5 month kitten losing hair on hind leg. Red skin.

[aman.sohi]

Hi guys,

I'm a new pet owner, and I adopted a kitten in November. He was born on August 29th, 2012 so hes about 5 months old. I have a few questions regarding some things I've noticed. Number one, he meows alot before using the littler. They don't sound like particularly painful meows but he meows every time nonetheless. He does not meow while using the litter though, just before and sometimes a little after. We use Purina Yesterday's News Scented litter (the grey long pellets). Also, we feed him Blue Bufalo Healthy Growth Chicken & Brown Rice Recipe (dry kibble). Second and more importantly, I've noticed that he has a bit of a bald patch on the back of his left hind leg. The skin is red and I'm quite worried. I can't say if it's new or not since I haven't really noticed until today but I don't believe it was there when I adopted him. He is an indoor cat and hes doesn't go outside at all. No other pets in the house either. I have attached some photos to this post. I am planning to take him to the vet but don't have a car at the moment so thought I;d post here and see if I get some insight as to what I'm dealing with. Thanks in advance!

P.S. Sorry about the direct view of my cats dirty bits but hey, it was the only way to show where the bald patch was!!

[Winston]

Welcome to pets. Its hard to tell what is happening on the leg but it does look a little irritated. Have you checked for flea bites?

I am glad your taking the kitty to the vet but I would go sooner than later. It could be painful when your kitty uses the litter box. I would want to have him checked for a urinary infection or possibly even crystals.

I would ditch the dry food and change your kitty over to wet food as soon as possible. It could be the dry kibble causes the issues you may have. Years ago vets used to tell cat owners to feed dry because of dental issues but it is no longer the norm. Wet food will be a healthier choice.

There are many more folks on here with a ton of knowledge that I am sure will chime in to help.

Good Luck!

[Koteburo]

Could be dry skin, dermatitis, even a fungus. What a beautiful shade of gray btw such a cute kitty.
It doesn't look like the typical ringworm (I'm dealing with one at the moment) however there are no fixed rules. Not always appears in round shape but that's the most common. It doesn't look like ringworm from here but there are a variety of skin problems and different kinds of fungus.
We struggled with alopecia with one of our cats now my angel. He lost the hair in half on his body and nothing would work. Until my mom used some high quality essencial oils for him. (Caution: Essencial oils should be avoided on cats, back then she didn't know she thought she was doing the best for him we got very lucky it worked for him and it didn't damage him. But one should never try that it could end up intoxicating them)
My point with that is that you should treat properly for a kitteh it or it could keep going further and how the lack of information can put them in danger applying something that may be fatal for them.
Maybe the vet can do some scrape and see it under the microscope to see if it is an infection or not and what kind it is and go from there. There's also scabies (it doesn't look like scabies btw) or it could even be some sort of skin allergy.
Before I started my thread about the fungus I looked on the forums for previous info about skin problems and I found a few. Maybe you'll find something that fits better with the symptoms your kitty is presenting.

I found these websites too:
Types of alopecia: http://cats.about.com/od/diseasesand...lossincats.htm
By overgrooming too: http://drbarchas.com/psychogenic_alopecia
More alopecia info: http://www.petmd.com/cat/conditions/...a#.URWOFPJFu8E

P.S. Your cat's bum looks very presentable and clean. No worries we're all used to see cat's butts in here LOL