hair loss Nervous breakdown

Question
Hi,

I have a cat who is 3 and October last year we moved house to a different area, she seemed to settle in fine seemed to love the new house infact but since the beginning of January she has been losing fur, she has no fur pretty much left on her belly and here legs are bold nearly too. I tock her to the vet about 3 weeks ago and they said she was suffering from stress having a cat breakdown and gave me a plug in like a glad plug in but for cats. around that sort of time we lost our other cat and found that we share our back garden with 2 foxes. Also my partner has said he has seen a Siamese cat attacking our cat quite alot, obviously when he sees it he stops it as the other cat runs away. I don't know what to do, I don't want her to go totally bold. Would getting another cat be a good idea for company? or any ideas on how to get ride of the foxes?

any help or advise would be great

Lisa

Answer
HI Lisa,

The most common cause for hair loss is allergies - either contact or food allergies. Flea allergies being number one. If your cat goes outdoors and you do not put Advantage on her every 6 weeks, she *does* have fleas - even if you never see one on her. They jump on, bite the cat and jump off, they don't spend much time on the cat.

So if you have not already, I suggest getting Advantage from your vet or online and apply it immediately - all you do is part the hair on the back of her head and squirt the liquid onto the skin. Try not to get it on the fur where it is not effective. Advantage will kill any fleas that jump on your cat for up to 6 weeks, and it's very safe. Never use over the counter flea medication like Hartz or flea collars, they are very toxic and can kill your cat or give her brain damage. Even if it is advertised for cats, many of these products are not safe and the companies are being sued for cat deaths and illness. Stick to the stuff your vet sells - Advantage, Revolution or Frontline.

Another possibility is a food allergy - cats are often allergic to corn, corn gluten or other grains. Try a food without grains such as Wellness canned food, or if you feed dry food, Innova Evo or Wellness CORE. However I highly recommend feeding canned food only - for the higher meat content and water content. Here is a website with more info about why canned food is better than dry food for your cat:

http://www.catinfo.org

Finally, I highly recommend that for the safety of your cat you either keep her indoors or you cat-proof your back yard. Cats allowed outdoors loose are subject to disease, injury and death from cars, wildlife or dog attacks, and disease spread from fighting with or interacting with other cats. You will never be able to control the wildlife and other cats that come into your yard 100 so the safest is to keep your cat indoors. If you want to allow her out, here is an article on a variety of ways to keep your cat safe while going out, by keeping her in your yard and other animals out:

http://catnet.stanford.edu/articles/enclosures.html

Good luck!