feline fur pulling

[busterbr@juno.com]

could you please give some advice as to what to do with a 15 year old female feline that while licking her fur insists on pulling out tufts of hair. this has become a great problem as it is causing her to expel large fur balls. we thought it might be because of fleas or mites and have both placed a flea collar aroung her neck and dusted her with a flea powder. this does not seem to hinder this fur pulling what so ever and the problem is escalating. what can be done to stop the feline from pulling her hair out? could you possibly give a reason why this is happening?

[Guest]

could you please give some advice as to what to do with a 15 year old female feline that while licking her fur insists on pulling out tufts of hair. this has become a great problem as it is causing her to expel large fur balls. we thought it might be because of fleas or mites and have both placed a flea collar aroung her neck and dusted her with a flea powder. this does not seem to hinder this fur pulling what so ever and the problem is escalating. what can be done to stop the feline from pulling her hair out? could you possibly give a reason why this is happening?

[guitarsjb]

Our cat (Patches 15 years old) started pulling her fur when she was around 10 years old. It was due to us moving (stress!!). She does not handle stress( change) well at all. But when we are forced to cause her stress, we just usually try to get her environment back to normal as soon as possible, and spend extra time with her so she knows everything is OK. She has stressed due to moving, too much company coming by, people working nearby the apartment...several reasons cause this. Have there been any changes in your cats environment lately??

[LisaLisa]

This can be related to stress or your cat may be in pain.. A visit to the vet is defintiely in order.

Also, I'm going to assume here that the flea collar and flea product were not bought from your vet...I'm not an expert here but I'm wondering if these products are irritating her skin??

Please let us kmnow how everything is going with your furgirl...okay??