Strange Hairloss in Small Patches in Older Cat

by Christel Fiore
(Portland Maine.USA)

Our Xena is twelve years old and developed this strange hairloss. I raised her by bottle since she was abandoned in Pisa Italy. She grew in to a beautiful cat and got along well with all our other rescues. However our dog "Baj" took to mothering her. Xena had extensive blood and other tests. There is no change in our household pet population other than that our little 15 year old "Baj" passed away after a battle with kidney failure. It seems to me that Xena started her hair loss around that time.

She does not groom extensively and her skin scraping test was negative. She is strictly a indoor cat.

I'm now administrating a high powered vitamin for cats. She looks patchy and the back of the hind legs are almost bare beside the small hole like lesions on her sides.

She seems to be comfortable and eats well. I somehow feel that she has a hormonal imbalance although the test was negative. The application of a sedatives on the ear tip brought no changes.

I had cats all my life and this is a first time mystery.

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Hi Christel, I am sorry to hear about Xena. I am not a vet etc. but my gut feel is that it might be stress related causing over grooming but you have already eliminated this: Feline Endocrine Alopecia. It may be easy to to be misled about over grooming though. We don't watch our cats all the time. I wish Xena well.