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 their coat, to call just a few causes. Cats additionally are inclined to groom one another for bonding functions. Nevertheless, grooming can change into extreme and/or troublesome for numerous causes.
For instance, a cat would possibly begin to pull their very own hair out. When you discover that your cat is doing this, you’re probably questioning why and whether or not it’s one thing to fret about. There are just a few causes that your cat could be pulling out their hair. What to do about it is determined by the trigger.
Methods 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, if you happen to’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 standard.
The 7 Causes That Your Cat Is Pulling Their Hair Out
1. Fleas and Flea Allergic reactions
Fleas usually 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 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 forestall flea infestations by common veterinary prescribed flea remedies.
2. Different Allergic reactions
Cats might 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 strategy to analyze potential allergy symptoms, because the indicators may be just like many different pores and skin circumstances. From there, a plan for allergy aid and upkeep may be created.
3. Mites
Mites are tiny parasites that infest the pores and skin and hair follicles of cats, which usually results in issues like pores and skin irritation, redness, itching, and even hair loss. Cheyletiella and demodex are two forms of mites that may have an effect on a cat’s pores and skin. Demodex mites may be more durable to detect as a result of they stay throughout the hair follicles, whereas cheyletiella mites stay on the pores and skin’s floor.
4. Ringworm
Whereas ringworm would possibly 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’d look like your cat is pulling their hair out, nevertheless it’s the fungal an infection inflicting the hair loss. Ringworm is normally recognized by fungal tradition of a pattern of the hair and scale. Your veterinarian might advocate topical washes and oral treatment to deal with the an infection.
5. Stress and/or Anxiousness
Psychological issues like anxiousness and stress could cause self-inflicted hair loss in felines, as they’ll attempt to discover aid by 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 anxiousness in a feline.
This psychogenic overgrooming is way much less widespread than different causes of comparable indicators resembling allergy. It’s crucial to rule out different causes of overgrooming after which strive to determine the reason for the stress or anxiousness so it may be addressed and eradicated if potential.
6. Boredom
In an identical method to stress causing overgrooming, boredom may also trigger a cat to drag their hair out, though that is additionally an unusual reason behind the issue. Cats are clever and an absence 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, resembling cat scratchers, towers, caves, and toys, can assist drastically 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
In contrast to people, cats cannot verbally tell anyone when they are in pain. 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 ignored.
Causes of ache may very well 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 every other issues.
Conclusion
There are a number of causes {that a} feline might be pulling out their hair. The hot button is to find out the precise cause for it. You will have 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
