That's really interesting, that it didn't seem to have any real effect on
your cat's life. I do seem to notice that Ted gets worse when I'm out of
town for a couple of days or having nightmares or something. It seems like
he licks his belly to comfort himself, calm himself -- and it seems like
when he's really stressed he starts on his front legs. But I'm notorious
for anthropomorphizing Ted :-)

I'm going to do as I'm told for now. Ted is obviously bombed on the Valium,
but is also obviously less nervous, skittish, etc. It will probably do him
good to have a little Valium Vacation, and a lot of time in my lap. I'm
trying to stay calm myself, too, as Andy says. It obviously doesn't do the
poor cat any good for me to stress about him :-)

Thanks, everybody.

ep

"barb" wrote in message
...
I've read in this group about several cats, particularly black cats, with
this bald belly business. My own black cat, Sapphire, developed this in
1996. I was under no stress at the time and neither was she.

There was no physical problem. The vet had me rub her belly with lemon
juice. She licked it off. He tried a few medications but nothing worked.
He then said he didn't want to keep medicating an otherwise healthy cat.
For the next 10 years her belly and insides of her back legs were bald.
It
didn't show unless she lay on her back.

Bottom line, it seemed to have no effect on her life.

--
Barb
Of course I don't look busy,
I did it right the first time.