I desperately need some help & advice from you experienced breeders & owners. My 19 month old male neuter Maine Coon has taken to pulling his fur out at the base of his tail, this started 2 weeks ago. He went to the Vets on friday, he took a scrape of his tail and found no evidence of parasites,skin disease or stud tail, all he can find is a slightly dry skin (for which he's prescribed evening primrose oil) but would this cause him to pull chunks of fur out, our female Maine Coon is OK, but as he is a show cat this is very worrying.

-- Anonymous, February 05, 2001

Answers

I have two Maine Coons, one male and one female, and our female used to scratch huge holes in the fur around her head. The vet checked her and found nothing except dry skin. The vet said she could be scratching because of anything from an alergy to obsessive compulsive disorder. So there was nothing, except keeping the wounds clean, that she could suggest. The breeder suggested feeding our cats Iams Lamb and Rice formula because it contains oils that helps keep the cat's skin from drying out. Since we switched to lamb and rice, Izzy still scratches but much less frequent than before.

-- Anonymous, February 05, 2001

My pre-owned semi-longhair, Soupy, does the same thing. With him, it appears to be emotional...he was in a cage at the SPCA for about 2 months, and he's very skittish. Treatment with valium helps some. It sounds like your cat may have psychogenic allopecia. Have their been any changes in routine or in the household itself?

-- Anonymous, February 06, 2001

Hi; My 2 year old Maine Coon was pulling his fur/biting at himself so bad; leaving huge chunks of his hair all over the house. We took him to the vets and she gave him a shot of cortizone and also had me put "Frontline" flea treatment on him and my other two cats--the problem has completely vanished. Every case is different I suppose but that's what we did for our kitty. Hope this helps!

-- Anonymous, February 06, 2001

My 4.5 year old Maine Coon started pulling out her fur in big bunches on her haunches about two weeks after her brother cat was seriously injured in a fight which Chloe would have seen. She also started getting on the neighbor's roof and crying as if she could not get down - which she could. She would only do this when I was home. I had her checked for skin problems and she got a blood test - all of which was normal. The vet put Chloe on Buspar which is an anti- anxiety drug prescribed for humans and she is no longer pulling out her hair or getting on the neighbor's roof. It worked immediately.

-- Anonymous, February 13, 2001

Did anything notable happen just before he started to pull his hair out that might have 'freaked' him out, or has a member of the family recently been away for a period of time? If you've checked for fleas etc, it sounds like he's stressed. best thing might be to get your vet to prescribe something like the equivalent of cat prozac, preferably something homeopathic, for a short while and see if this works. Hope this helps!

-- Anonymous, February 17, 2001