A cat's hair is falling out in clumps on its back, neck, withers

Seasonal shedding in cats occurs twice a year and normally lasts for 2-3 weeks. But if the hair loss is pathological, then large bald patches appear on the pet’s body. The causes of abnormal molting may be physiological changes in the body, the presence of skin diseases or severe internal pathologies.

Let's find out why a cat goes bald and whether it is possible to help your pet at home.

Hair loss in cats

Shedding is a normal physiological process that accompanies a cat throughout its life. According to the laws of nature, cats should change their coat twice a year:

when daylight hours decrease or it gets colder outside, the animal’s body activates protective reactions that are aimed at preserving heat and the cat actively grows hair, getting rid of low-quality hair;
when it gets warmer outside, the cat “undresses” - sheds its undercoat to avoid overheating.

Pets who live in an apartment are constantly warm and their body is forced to adapt to the surrounding air temperature. With the onset of cold weather outside, domestic cats intuitively grow overgrown, then the heating in the houses turns on and the animals become hot, as a result of which they are forced to shed prematurely. It is this kind of hair loss that drags on and turns into spring molting, and therefore many owners consider the process permanent. This is also a kind of norm.

However, if a cat has visible bald spots on its neck or back for no reason, hair falls out in clumps, itching and sores arise from scratching, you need to show the animal to a veterinarian.

How to look for the cause of itching

Having noticed that a cat scratches its neck until it hurts, the owner should pay attention to the characteristic manifestations of the problem. It is additional symptoms that may indicate the cause of discomfort:

If, in addition to itching, your pet's hair falls out on the neck and ears, the skin flakes off and numerous crusts form, then most likely the reason lies in the activity of the subcutaneous mite. Demodicosis can be diagnosed at a veterinary clinic, where scrapings from the affected areas of the cat's skin will be taken for examination under a microscope. It is worth noting that if at least one gatoi mite is found in the samples, then the diagnosis is made immediately, but the conditionally pathogenic cati mite must be more than 2-3 pieces in one sample to make a diagnosis, because a small number of the representative lives on the skin of any cat and does not cause illness.
Abnormal bowel movements, deterioration of appetite, decreased coat quality, “rolling” on the butt on carpets, combined with itching and scratching on the neck and body as a whole are signs of a cat being infected with helminths.
Infection with worms causes significant discomfort in a cat, causing it not only to itch, but also to roll on its butt and constantly lick itself
A wound with signs of suppuration always indicates a bacterial infection, which can be either the sole cause of discomfort or secondary, occurring against the background of another disease.
Redness of the skin area, the appearance of blisters filled with liquid, which gradually either dry out or open, forming ulcers, scabs and ulcers - these are symptoms of eczema.
With dry eczema, fluid-filled papules dry out, and with weeping eczema, they burst, forming ulcers.
Hair loss, clearly defined red lesions on the skin, peeling are a typical picture for dermatomycosis. To make a clear diagnosis, a scraping will be required in the clinic - to prescribe treatment, the doctor needs to identify the specific causative agent of the disease.

If a cat has recently been put on a flea collar and it persistently itches around it, then most likely the animal is suffering from an allergic reaction - intolerance to some component in the preventive product has manifested itself. This is often observed after using flea drops - they are applied to the withers, and intolerance will cause a reaction in the neck area. Itching that appears after introducing something new into a cat's life, for example, another food, shampoo or medication, should also hint at an allergy.

An allergic reaction to a flea collar will be clearly localized on the animal’s neck

Types of alopecia

In veterinary medicine and medicine, the term “alopecia” is used, which means pathological thinning or complete loss of hair in a certain area of a cat’s body.

There are 2 forms of the disease, which can be classified according to the location of the bald patches:

Diffuse or generalized alopecia is profuse hair loss throughout the body, which leads to significant thinning of the hairline.
Zonal (focal) alopecia - when hair comes out on a certain area of the body (head, paw, neck, tail).

Alopecia can also be:

self-induced (self-induced);
spontaneous (against the background of calcium, zinc and iron deficiency in the cat’s body);
parasitic (fleas, subcutaneous mites);
genetic;
post-traumatic, postoperative.

Self-induced (self-induced)

This type of alopecia is quite common among decorative cat breeds living in apartments. Out of boredom, stress, or for other reasons, the cat begins to lick itself frequently, stopping at certain areas of the body. As a result, the fur becomes thinner and falls out, and constant exposure to the cat's rough tongue prevents the growth of new undercoat. From the outside it looks like a hairless pink spot without injuries or sores. It takes a long time to deal with the problem.

