Cat pulling hair

Hello,

I have a 3 and a half year old female short-haired cat. She has always
had beautiful shiny hair, however, 4 months or so ago she started
pulling out the hair on her stomach, this has now progressed to pulling
on the base of her tail, the fronts of her front legs and her side. We
have taken her to the vet several times and have gotten cortisone shots
which seem to help until they wear off. However, she has had 3 and I
don't want to give her more. We also tried amytriptilene (sp?) which
is anti-anxiety that we gave her as an ear paste that did not appear to
help. We tried hypo-allergenic cat food (which helped her lose
weight...) that didn't appear to help (but we were giving her her
normal treats too... so that test is kind of shot...). Now we are
giving her a prednisone ear paste that seems to be helping her stop,
but we have to take her off of it at some point... Nothing in the
apartment has changed, nothing new - new neighbors... but no one seemed
to move in around the time the problem started... I did notice last
night that her litter said it was New and Improved. I have always used
Fresh Step Clumping litter for her and there has never been a problem.
I'm wondering now if maybe their changed formula to eliminate odor is
helping make her eliminate her hair... If anyone has any advice or
information on this, please let me know!

Thanks!

wrote:
Hello,

I have a 3 and a half year old female short-haired cat. She has always
had beautiful shiny hair, however, 4 months or so ago she started
pulling out the hair on her stomach, this has now progressed to pulling
on the base of her tail, the fronts of her front legs and her side. We
have taken her to the vet several times and have gotten cortisone shots
which seem to help until they wear off. However, she has had 3 and I
don't want to give her more. We also tried amytriptilene (sp?) which
is anti-anxiety that we gave her as an ear paste that did not appear to
help. We tried hypo-allergenic cat food (which helped her lose
weight...) that didn't appear to help (but we were giving her her
normal treats too... so that test is kind of shot...). Now we are
giving her a prednisone ear paste that seems to be helping her stop,
but we have to take her off of it at some point... Nothing in the
apartment has changed, nothing new - new neighbors... but no one seemed
to move in around the time the problem started... I did notice last
night that her litter said it was New and Improved. I have always used
Fresh Step Clumping litter for her and there has never been a problem.
I'm wondering now if maybe their changed formula to eliminate odor is
helping make her eliminate her hair... If anyone has any advice or
information on this, please let me know!

Thanks!

I had a similar problem. I changed her food to Pro Plan, and the hair
pulling seemed to stop. She had succeeded in pulling out most of the
hair on the back of her legs. I do not believe there were any new
stressors in our lives. I can not recall what I was feeding the cats
before Pro Plan, but it was a premium brand.