo Park, about a mile from Stanford University's hospital, which is where I have to go. I got a $15,000 a year raise, so I'm happy right now.

Definitely could be an allergy.

This up-to-date alphabetical Feline Health library has 23 articles about cat allergies and allergy testing on the first page:
http://www.geocities.com/...links.html

Also the VetInfo vet covers the various allergies and skin problems here:
http://www.vetinfo4cats.c...lergy.html

It's probably not the case in your situation, however there is also a syndrome usually called psychogenic lick alopecia. It's stress related and OCD-like (as another poster mentioned), where cats will chew/lick spots on themselves until the hair is gone and even cause scabs, wounds, infections in their own skin if the behavior is allowed to advance unabated. And of course that damage can also occur with untreated allergies etc.

Best wishes.

My cat also had a problem with this last year. The doctor told us the same thing, either allergies or stress was the culprit. She has always been very high strung, and very nervous. She had just moved back into our house with me and my fiance after staying at our old house with his pond scum brother and family (who we found out later barely fed her and was always yelling at her...assholes! Wish I could kick their scummy asses!!!)
I guess the transition was hard and stressful for her, because she licked herself raw with wounds all over her lower belly. So they made us put a Elizabethan collar on her with she wore for about 8 months, and gave us some antibiotics. Still did not work. Then we spayed her and they gave us some prozak for her ( I am not joking! lol the same prozak, but just 1/4 of a pill). She was still trying to lick herself with the collar on and the collar started making another gash into her belly! Poor baby. She went through so much. Finally she took the collar of her an it got worse for a while, but eventually got better, and finally healed up and is gone now.
Its a hard road, but you have to do it because you love em. I have no kids, but I have 2 little furry daughters, and I am definitly a mama bear when it comes to them. Love them to peices.
[Edited 2/9/07 0:34am]

1. Have you changed cat food lately, or gotten a new bag of the usual stuff?

2. Do all the cats eat the same food?

Allergies don't HAVE TO be expensive to deal with, they're non-fatal 99,9% percent of the time. Therefore, before you run to the vet, look at the food you're using and if you switched recently, or buy different brands every time, then that's probably the reason. If you use the same stuff all the time but you opened a new bag, then take it back to where you bought it and get another one instead. The store should take it back and send it to the manufacturer.
There are a number of ingredients that most often are the culprits in food allergy, it's too much to write here but if you want you can Orgnote me and I can advise you there. Also, she could have mites and flea stuff don't work on those bastards. Orgnote me and we'll talk about it.

Teacher said:

This is unlikely to be the case. Feline food allergies are most commonly caused by a regular food, a food the cat has been eating for years.


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http://www.peteducation.c...icleid=142

Cats develop allergies to those foods that are most frequently fed.

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http://www.veterinarypart...&A=468&S=2

MYTH:
Food allergy is a less likely cause of my pet’s skin disease as we have been feeding the same food for years and the skin problem is a recent development.

FACT:
It takes time to develop a food allergy, typically months to years. The immune system must be exposed and must develop enough antibodies to trigger an allergic reaction and this requires multiple exposures to the food in question. A reaction to a food that occurs on the first exposure to that food is not an allergic reaction. Such reactions are called "food intolerances" and involve toxins within the food but not an allergic reaction.

MYTH:
If it looks like my pet might have a food allergy, I should be able to manage the problem by switching to another diet.

FACT:
Unfortunately for food allergic pets, most pet food diets contain some sort of mixture of beef, dairy, wheat, lamb, fish, and chicken. This means that simply changing foods is bound to lead to exposure to the same allergens.

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http://www.fanciers.com/c...info.shtml

A food allergy doesn't show up overnight. It can take from a week to 10 years of exposure to show itself; more than 80 percent of cats with food allergies have been eating the allergen-containing food for more than two years.

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http://www.sniksnak.com/c...rgies.html

Cats are not likely to be born with food allergies. More commonly, they develop allergies to food products they have eaten for a long time.

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http://www.vetinfo4cats.c...lergy.html

Food allergies develop to foods that the cat has been eating, so it isn't unusual for them to appear despite a consistent diet.

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