The hairpulling continues

[melissaranks]

Okay, not an emergency, but worriesom. As I've posted before: When I was on bedrest, my MIL remodeled my half bathroom downstairs. She took out the carpet and put in tile and painted. Anyhow, the stress from the noise and the strangers sent my one year old male kitty (D'Artagnan) into a stress attack. Basically, he started pulling out his hair in large chunks off of his back. Now, he NORMALLY is a scaredy cat so I know he stresses easy. I try to protect him from things that might be stressful. Anyhow, that was about a month ago and D'Artagnan is STILL pulling out his hair! Large chunks of it off of his back. I took him to the vet about a week after he started doing it and she said it was stress and prescribed half of a 10mg tablet of Amitriptyline for as long as it took to calm him down. I had him on it since then. Well, even on the pills he pulled out his hair, so I stopped giving them about 2 weeks ago. The pills just made him lethargic. Anytime he was awake/active, he'd pull out a chunk of hair. He doesn't have to be stressed. He'll wake up and do it. He can be sitting on my lap and he'll do it. He'll stop mid-step and do it. Just about 2 or 3 times a day he'll pull out a chunk. Most of it grows back, but I know if he keeps this up, the damage will be permanent. It's only on this ONE spot on his back (it is growing though). The spot is not red or look agitated. He does not scratch it any other way. He does not have oily hair nor does he have dandruff. He weighs in at about 10 or 11 pounds. He is just over 1 year old. Should I take him back to the vet? Could this be an allergy of some sort? Does he have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder?? I've tried lots of things to get him to stop. At first, I would try to redirect his attention with a toy (he loves to play), but that didn't work. Then, I tried to comfort him, that didn't work either. I put anti-itch creme on it, didn't work. I even tried bitter apple type stuff for cats and all that did was make him vomit after he pulled out the hair. What are your thoughts? I'm calling the vet tomorrow to see if I can't get him in for more tests or something. I worry because I've been doing research online and hair pulling can be caused by illness too, not just stress. He doesn't seem unhealthy. I'm hoping that it's just allergies or stress. I can handle all that. But, I just couldn't take it if I lost him too. Not so soon.

<img src="http://www2.freepichosting.com/Images/91036/0.jpg">
My hand next to the 'owy' spot.

<img src="http://www2.freepichosting.com/Images/91036/2.jpg">
Shows his body size compared to the 'owy' spot.