Cats can spend as much as 50% of their day grooming themselves. They do it primarily to maintain themselves clear, however grooming additionally helps regulate their physique temperature and spreads oils by means of their coat, to call a couple of causes. Cats additionally are inclined to groom one another for bonding functions. Nevertheless, grooming can change into extreme and/or troublesome for varied causes.
For instance, a cat may begin to pull their very own hair out. When you discover that your cat is doing this, you’re seemingly questioning why and whether or not it’s one thing to fret about. There are a couple of causes that your cat may be pulling out their hair. What to do about it depends upon the trigger.
The right way to Know If Your Cat Is Excessively Grooming and Pulling Out Their Hair
It may be robust to inform whether or not your cat is grooming themselves to the purpose that they’re pulling out hair. Simply since you discover a patch of fur on the bottom doesn’t essentially imply your cat has an issue with pulling their hair out. Nevertheless, should you’re discovering a number of chunks of hair mendacity round the place your cat has been grooming themselves, likelihood is that there’s a hair-pulling downside to deal with.
One other signal that your cat is excessively grooming is that they begin to develop patches of baldness and/or apparent hair loss throughout their physique. Even one bald patch is trigger for concern. Extreme furball regurgitation is one other signal of extreme grooming. Lastly, you may merely discover that your cat is grooming extra usually than ordinary.
The 7 Causes That Your Cat Is Pulling Their Hair Out
1. Fleas and Flea Allergic reactions
Fleas generally trigger pores and skin itchiness in felines, which can lead to extreme grooming and hair loss. Even indoor cats can get fleas, and it doesn’t take a lot of them to trigger issues. Sadly, it may be robust to rid a kitty of fleas and alleviate their itchiness. Flea remedies are crucial instantly, and month-to-month ongoing ones are required to maintain the pests away for good. Your veterinarian can advocate an efficient flea management routine.
Some felines develop flea allergy dermatitis, which principally means they’re allergic to flea saliva. The most typical manifestation of flea allergy dermatitis is pores and skin itchiness. As your cat itches their pores and skin, they pull hair out within the course of. The answer to this downside is to stop flea infestations by means of common veterinary prescribed flea remedies.
2. Different Allergic reactions
Cats could develop allergy symptoms at any time throughout their life. Allergens embrace meals, pollen, and home mud mites. Sadly, many cat allergy symptoms trigger pores and skin itchiness that may end up in overgrooming and hair loss. Veterinarians will observe a step-by step strategy to analyze doable allergy symptoms, because the indicators will be much like many different pores and skin situations. From there, a plan for allergy reduction and upkeep will be created.
3. Mites
Mites are tiny parasites that infest the pores and skin and hair follicles of cats, which generally results in issues like pores and skin irritation, redness, itching, and even hair loss. Cheyletiella and demodex are two kinds of mites that may have an effect on a cat’s pores and skin. Demodex mites will be tougher to detect as a result of they stay inside the hair follicles, whereas cheyletiella mites stay on the pores and skin’s floor.
4. Ringworm
Whereas ringworm may sound like a parasite, it’s really a fungal pores and skin an infection that may trigger hair to fall out. These bald patches are sometimes scaly and generally look pink and infected. It would look like your cat is pulling their hair out, nevertheless it’s the fungal an infection inflicting the hair loss. Ringworm is often identified by fungal tradition of a pattern of the hair and scale. Your veterinarian could advocate topical washes and oral treatment to deal with the an infection.
5. Stress and/or Anxiousness
Psychological issues like nervousness and stress could cause self-inflicted hair loss in felines, as they may attempt to discover reduction by means of chewing, pulling, and excessively grooming their hair. Shifting to a brand new residence, introducing a brand new animal or child to the household, being boarded for a interval, and even competing with different cats within the family can all trigger stress and/or nervousness in a feline.
This psychogenic overgrooming is way much less widespread than different causes of comparable indicators corresponding to allergy. It’s crucial to rule out different causes of overgrooming after which attempt to determine the reason for the stress or nervousness so it may be addressed and eradicated if doable.
6. Boredom
In an identical approach to stress inflicting overgrooming, boredom can even trigger a cat to tug their hair out, though that is additionally an unusual reason for the issue. Cats are clever and an absence of environmental and psychological stimulation can produce emotions of despair and general lethargy. So, a feline may attempt to relieve these emotions by overgrooming and pulling out their hair.
Introducing new stimulants, corresponding to cat scratchers, towers, caves, and toys, might help tremendously cut back a cat’s boredom and proper their overgrooming and hair loss downside. If the problem persists, a visit to the veterinarian to rule out different doable causes of the hair loss is a good suggestion.
7. Ache
Not like people, cats can’t verbally inform anybody when they’re in ache. They attempt to preserve their ache a secret as a result of within the wild, it will be perceived as weak spot by predators and enemies. Due to this fact, you may not discover many indicators of ache in your cat, however extreme licking that causes hair loss is one thing that shouldn’t be neglected.
Causes of ache may very well be something from arthritis to an an infection or harm. Diagnosing the explanation for the ache is step one in assuaging it, together with the hair loss and another issues.
Conclusion
There are a number of causes {that a} feline may be pulling out their hair. The secret’s to find out the precise cause for it. You have to the assistance of a veterinarian to diagnose the trigger so it may be successfully addressed and averted sooner or later.
Featured Picture Credit score: Dmitry Tkachuk, Shutterstock
