No, I'm not a Beauty School Drop-Out and I didn't try to cut my cat's hair
She started a stress habit of cleaning herself and ended up licking all her furr off of her stomach, sides, and even most of her tail. She is pitiful. I have tried "Kitty Prozac" and she hates me every time I try to give her a pill. I also talked to a friend who can make this into a trans-dermal form, but requires me to pay again for the Rx. Trans-dermal is absolutely wonderful, but I would like get her to stop this without Rx medication.
Right now, she licks all the time. and I mean all the time. If she's not in my lap, she is cleaning herself or eating or drinking. (Freudian complex, yes I know).
And she has started attacking people. She is usually the cat that likes to rub on your leg and follow you around, but lately, she has been acting bipolar and flips to Psycho Kitty and bites your leg.
After hearing from a friend that her cat had the exact same issue (with the furr) and after a recommendation from a vet, started the cat on Fish oil, her cat grew its hair back in a month. I hadn't heard of this as treatment for stress or depression or anything that kitty prozac targets, but I do know Fish oil helps the hair stay shiny and smooth, and can lead to weight gain. While I don't really want my cat to gain more weight, I could see how the Fish oil could help her coat, even if it doesn't grow back.
So, now I'm playing Dr. Dana on my cat, Aria.
Here is how the experiment goes down:
Subject:
Aria (see horrible pics above)
Expectations:
See hair growth in 4-8 weeks (some sites say to expect hair regrowth in 6-8 weeks, combined with my friend's experience, maybe we'll see some results sooner than those expectations)
Controls:
Same Purina One salmon & tuna flavored food for length of experiment,
same amount of food at each feeding,
1 pump of Fish oil supplement each night at dinner onto dry food,
No changes in environment
Data:
Pics of hair growth and monitoring of cleaning habits. (I know this will only be from how often I see her cleaning herself, which is not an easily controlled data source)
Now, what I consider hair re-growth, is for those patches to be fully covered with furr. Some might consider a few hairs to be "re-growth" but this aint "Rogaine for Men" - a few little hairs aint convincing.
I'm excited! I feel like I'm starting AA for nerds: "Hi, I'm Dana, and I'm a nerd..."
You are a nut!!
ReplyDeleteOne of my parents cats pulled most of her hair out & it was an allergy. They gave her some type of allergy meds (a shot I think) and it got better. If your experiment doesn't work that might be worth asking the vet. Has this started since Bandit left? Since you moved to the new apt? Maybe there is something in the apt that is bothering her?
I already took her to the vet a few months ago before it was this bad, and they have her an allergy shot but said that it was probably behavioral (probably b/c of Bandit). The hair loss patterns are behavioral, she has no fleas, mites, etc, and its only stopped getting worse since he left, it hasn't changed at all (good or bad) since he left.
ReplyDeleteShe is a fit to pill..she starts foaming at the mouth and does the dry-heaving thing, so I'm willing to try anything.