Anyone have experience with a cat chewing leg hair off??

Cicitina

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Since first lockdown in March 2020 I noticed one of my cats was starting to lose some hair on a hind leg. Over the last year I’ve seen her chewing her legs. There have been no changes aside from me being home more often with 3 separate layoffs due to Covid, losing our senior dogs (they never interacted) and gaining a new puppy a couple months ago that she never sees. She’s what we call a “basement cat” as she is the only one of my three cats that refuses to wander the rest of the house and lives in my basement apartment.
Her skin looks very healthy and she’s always been a nervous cat but I’m curious why this sudden new behaviour and if anyone knows of a way to stop it before vet intervention is necessary.

This is Aster
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wellington

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Could be Stress or allergies. You could try switching her food to one with very little ingredients and no color. Colored dog or cat food usually always causes allergies. Must switch slowly and stick with it for a couple months.
Also try to find a cat friendly skin soother to help it feel better or even an antibiotic type cream. It has to say its safe to be used on cats.
 

Cicitina

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Could be Stress or allergies. You could try switching her food to one with very little ingredients and no color. Colored dog or cat food usually always causes allergies. Must switch slowly and stick with it for a couple months.
Also try to find a cat friendly skin soother to help it feel better or even an antibiotic type cream. It has to say its safe to be used on cats.

She’s on a urinary care diet because one of my other cats has stones but I’ll have to take a closer look at the ingredients
 

ZenHerper

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Psychogenic Alopecia:


Other medical issues to rule out:
*bladder infection/inflammation
*arthritis
*allergy - fleas or food (unlikely if the skin is not red)

If environmental/social changes do not help, medications may be used.
 

ZEROPILOT

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Not at all! The skin in that area looks perfect and healthy, not even dry. She lets me scratch and rub it and just rolls on her back for more rubs so it’s obviously not bothering her
Ok
I'm actually just guessing here.
But I hope the article is helpful
 

Cicitina

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Ok
I'm actually just guessing here.
But I hope the article is helpful

I believe I’ve read that article before! I did some research when I first noticed her doing it, was just wondering if anyone had any first hand experience.
She is a very nervous cat in general and very territorial with one of the other cats. She is the alpha but I’m wondering if it’s still causing psychological harm despite them being separated from each other. Just odd that it would happen only recently when there had been no changes to her environment or food
 

Cicitina

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It does seem odd.
But cat behavior in general is odd to me.

I have three and they’re all oddballs. One of them in the last month has decided he does not like having a CLEAN litter box! The second I clean it he’ll go poop on the floor, yet if it’s dirty he’ll happily poop on top of poop.
It is the most aggravating behaviour of them all.
 

Jan A

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I have three and they’re all oddballs. One of them in the last month has decided he does not like having a CLEAN litter box! The second I clean it he’ll go poop on the floor, yet if it’s dirty he’ll happily poop on top of poop.
It is the most aggravating behaviour of them all.
Having just cleaned out my cat's litter box, still working on the dust, & had my cats do a chase the kitty episode & soccer game at 4:30 am, followed by team howling when I just fell asleep at 4 am "last" night, I feel your pain.
 

KarenSoCal

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We adopted one of my cats from a private individual who had too many cats (17 I think). Kisses (named by the previous owner) is a small cat, and the others picked on her, so the owner kept her separate in a bedroom. The owner's significant other would lay in that bedroom all the time smoking continuously. When we went to look at Kisses to decide whether we wanted her, when the bedroom door opened we were nearly knocked over by the smoke in the room. The owner picked up Kisses and put her in my husband's arms, then walked away. Pete said "I can't put her back in that room" and we took her home.

At home, when we got a look at her, she had multiple naked areas on her legs where she had chewed off her fur. I'm sure it was the smoke in that bedroom that irritated her skin.

The hair grew back quickly and she's been fine since.

That was 11 years ago...she's laying beside me as I type this.
Kisses...
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Yvonne G

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One little flea can wreak havoc on an animal with a flea allergy.
 

Cicitina

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One little flea can wreak havoc on an animal with a flea allergy.

That’s the first thing I checked for but haven’t seen a single flea or sign of any and none of the other animals are having issues.
I’m thinking it’s just psychological as it would probably fit with her personality
 

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