The best and proven methods:

Purchase a cat diffuser or spray to diffuse pheromones or essential oils. For example, Feliway (pheromones stabilize the cat’s emotional background and reduce unusual forms of stressful behavior) or Relaxivet (lavender, rosemary and geranium oils relieve nervous tension and anxiety).
Eliminate the cause of stress (get a second cat, fish, buy new toys, a scratching post house, build loopholes or tunnels for exciting leisure time for kittens in the absence of their owners). This will distract your pet from its excessive hygiene.

Sometimes a cat independently licks one area of the body where it feels pain, itching, or burning. This usually occurs after injections into the withers, vaccinations, when applying bandages or the formation of a tumor.

If the cause of anxiety is eliminated, the animal will calm down. You can resort to using a protective collar, which is sold at a pet store.

Independent (spontaneous)

This type of baldness in cats is the most unpredictable and mysterious, because it appears spontaneously and for no particular reason. The fur falls out and does not grow back. Diagnosis is carried out with the participation of a veterinarian in the clinic, who will clarify the following information from the animal owner:

What is the diet and have there been any changes in the cat’s diet recently? A sudden change in food can cause thinning of the coat (especially if there is food intolerance or the new food is of poorer quality).
What medications does your pet take and what is it being treated for? Taking some medications can cause your cat's fur to fall out in clumps. Once treatment is complete, the hair will grow back.
Have you had contact with other animals? This may be the cause of the development of parasitic diseases on the skin.
What operations did the cat undergo? There may be no fur at the suture site for a long time.
Whether there were matings, births (lactation period and kittens) and when.
Did the cat fall from a height or receive other injuries (strong impacts provoke irreversible processes on the skin).

Important! Only after a complete history has been collected and a series of laboratory tests have been carried out, will the veterinarian be able to determine the cause of the disease and diagnose the cat.

Unusual shedding or something more serious?

The natural coat of a healthy domestic cat is the pride of its owners. After all, our care and love, which we express in caring for our pet, will certainly be reflected in the condition of the coat. We buy food, thinking about the characteristics of the purr: how old is she, how does she tolerate cold or heat, is she neutered, what conditions does she live in, what is her daily routine.

In the same way, we carefully and carefully approach the choice of shampoos, brushes, sleeping place, toys and everything else, without which a cat’s life would be not only dull, but also impossible. All this is reflected in the shine of the pet’s coat and skin condition. We even learned how to deal with shedding. We are successfully surviving this time together with the cat.

And so, against the backdrop of such care, we begin to notice that our cat’s hair is coming out in clumps. This may be a cause for concern. And the first thing we pay attention to is whether the cat’s behavior has changed?

Try to take a closer look at your cat and answer these questions:

Has she become nervous?
How does she eat, does she have an appetite? And if there is no appetite, will the cat eat its favorite delicacies?
Did she begin to itch more and pull out tufts of fur? Or does the hair fall out on its own, leaving bald patches?
Are there any pronounced wounds in place of the bald spots?
Maybe it was all our imagination, and the only scrap that came out of the cat was due to an accidental injury?

Even by simply answering all the questions, you can get the answer, what is in front of us? Problem? And the cat, combing out its fur in clumps, clearly demonstrates this to us, as if asking for help. She withers and weakens when she refuses to play and her favorite fish. Or, there is no reason to worry and this is a type of molting.

One important fact for everyone who has a cat or is just thinking about getting one! Different breeds shed differently . Some more intensively, with almost complete replacement of wool and undercoat. And their fur sheds throughout the year, and especially during the seasonal coat change. Some cat breeds experience moderate hair loss, and only before a change in air temperature. And there are those who shed only a few times in their entire lives, or don’t do so at all.

Hypotrichosis

This is a hereditary pathology of kittens, which looks like a hair anomaly - loss of hair (complete or partial), and then growth of it again. Kittens may be born without hair, whiskers, claws, or tongue papillae.

Adult cats often have a complete absence of hair in some areas of the body or the appearance of fluff. A detailed examination of bald spots can reveal altered hair follicles or their complete absence.

Hypotrichosis is not a disease, but a genetic disorder that cannot be treated. It is recommended to castrate animals with this developmental feature.

Breeds prone to this pathology in genotype:

Burmese (or sacred Burma);
Burmese (or Burmese);
Devon Rex;
Siamese

How to treat?

Constant licking of fur down to the epidermis is not normal and requires therapeutic measures. It is impossible to eliminate the problem without finding out its original source. To do this, contact a veterinarian who will conduct a diagnosis and select medications if necessary. Drug treatment is required for atopic dermatitis. To eliminate itching, the following medications are prescribed for cats:

When a pet licks its fur to the skin under the influence of stress factors, the cat needs to be provided with peace and surrounded with care. If pathological licking occurs against the background of an allergic reaction, then the influence of the irritant on the cat’s body is immediately excluded. If the violation does not go away, then additional antihistamines are prescribed. To combat the problem caused by small parasites, pet hair is treated. For this purpose, you can use antiparasitic drops, tablets or sprays.

