Hair loss in cat - Answered by Dr. Lee
 

My cat had a tumor on his inner hind leg that was removed a year ago. Within the past year he has lost 2 pounds, vomits, and his hair is missing in patches, but then grows back. Just now I took his collar off to find a ring of missing hair around his neck! The collar was not tight at all, in fact the cat could have slipped it off he wanted to. An ex-ray showed an enlarged liver and we (the vet and I) think the tumor has spread into cancer in his abdomen, but the vet said an ultrasound would be needed to confirm it. The vet also said the cancer would not be causing the hair loss. The vet did numerous tests, but he said each came back negative. Any tips on what I should do now?

What exactly has the vet checked for? Allergies? Thyroid? Fleas?

My uncle's cat lost all the hair where his collar was...and it turned out he was diabetic.

If he is losing weight an vomiting, and is obviously not healthy (the cancer is certainly not contributing to his health!), he may be unable to process his food well enough to derive nutrients from it...in that case digestive enzymes/probiotics might help, as well as a diet change...

I'm sorry I could not be of more help and I hope you figure out what's wrong! :fingerscr

malulani209,

I am concerned about the weight loss and vomiting. The hair loss - it is difficult to say without seeing the patient. The hair coat on pets is highly sensitive to internal stresses. It may also be unrelated.

My recommendation is to pursue further workup on this guy. Whether the hair loss is related to the tumor/liver/wt loss or not; further workup is definitely in this cat's best interest and if it IS related - then you will find out as he is worked up.

The good and bad new with livers is that they can compensate for a lot of damage which means that the pets can be looking better on the outside than what is really going on, on the inside! If the tumor has spread within the abdomen, there may be more options to maximize quality and quantity of life before more clinical signs appear. It is also possible that during you find out that there is something non-cancer related. I am concerned however and recommend that you continue on with your veterinarian's advice as soon as you can.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Pepper losing/pulling his hair off
 

:shrug:Just recently I had my cat groomed. She used diluted vinegar to rinse the shampoo and said that she had used the vinegar on show cats. I'm not sure, but my cat started to pull out his hair. I took Pepper to the vet and twice I've received the same .... antibiotics with steroid. One other problem here is that Pepper may have a heart murmur. I can't afford the echocardiogram at the moment to determine the severity of the murmur, but I will come February. In any case, the antibiotic +steroid hasn't really helped. I feed Pepper a bit of Science Diet cat food (turkey, chicken, etc.) and hard food is Royal Canin Indoor 27. He loves them both and eats a lot of it. But he's still pulling out his hair ! Now, I believe he's pulling off his rear end hair, his leg hair, and getting closer to his neck. He's velvet black with bits of gray, he's simply adorable and I really love him .. he's the best thing that could happen to me at this point in time. I suspect that it could be an allergy; I'm going to start giving him Omega-3 in his food daily. Can I massage his almost bald areas with hydrocortisone 1% (the anti-itch med used by humans)? or is it toxic? I am using Advantage flea repellant since the vet thought Pepper might be allergic to fleas. What else can I do? Thanks for helping me out.

[QUOTE=malulani209;441706]My cat had a tumor on his inner hind leg that was removed a year ago. Within the past year he has lost 2 pounds, vomits, and his hair is missing in patches, but then grows back. Just now I took his collar off to find a ring of missing hair around his neck! The collar was not tight at all, in fact the cat could have slipped it off he wanted to. An ex-ray showed an enlarged liver and we (the vet and I) think the tumor has spread into cancer in his abdomen, but the vet said an ultrasound would be needed to confirm it. The vet also said the cancer would not be causing the hair loss. The vet did numerous tests, but he said each came back negative. Any tips on what I should do now?[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=christmas46;501928]What else can I do? Thanks for helping me out.[/QUOTE]

You can try changing Pepper's diet to something better (SD and dry Royal Canin suck, actually). Something grain-free would be a good place to start, and canned is better than kibble. Wellness, By Nature Organics, Nature's Variety all have grain-free flavours.

Good luck!

the cat could have pickedup something from the groomers. allmost sounds like mange. my dog is allergic to fleas even thow i dont see them now, she nonstop chews and has some hair loss.