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 via their coat, to call a couple of causes. Cats additionally are likely to groom one another for bonding functions. Nevertheless, grooming can develop into extreme and/or troublesome for varied causes.
For instance, a cat would possibly begin to pull their very own hair out. If you happen to discover that your cat is doing this, you’re doubtless questioning why and whether or not it’s one thing to fret about. There are a couple of causes that your cat is perhaps pulling out their hair. What to do about it depends upon the trigger.
Tips on how to Know If Your Cat Is Excessively Grooming and Pulling Out Their Hair
It may be powerful 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, in case 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 handle.
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 would possibly merely discover that your cat is grooming extra typically than regular.
The 7 Causes That Your Cat Is Pulling Their Hair Out
1. Fleas and Flea Allergy symptoms
Fleas basically trigger pores and skin itchiness in felines, which may end up in 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 powerful to rid a kitty of fleas and alleviate their itchiness. Flea remedies are vital 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 commonest 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 forestall flea infestations via common veterinary prescribed flea remedies.
2. Different Allergy symptoms
Cats could develop allergy symptoms at any time throughout their life. Allergens embody 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 comply with a step-by step method to analyze potential allergy symptoms, because the indicators might be just like many different pores and skin situations. From there, a plan for allergy reduction and upkeep might 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 varieties of mites that may have an effect on a cat’s pores and skin. Demodex mites might be more durable to detect as a result of they reside inside the hair follicles, whereas cheyletiella mites reside on the pores and skin’s floor.
4. Ringworm
Whereas ringworm would possibly sound like a parasite, it’s truly a fungal pores and skin an infection that may trigger hair to fall out. These bald patches are sometimes scaly and typically look crimson and infected. It would seem to be your cat is pulling their hair out, but it surely’s the fungal an infection inflicting the hair loss. Ringworm is often recognized 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 Nervousness
Psychological issues like nervousness and stress may cause self-inflicted hair loss in felines, as they’ll attempt to discover reduction via chewing, pulling, and excessively grooming their hair. Shifting to a brand new house, 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 far much less widespread than different causes of comparable indicators akin to allergy. It’s crucial to rule out different causes of overgrooming after which strive to determine the reason for the stress or nervousness so it may be addressed and eradicated if potential.
6. Boredom
In the same option to stress inflicting overgrooming, boredom may also trigger a cat to drag their hair out, though that is additionally an unusual reason for the issue. Cats are clever and a scarcity of environmental and psychological stimulation can produce emotions of despair and general lethargy. So, a feline would possibly attempt to relieve these emotions by overgrooming and pulling out their hair.
Introducing new stimulants, akin to cat scratchers, towers, caves, and toys, may also help significantly cut back a cat’s boredom and proper their overgrooming and hair loss downside. If the difficulty persists, a visit to the veterinarian to rule out different potential causes of the hair loss is a good suggestion.
7. Ache
Not like people, cats can not verbally inform anybody when they’re in ache. They attempt to hold their ache a secret as a result of within the wild, it will be perceived as weak spot by predators and enemies. Subsequently, you won’t 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 could possibly be something from arthritis to an an infection or damage. Diagnosing the explanation for the ache is step one in assuaging it, together with the hair loss and some other issues.
Conclusion
There are a number of causes {that a} feline is perhaps 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