Dermatophytosis (lichen)

Dermatophytosis is a disease of fungal origin, its characteristic symptoms are:

the cat's hair falls out in clumps on one area of fur;
the edges of the hairless area have smooth outlines (as they were cut);
periodically itching appears in the place where the hair has fallen out and subsequently sores form (if the cat licks the affected area);
Without treatment, the hair continues to fall out in clumps as the bald area increases in size.

Diagnostics

Ringworm is determined in three ways:

Under a Voodoo lamp, where the affected areas of the body will glow.
Examination of affected hairs under a microscope.
Sowing skin flakes from bald patches onto a nutrient medium, which will most accurately determine the type of fungus.

Treatment for excessive hair loss in cats

Treatment of trichophytosis consists of the following stages:

Local application of antifungal ointment or spray (for example, Fungin or Clotrimazole ointment) if the lesion is small or isolated.
Bathing the cat in antifungal shampoos and products (Ketoconazole, Imaverol) if large areas are affected.
The use of tablets with antifungal action, if previous methods do not help.
Vaccination against lichen in cats that are in contact with a sick animal.
Using feed with vitamin supplements to improve wool quality.

Cats have trouble eating fur

If your cat eats its own fur while grooming, it won't harm your cat, but it's not necessarily good for your cat. Eating fur while grooming is not dangerous for your cat.

Eating fur can be a sign of diseases such as pica, which we will discuss next. However, sometimes cats eat their fur while bathing.

If you catch a cat eating a large piece of fur, you can remove it from its mouth, which is a good idea. Smaller pieces of fur are not too dangerous for your cat.

Skin parasites in cats

Very often, the causes of significant thinning of the coat in cats are skin parasites, namely fleas, lice mites and scabies mites, which cause a number of diseases:

Demodicosis, notoedrosis - infection with scabies mites that live under the skin or in hair follicles. In sick cats, hair comes out all over the body in clumps, sores, scabs and wounds form from scratching with claws.
Otodectosis is ear scabies, in which the affected area is concentrated in the area of the outer and inner ear. The cause of the disease is microscopic mites. With this disease, hair grows in the cat's ear area.
Cheyletiellosis or wandering dandruff in cats is characterized by intense hair loss on the sides of the body. However, the most pronounced symptom is transient white or black dandruff. The cause of the disease is microscopic mites that live in desquamated particles of the epidermis (dandruff)
Flea infestation (flea infestation) entails constant itching, sores, hair loss in clumps in areas of intense scratching and severe anxiety of the animal.

Diagnosis and treatment

The best diagnostic methods for shedding cats are:

superficial or deep scraping from the affected area of the body to determine the type of tick under a microscope;
Scotch tape test is a home option for determining skin parasites (in veterinary medicine it is also used in laboratories as an express method);
The method of combing a cat on white paper allows you to find feces and flea larvae in the fur (relevant for black and dark colors).

Treatment is aimed at the use of specific veterinary drugs:

for scabies (demodex, notoedrosis, cheyletieliosis) - drops on the withers Stronghold, Lawyer, Inspector;
against fleas and lice eaters - any insectoacaricides for cats (drops, shampoos, sprays).
for otodectosis - drops in the ear with anti-mite action (Amit, Amirazin, Otoferonol, Bars).

The cat is going bald: reasons

Often, due to age or other reasons, a cat goes bald, and the owners take this quite calmly. But bald spots can also form from an animal biting its own fur. This phenomenon is very dangerous - cats can lick and pull out fur with such force and to such an extent that sometimes it is even necessary to amputate some parts of the body, saving their lives.

The cause, as a rule, is the same itching, but it can be caused not only by a skin disease, but by other reasons:

presence of parasites (fleas, etc.);
hormonal disorders;
allergic reactions.

In addition, a cat may itch if there are certain mental pathologies, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder or hypersthesia.

It is almost impossible to independently differentiate which cause causes baldness. Your pet must receive qualified veterinary care. Our veterinary clinic has all the modern capabilities for both examining and treating animals.

In general, there is such a thing as cat grooming - this is a set of therapeutic, health-improving and preventive measures that help the cat keep its body clean and allow timely removal of old fur and dead pieces of skin. We'll talk about this in more detail later. However, we must not forget that a cat is very clean by nature, and, as a rule, it can easily cope with caring for its body (unless, of course, it is a long-haired breed). Therefore, if an animal tears out small pieces of fur while at rest, on its favorite sofa, surrounded by familiar things and objects, then this is absolutely normal: in this way the animal performs its daily toilet.

