kitty is losing her fur

[davey72]

I have a kitten for a few months now and she has recently started losing her fur in clumps around her head and neck area. Does anyone know what the reason for this may be? Kosmos would like to know how i can help her.

 

[Gimpy]

Our kitty had skin problems until we changed her food to grain free, and started to give her coconut oil in a small dish to lick.

It took about a week, but her skin healed, and the bald spots filled in. She still has allergies and itchy ears, but that is seasonal instead of year round now.

If the diet change and oils don't work, she may have mites or mange and need to see a vet.

Hope he/she gets better soon.

 

[Keit]

I have a kitten for a few months now and she has recently started losing her fur in clumps around her head and neck area. Does anyone know what the reason for this may be? Kosmos would like to know how i can help her.

There can be several possibilities:

If the skin in the affected areas is redish/inflammed or itchy, and the areas of hairs loss are symmetrical (on both sides of the body), it's probably allergy.

If it's asymmetrical and the affected areas aren't particularly inflamed, but kitty just looses hair there, than it can be either microsporia/dermatophytosis/ringworm/trichophytia, or minerals deficiency. It can be also some other fungus, etc.

When the kitty started losing her fur? Since ringworm can be transmitted to humans, if she has it for a while now and you handle her but didn't get infected, than it's probably not it. In any case, just to make sure, you can take her to the vet for a check up. You can do a check up yourself if you have a lamp with a blue light (ultraviolet). If it's a ringworm, than it will light up with toxic green or toxic blue in the affected area. Similar to this:

But your vet will probably do a scrape just to make sure.

If it's not a fungus, but a mineral deficiency or an allergy, then first of all you need to see if her diet is ok. What is she eating?

Hope it helps.

 

[davey72]

I have had her for a little over three months now and started to notice the hair around her neck ws chippy. Now i realize it is because she is losing it. There are now a couple small bald spots. Not inflamed or symmetrical. i feed her a decent cat food that is gluten free and has chicken as the main ingredient but it is still a commeecial food. She also gets quite a bit of raw meat being pork beef chicken and fish. Basically whatever i am eating that day. She had mites and i cleaned them with vinegar but hadnt used olive oil infused with garlic as it seemed i had gotten rid of them but i noticed a couple black specs in her ears today. She seems to frequent some place that makes her neck wet and hard like hair gel all the time and this is the same area that is affected. Sadly she is a farm cat so will not be going to the vet anytime soon which is why i bring this up on the forum. Would it be so localized if it was mange and can mange be eliminated?

 

[Straycat]

She seems to frequent some place that makes her neck wet and hard like hair gel all the time and this is the same area that is affected. Sadly she is a farm cat so will not be going to the vet anytime soon which is why i bring this up on the forum.

I think this is probably your answer. Whatever she's getting on her fur is likely causing irritation. Is it possible for you to follow her and find out where it's coming from? Your best bet may be finding the external cause and removing it if possible.

 

[Keit]

I have had her for a little over three months now and started to notice the hair around her neck ws chippy. Now i realize it is because she is losing it. There are now a couple small bald spots. Not inflamed or symmetrical.

Would it be possible for you to take a picture of the affected area?

In any case, "chippy" hair, without inflammation, but with bald spots is a typical description of ringworm (doesn't necessarily has to be round).

If it was mange, then it wouldn't be localized, but would spread to other areas as well, and there would be an inflammation of the area due to it being itchy, and there would be a sort of crust on the skin.

Having a "wet-like" or "hair gel- like" hair can point toward eczema, but you say that the skin isn't red or damaged, just bald, right?

Bottom line is, it can be several things, and since you can't go to the vet and get a diagnosis, what you can do is buy medicinal sulfur ointment and apply it on the affected skin. Sulfur is very effective in case of all kind of skin problems and against all kind of mites, fungus, mange, etc. You can also make your own cream, if you can't buy it, but have sulfur on hand. Hope it helps!

 

[davey72]

She seems to frequent some place that makes her neck wet and hard like hair gel all the time and this is the same area that is affected. Sadly she is a farm cat so will not be going to the vet anytime soon which is why i bring this up on the forum.

I think this is probably your answer. Whatever she's getting on her fur is likely causing irritation. Is it possible for you to follow her and find out where it's coming from? Your best bet may be finding the external cause and removing it if possible.

This was my first tought as well but i want to make sure

I have had her for a little over three months now and started to notice the hair around her neck ws chippy. Now i realize it is because she is losing it. There are now a couple small bald spots. Not inflamed or symmetrical.

Would it be possible for you to take a picture of the affected area?

In any case, "chippy" hair, without inflammation, but with bald spots is a typical description of ringworm (doesn't necessarily has to be round).

If it was mange, then it wouldn't be localized, but would spread to other areas as well, and there would be an inflammation of the area due to it being itchy, and there would be a sort of crust on the skin.

Having a "wet-like" or "hair gel- like" hair can point toward eczema, but you say that the skin isn't red or damaged, just bald, right?

Bottom line is, it can be several things, and since you can't go to the vet and get a diagnosis, what you can do is buy medicinal sulfur ointment and apply it on the affected skin. Sulfur is very effective in case of all kind of skin problems and against all kind of mites, fungus, mange, etc. You can also make your own cream, if you can't buy it, but have sulfur on hand. Hope it helps!

Does it have to be a specific type of sulphur? This is probably a dumb question but can one do something with matchheads? i will try to get a pic of her up here soon.

 

[Keit]

Does it have to be a specific type of sulphur? This is probably a dumb question but can one do something with matchheads?

Well, beside sulfur there is some other stuff in matchheads, including powdered glass for friction. So I am not sure it would be a good idea to use it, because it may cause irritation or allergy. You can find sulfur in gardening shops as well, or maybe construction shops too. Not sure. If you live on the farm and have neighbors, ask around, because they probably have some sulfur on hand. It can be used either as fertilizer or on large animals too.

 

[davey72]

These are her bald spots short of the one on the top of her head. I have noticed that the hair appears to grow back as sme areas are half length.

 

[Keit]

These are her bald spots short of the one on the top of her head. I have noticed that the hair appears to grow back as sme areas are half length.

Hmm...if it's not ringworm, and kitty got over it, than it's probably mineral deficiency, since there appear to be no irritation or inflammation. But I'll ask the vet at the clinic tomorrow.

 

[Keit]

Also, was those bald parts always like this, or there was an irritation in the past and it passed? Because it can also look like bites that healed.

 

[davey72]

It is still ongoing though i think. Thanks for the replies. Im not sure about mineral definciency as the meat she gets is usually from a natural grass fed source. Even some deer once in awhile.

 

[Nancy2feathers]

Hi davey72. Have you checked kitty for fleas? Fleas can cause all sorts of skin and ear problems. Some animals are more sensitive to flea bites. A good spot to check is on the belly where the fur is thinner. One sign of fleas would be what looks like black pepper(which is the excrement from fleas, dried blood from biting the animal). Just a thought.

 

[davey72]

Good thought but its a little too cold for fleas in Alberta. The only time i have seen animals with fleas is living in B.C.

 

[Dirgni]

I do not know if this is similar. My first cat had sometimes bald stripelike patches on one of her hindlegs. It came from climbing down trees and getting too close to the branches when trying not to fall down. The bark sort of shaved the hair from her leg. The hair was growing back and rubbed away from time to time. So there was hair in different length sometimes; similar like you described above. The bald patches in pictures of your cat look similar. Something like that could or could not happened to your little one. You may have to watch her more the next time if the advice in the other posts above does not help. I hope she will be better soon.

Your cat is a really cute little tiger. I can understand that she is near to you. She is very likeable.