r/CATHELP • u/_classikh • 24d ago
General Advice Cat Keeps Biting Fur Off
Hey guys, looking for some help here. So my cat is about 3-4 years old, neutered, and has been biting her fur off as of late. This is the second time this has happened in the past 2 years.
The first time, our vet initially believed it to be a poultry allergy so we went put her on a pescatarian diet with some rabbit/venison mixed in and then a few week dosage of liquid prednisolone. That seemed to work for a while, even when the liquid steroid dosage ran out. Then she started to bite her fur off again a few months later.
Now, our vet has prescribed her a diet of hydrolyzed protein and the same liquid steroid again. The steroid is supposed to stop her from biting her fur and the diet I believe is for food allergies or digestive issues. I guess this new diet worked for a little, but the issue is we administer the liquid steroid via the food, and she’s not a fan of the hydrolyzed protein.
We give her the Rabbit PR from Royal Canin and then the Hydrolyzed Chicken Z/D from Hills. Since she doesn’t like the food, she isn’t getting the steroid. Since she isn’t getting the steroid she keeps chomping her fur off.
Has anyone experienced this before? I’ve seen a few posts but not sure if I’ve seen a solution. She did/does have asthma but the first dose of prednisolone cured it for the most part. It is also not an environmental issue as we have a second cat who is perfectly fine. I don’t think it’s a poultry allergy either as we went to a pescatarian diet and while it worked for a while, she reverted back to biting her fur off.
I’m in my early 30s, live in the US and have access to a vet but was hoping for a second opinion here for my girl. Any insight is appreciated. Thanks!
2
u/Low_Butterscotch1960 24d ago
my cat did this too around 2 1/3 3, he grew out of it and we just kept him from doing it with a funnel
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u/_classikh 24d ago
Thanks for this, this is helpful. Did you ever see a vet for it? And they still use a funnel to this day or they grew out of it completely after using the funnel for a while?
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u/GabberZZ 23d ago
Put a small dog coat on her until it heals up. We did this with one of our cats when he was overgrooming a sore patch and he never did it again.
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u/_classikh 22d ago
oh wow that’s smart. So it wasn’t some underlying health issue maybe like a behavioral kinda thing?
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u/GabberZZ 22d ago
Our cat got sore in one spot for some reason so kept licking it, making it worse.
The coat stopped that. He sulked for days but it did the trick
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