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christinewest-stephen
Dec 26, 2005, 06:39 PM
My 6 year old cat expo is bitting off the hair his back and now it is scabed and I can not get him to stop he does not have fleas so we can not figure out what could be making him do this or how we could help him stop:confused: :confused:

nymphetamine
Dec 26, 2005, 08:16 PM
Perhaps your cat has pruritus? Look for these symtoms:

. Scratching or biting which can result in loss of hair, redding of the skin and obvious pain and discomfort if the scratching or biting goes on for more than a day.
. Chronic feet licking.

. With cats pruritus may be subtler and may seem to you to be excessive grooming. You could see thinning of the hair where the cat is licking or raised and crusty lesions.


Let me know how any of that sounds and if its not then Ill see what else I can find for you.

christinewest-stephen
Dec 26, 2005, 08:44 PM
But what can I do about it if this is what the problem is

nymphetamine
Dec 26, 2005, 09:04 PM
Have your cat evalutated by your vet. The vet may do some diagnosis tests on your cat which would include a complete medical history, physical examination, skin scraping to rule out other things, and a fungal culture.
I wonder if it could also be a possibility that your cat has trichotillomania which is excessive hair pulling which in humans is one sign of OCD. In either case have your vet take a look see.

christinewest-stephen
Dec 26, 2005, 09:10 PM
This hap[pend before but they said it was fleas but he does not have fleas

nymphetamine
Dec 26, 2005, 09:31 PM
Take him to the vet and tell them what you have just told me and all the other stuff. Tell them to look at your cat again and you want a second opinion. If they say its not pruritus then ask them about the possibility of it being trichotillomania(excessive hair pulling) and ask them about what they can do about that. I think they have pet sychologists for that too.

christinewest-stephen
Dec 26, 2005, 09:45 PM
Thank you I will do that :)