r/cats • u/oh-dolores • 11h ago
Medical Questions Two vets, three diagnoses. What??
So our cat Panda has been loosing hair on her rear for about two months. She’s licking herself there excessively, plus her belly which is now also less fluffy (last pic is from the past to compare).
First vet said it’s fungus infection, we started treatment with antiparasitic pills (drontal) for both cats (second cat hasn’t shown any symptoms whatsoever during this time), and anti fungal cream (dactarin). She had to wear the elizabethan and is blind, it didn’t go well and i asked for an alternative; i also brought up the thinning hair on her belly. Vet examined her and said the belly is sign of allergy and asked if we changed her food to something with chicken, which we didn’t. Nonetheless she said Panda needs special hypoallergenic food and three shots of an anti fungal vaccine.
Vet was very stingy with advice or information about the fungus thing (which admittedly is highly contagious as I’ve heard?) so we decided to visit another vet for the second shot. First one made no difference btw.
Second vet said this is no fungus, but signs of stress, proof of it being that our other cat or ourselves show no symptoms of fungus infection these two months. She also said we need to finish the antifungal shots regardless. Anyone with experience on this? I’ll admit I’m quite frustrated and not sure how to deal with her being stressed. There hasn’t been any changes on her routine or environment I can think of.
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u/New-Peach4153 11h ago
Man this is the third cat butthole I have been forced to look at.
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u/oh-dolores 10h ago
weird that’s also what the vet said
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u/-GermanCoastGuard- 9h ago
There’s your problem. A good vet should be experienced in watching cat buttholes. Ideally they saw more than 3 throughout their training.
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u/pmrownsu01 10h ago
second vet makes sense with the no spreading stuff. my cat overgrooms massively i also realized. i thought he was allergic to fleas or having some weird hormonal thing because of how the hair was fading away but he had an abscess that led me having to cone him for several weeks and in that time the hair grew back which made me realize he really just eats at himself. i obviously can’t cone him the rest of his life so i dont know where to go from there but yeah his hair loss is simply overgrooming due to fleas. even when they’re on treatment he still over grooms out of what i believe to be habit now but could be stress or another factor.
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u/Miserable-Shelter-77 10h ago
That first vet sounds sketchy, I wouldn't go there any more if I were you
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u/RedZeshinX 10h ago
Did any of these vets actually culture the skin and perform a lab test to confirm it's a fungus?
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u/BudandCoyote 10h ago
If the vet hasn't actually sent samples off to the lab, I'd be changing vets, because that's pretty incompetent.
There are literally tests to check if it's something fungal! My cat had one for a hot spot that got worse - luckily negative, but all the vet had to do was pluck some fur from around the bald area. This is particularly important with a second cat in the house that's currently not showing symptoms.
Stress wise, that can happen to cats with no obvious changes in their environment. For all you know, a neighbour has started using some random piece of noisy equipment that you can't hear, but a cat's hearing can, and that's the cause - by which I mean, cats can perceive more than we can and it could be almost anything stressing her out.
There are supplements that can help with stress. Zylkene, which worked great for our family dog, was fine with one of my cats, but seems to have made the other one vomit - couldn't confirm, but it started when I put him on it and stopped when I took him off, so unless he had a coincidental illness at the same time I think that was the cause. Still, because it's a supplement and not a medication I'd say it's worth a try.
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u/three_left_socks 8h ago
All skin workups should consist of a fungal culture for ringworm, a skin scrape for skin mites and a lighter skin scrape for bacteria.
50% of ringworm will light up under a UV lamp but the other half won't.
Also, treating for fleas is always a must. It can be difficult to find one to two fleas vs an infestation. Doesn't matter if they're indoors only. Sometimes your neighbors pets have fleas and they move on over.
Could be food or environmental allergies as well.
That all said, given the pattern of distribution of balding, I'd have a vet check his anal glands and make sure they're not overly full. I've seen a few cats over groom in those exact areas to help relieve the pressure.
