Toby, aka Mr Evil, has started overgrooming himself and biting at his fur to the point where he how has some small bald patches.
Since he’s been flea medicated and worm medicated, the only thing left that I can see is that he’s stressed out and nervous. Which seems ridiculous, he’s always been the cock of the walk around here.
The last few days I’ve noticed that he’s spent more time sleeping indoors during the day, but other than that all seems normal. We’ve not moved house, got a new dog, had a new baby or subjected him to a series of baths in a torturous experiment. What awful kitty dramas could be going on in his mind? Girlfriend problems? Maybe she finally realised he’s had his nads cut off and dumped him for the next door tom?
There maybe another cat in the neighbourhood that’s harassing him. We’ve had the same problem with our cat, he suddenly got very jumpy and didn’t want to go outside. Unfortunately we can’t get Dai Bando to teach him to box so we just did loud Tibetan throat singing at any cat that came near the house - it completely terrifies them.
yes, I thought of that, and there are a number of cats in this area. I’ve not seen any new ones. He has unique relationships with all the ones I know about - some are more dominant than him, and some he is more dominant than. But I’ve asked my girls to look out for any cat friction in the back yard.
He has a catflap which I have to keep locked, as if it’s open then all the other cats come in and help themselves to his food. No other cats have come into the house, into his territory in months now though. I see them peering through sometimes if I am sitting in the back room.
I am going to go and get a totally new brand of dried food and see if that makes any difference too. This started off with me noticing that at night he’d scratch his neck for so long that it drove us crazy (because he would be spinning his collar - with bell - around and around for minutes on end. I now take his collar off at night so he can scratch quietly, but he still scratches for longer than seems normal.
Hmm, good point - the flea medication is a totally different one to the one he used last year. And he’s had three applications of it (one a month). Maybe that’s the real problem.
Fortunately Toby doesn’t wear clothes. That would be woeful.
Our cats gravitate to any surface that has fabric. This includes open clothes drawers, linen closet shelves, laundry baskets, blankets and sheets on the beds, and, if I am not quick enough getting the laundry from the car, the freshly washed and dried clothing from the laundry mat. Hence the exposure to the new detergent.
For the record there are few things more frustrating than spending 2 hours at the laundry mat on a cold, rainy March day, only to discover the mud soaked cats laying on top the clean clothes.
I just went through this with Shiloh a long-haired female. Your cat has probably developed dermatitis from a food allergy. If so, then a shot of steroids and a diet change will cure it. Like MAGIC! Cats really are more carnivorous than dogs and the veggie fillers they put in cat food often causes allergies. They can develop them at any age. Cats don’t get hives like humans, but they do itch like crazy and thus the excessive grooming. The steroid shot will stop the itch within hours. (My sister-in-law is a vet.)
Want to trade? I have a sister in law who is a … let’s just say a potential case for the missing link. I think that mean both of us would win, as I need a new vet and I think I remember you saying you are a rock doctor (maybe you can make something of that chunk of granite between her ears or the chip on her shoulder).
Well, I’ve now made a vet’s appointment, as they are happy to take back the flea medication and sell me a different type, and I was planning to switch food, although that’s been static for some time, and is IAMS, which is good quality. And they would like to have a look at him. I only took him to the vet a month or so ago, after he made himself sick after eating some long dead thing.
We’ve not changed the brand of laundry detergent at all, it’s probably not that. The fact that he sleeps in Mr Boxer Short’s sock drawer COULD be seriously detrimental to his health though, obviously.
I don’t think so, but he does go quite far afield in other people’s backyards.
The vet visit is all done, and he’s had a shot of Cortizone. The lady vet concurred with the dermatitis theory, and he has to go back next week for a second shot. As I was nearly out of IAMS anyway, I have changed his food to HILLS instead, which I gather he was rather pleased about from the verocious way he devoured it when we got back home.
I don’t see why any cat would be neurotic living with me, I am lovely. How could he not be happy and well adjusted, seeing as he wears THE nicest knitted catsuits in the neighbourhood, rarely seen in the same outfit within the space of a week.
He loves his tofu burgers, and is deeply relaxed after we do cat yoga.
Hmm, not a rock doc, looking for a paper… I would offer a specimen or 2 for “Studies on the inner workings of an adolescent mind” but that might be hazardous to your sanity. There is a possible “The petrification of living tissue” paper if you don’t mind the neurosis associated with those to inhale powders (getting that guy off the street would even get the neighbors to pay into a trust for the couch time you will need). For some reason I think you are an archeologist which means that none of this is any good to you. I would offer you the chance to excavate a religious location and prove certain false hoods to the masses, but I bet we would wind up “no longer among the living” if we undertook that task.
