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MothersDaughter · Feb 23, 2008, 02:56 PM

My cat, Jilly, is about 2 years old. When she was spayed 1 year ago, she was pregnant. This was 1 week before I adopted her from a shelter. She did not have any hair loss at that time. Shortly, after she came to live with me, my precious little girl began to lick and groom herself excessively until she had bald patches as far as she could reach with her tongue. Our vet has tried everything. Now the 3rd vet we have seen, has suggested a small hormone dose. She has only been on this for about 3 days now. But I have noticed a definite difference in her licking. Has anyone else had this problem?

tickle · Feb 23, 2008, 04:22 PM

That is disgusting. I have never heard of a vet spaying a cat while pregnant. Maybe someone will enlighten me here, like bushy.

froggy7 · Feb 23, 2008, 08:03 PM

Vets will often spay pregnant animals if it's relatively early in the pregnancy. After a certain period, the pregnancy increases the risk to the mother in the spay, and the vet won't do it. The general thought is that it's better to abort the litter than to have it added to the numbers of pets trying to find homes.

carolbcac · Feb 24, 2008, 12:00 PM

I doubt that this has anything to do with the spay. It may have surprised her system at first to have the pregnancy hormones suddenly gone, this would also happen if she miscarried for some reason. This far down the road she is permanently in the "quiet" time she would normally experience between heat cycles.
I have seen many, many animals spayed during pregnancy (Including one of my own dogs found as a stray), and it does not appear to cause long-term problems.

No one knows why hormones sometimes help skin conditions. Do be careful, and discuss the potential side effects with your vet.

khicktx · Feb 23, 2011, 09:43 PM

I don't know if this is the same or not, but it is similar. We adopted our cat from the SPCA and she was just fixed right before we got her. I don't know that she was pregnant before or not. However, about 3 months after we got her we ended up with 2 kittens who she took in as her own. They even tried to drink from her, but of course there was no milk. We ended up finding other home for the two kittens later and shortly after that she started with the licking like you describe. She has a beautiful bushy coat on the front end of her body but the back end is nearly bald. It looks like she has a lion's mane in calico colors! I wonder too if this has to do with changes in her hormonally or if she's just depressed!

MothersDaughter · Mar 12, 2011, 06:46 PM

khicktx, thank you for your response. A couple of the vets I had Jilly to suggested it might be depression or anxiety. One put her on Chlorpheniramine. It is supposed to help with the itching, however, it did not help Jilly. She continued to get sicker & last August 30, we had to have her euthanized. Jilly was the sweetest cat I ever had. I cried everyday for about 3 months. I continue to miss her. Thank you again for responding to my post. Good luck with your kitty.