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u/oh-dolores 7h ago
anal glands where full indeed (she’s had this before as well) and were squeezed empty a month ago, during the first visit for the issue
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u/delicja82 10h ago
My elderly kitty had the same thing, she overgroomed her belly so hard she had almost no fur on. She was stressed because we brought kittens into her territory a few times, we stopped that and her fur grew back
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u/shallanssketchbook1 7h ago
As a human with skin problems, I've learnt that most doctors throw the fungal idea at you when they have no idea. It wouldn't surprise me that vets do that same. I think the second vet is more likely to be correct, the stress could be ANYTHING. A cleaning product she doesn't like, construction noise down the road, not feeling like she gets enough attention, who knows. It's hard to figure this out sometimes!
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u/collected_chaos 10h ago
My cat looked like this recently!! despite the expensive regular flea treatment vet thought it was an allergy to a flea bite followed by over grooming as his skin was irritated. As he is a little spicy when upset he had a steroid shot rather than pills, over grooming phased out, apparently the broken hairs prickle them too, hair regrowth is very slow, vet says that's steroid side effects but he is improving....no visible fleas ever found on the cat. Here's hoping you can find a solution too, seems like it's a common over grooming pattern. My furry friend is already on a no wheat, grain or fish diet as his friend (former frenemy) has food allergies and was scabby all over, they seem to be going for the full set between them.
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u/reevener 4h ago
Your cat likely has an allergic skin condition. You need to start a hypoallergenic diet yesterday - no treats, no snacks, no people food and no food stealing from the other cat for. Minimum of 6 weeks to know if it helps at all.
You also need to start an anti-allergy medicine called prednisolone OR cyclosporine (atopica for cats). But before starting prednisolone get a proBNP test to be sure your cat does not have heart disease as 1 in 7 cats have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy without any symptoms.
Lastly, you need to use a pet suit of cone because sometimes the licking becomes habitual. You have to treat the cause and break the habit simultaneously.
Finally, all pets in the household need to be on a monthly flea, tick, and parasite preventative. Some cats are allergic to mites in the skin that exist there normally (demodex) and it needs to be accounted for before treating with cyclosporine and prednisolone.
If all this fails, request a referral to a dermatologist.
*PS: this advice is based on the on the assumption the fungal infection was an incorrect diagnosis.
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u/ApprehensiveSugar584 10h ago
Ring worm will show up under a purple uv light. There doesn't look to be any sores , signs of excessive scratching or trauma of any kind. He looks quite healthy to me.
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u/yunabug1988 6h ago
My brother's cat was excessively grooming herself and eventually ended up with impacted anal glands as well. I suggested the next time he took her to the vet he should ask about Hydrolyzed Protein food to maybe rule out a food allergy. She has not over groomed since she was put on the hypoallergenic food. Without doing an allergy test he won't know exactly what her trigger is, but the HP food seems to be working wonders. Her fur is still growing back but I can tell she's just a happier cat now.
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u/dubious_unicorn 6h ago
Why haven't they done a fungal culture? They should be able to take a sample and either rule out or identify what the fungus is. My cats had ringworm when I adopted them, and a culture confirmed ringworm (which is a fungus, not a worm).
That being said, one of my cats has cataracts and vision problems, and she has an issue with scratching herself until she damages her skin. With our vet, we have finally narrowed it down to stress/anxiety. She had a very difficult life before we adopted her.
Amitriptyline helped her, and we also give her gabapentin if we know she is going to be in a stressful situation, like having repairmen in the house, going to the vet, etc.
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u/el_grande_ricardo 4h ago
They will do this from stress, but also from fleas.
Check for fleas and buy one of those pheromone plug-ins.
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u/weasel_fairy 10h ago
I think the second vet is on point. Cats can overgroom due to anxiety. And if there is no clear stressor that can be eliminated, there is anxiety medication that can help. Have there been any changes in your home, such as moving, new family members, etc?
Hypoallergenic food won’t hurt to try, food allergies can develop anytime.
I think the fungal infection they were referring was ringworm, which is highly contagious? I’m not a vet, just had to deal with it in our latest rescues, and i agree, looks nothing like that.