Allergy

Cat allergies are a common problem in veterinary dermatology. Recently, it has been increasingly diagnosed with increased skin sensitivity, when cats have a lot of hair coming out. The most common types of allergies include:

Food intolerance to animal protein or a specific product (can be expressed in the form of periodic itching, scratching, loss of tufts of hair in different parts of the body and deterioration in the quality of the coat, tearing).
Flea allergic dermatitis is a negative reaction to flea saliva in cats. It looks like severe itching, restlessness of the animal and significant uneven hair loss of the pet as a result of independent frequent licking.
Intolerance to medications or a side effect from therapy for a chronic disease (oncology or hormonal imbalance).

In each specific case, treatment is selected individually. If you are allergic to food, the veterinarian prescribes a diet or develops a therapeutic diet. If there is a reaction to fleas, it is necessary to take all measures to eliminate them (treating not only the animal, but also the premises with special preparations all year round). And if your cat itches and goes bald due to medications, you will need to consult a veterinarian.

Attention! You should not try to independently treat allergic reactions in cats and give them human medications, such as Suprastin, Tavegil and analogues. Due to the side effects of medications and incorrectly calculated dosage “by eye,” the animal can be poisoned.

Can cats eat their own fur?

Cats can eat their own hair, but if they eat their fur while grooming, they may cough up a hairball.

When cats groom themselves, the goal is not to eat their fur, even though you may catch your cat pulling out a knot or piece of fur. Unfortunately, because cats groom themselves with their tongues, it is impossible to spit out every strand of fur. This is especially difficult for long-haired cats.

If a cat eats fur, it doesn't just digest it like a piece of food. If a cat ingests too much fur, it will develop a hairball. I can tell you from experience that hairballs are no fun for you or your cat!

Endocrine alopecia in cats

These in cats include hypothyroidism, a disease of the thyroid gland in which the level of production of the hormones T3 and T4 drops sharply. The main symptoms of the disease in a kitten: developmental delay, lethargy, disproportionate body formation, underdeveloped teeth, later completion of bone formation.

The disease is expressed very characteristically on the coat: in kittens, the body is covered mainly with undercoat with a small amount of outer hair, the fur constantly mats, and may contain dandruff. When cutting, hairs are easily pulled out and grow slowly.

Treatment for this disease depends on the underlying cause of hypothyroidism. If the disease is acquired after treating your pet with radioactive iodine or as a result of surgery, you will have to wait until the body recovers on its own.

If the cat's thyroid gland is irreversibly damaged, then replacement therapy is required, namely hormones in the form of tablets for lifelong use. With this treatment, the cat’s body will recover after a few months. In such a situation, the owner must remember to feed the cat hormonal drugs daily.

Alopecia associated with cat breed

Today, hairless cats and half-naked breeds are very popular. These include:

sphinxes;
rexes;
Devon Rex;
lykoy.

However, when breeding these cats, the following problems arise:

In sphinxes, individual hairs can appear in the form of twisted thin rods; it is difficult for them to break through the thickness of the skin. As a result, nodules develop that turn into comedones.
In semi-hairless breeds, the coat may grow and shed unevenly, which is considered normal.
Likoy cats have no hair on their faces in places - this is a breed standard that must be taken into account.
In blue and beige rexes, hypotrichosis may occur at a young age due to pigmentation problems (breeding defects).
The birth of hairless kittens in woolly cat breeds as a result of a spontaneous mutation.

How to get a cat to stop eating fur

Seeing your cat eating its fur can be difficult, but there are several ways to stop your cat.

Let's say your cat is long-haired and eats its own fur. The easiest way to keep your cat's hair short so she can easily reach it. You may not have adopted a long-haired cat to keep her fur short, but this is the best option for your cat if she eats her own hair.

Also try to understand why your cat eats its fur. His habit of eating fur from his pike? Is there a chance he has fleas or eczema?

Because cats cannot speak, cats are more difficult to diagnose, but it is important to remember that you must understand your cat's behavior in order to treat it appropriately.

Other causes of hair loss in cats

Uncommon alopecias include:

Preauricular bald patches are a triangular area with sparse hair above the eyes. Considered normal for most cats.
Balding of the ears in older cats is a process associated with the aging of animals and is also considered normal. Bald patches should not itch.
Reversible hair loss under mats, which occurs due to strong tension of the hairs and poor circulation in this area. To avoid such manifestations, you need to do high-quality grooming for the cat yourself or in the salon, and also purchase special haircutters.

Alopecia is always an unpleasant symptom for the owner of a cat of any breed. Therefore, the problem requires special attention and a visit to the veterinarian in order to recognize the disease at an early stage and preserve the true beauty of the furry pet.