The cone of shame has landed on cat bro Bert. We don’t know what is wrong with him, but he is losing fur all over. Mom says every time she looks at him, he has another bald spot. A vet visit was in order on Tuesday to try to get him some help and relief.
It all started on his tummy, but then the fur loss started to rapidly and randomly spread. Mom tried to get him a vet appointment Monday, but Tuesday was the first available. He was placed in the puppy carrier for the ride to the doc. Bert loves to go to the vet, but he hates being in the carrier as you can see by the look on his face.
Once he was in the exam room Mom opened the top so he could come out and explore. The tech went over some basic info before the vet came in. They both asked how old Bert is because it said fifteen plus years old in his records but he seems more like five. The guy really does not age at all. He is for sure fifteen, and maybe sixteen.
Mom snapped a few photos of these bald spots he has. There are several more, but the belly is the absolute worst. Allergies is the obvious first thought, but nothing in his life has changed. Stress can also cause this, but he has no new stress either.
They decided to do some blood tests and also took a sample of the skin on his belly. The silly cat was happy to go along to have blood drawn. How can a cat love a vet clinic so much?
The results were not bad. For his age, his kidneys are great, he doesn’t show any signs of anything specific. The tissue sample has some bacteria in it which could cause a type of infection. Since we don’t have an exact cause, it could still be an allergy or auto-immune problem, or cancer. To start treatment, he received an injection of antibiotics which will last for two weeks, he will be taking prednisone in decreasing doses for four weeks, and for several days, the cone of shame will be worn. We don’t want him licking or scratching himself until his skin settles down.
Bert is not happy about the cone. No, not happy at all, but he is still trying to do his usual activities. We pups have been sniffing him a lot to try to figure out why he is wearing that weird thing. He is still hanging out more with us for company I guess. It looks like it will be a while until we know if this treatment plan will work or not. Hopefully his fur will stop falling out and grow back so things can get back to normal with him. If anyone has had their cat suddenly start losing fur for no reason, let us know what caused it as we are at a loss.
We are joining the Feline Friday Blog Hop held by Comedy Plus.
Hope Bert get a good weekend!
If he is in the cone, it won’t be wonderful, but we keep him company.
Poor Bert. We send you lots of AireZen and healing vibes.
His belly is getting better, it isn’t red or moist anymore, so maybe it is an infection thing.
We are sending healing thoughts for Bert. You girls are taking good care of him!
We stick out heads in his cone and give him kisses a lot. Hopefully the cone can come off in a couple more days.
Poor Bert!! My heart goes out to him! Ducky had an allergic reaction to some shampoo a couple of years ago that caused a secondary skin infection on her tummy, but it didn’t spread. I forget what antibiotics and topical cream the vet gave her, but they worked great.
There is nothing new in his life and it all just happened super fast. Hopefully the current treatment will help him.
Poor Bert! Thats a sweet little cone. Paws crossed for some relief and an answer. And may the answer
come with a solution. Have a good day your friend Lilly
We sure hope he will get better soon and not have this problem forever.
Poor Bert! That tummy looks very sore. I hope the vet can solve the problem and get Bert’s fur growing again.
His tummy is looking better already and it is dry, not wet like it was which we think is a good thing.
Awwww poor Bert!!!! He is a REALLY good boy. Cody never minded the Vet and Roary doesn’t mind it either. I’m praying that whatever is wrong with Bert is minor. He sure doesn’t look like he is as old as you said. He truly is a super good boy. Sending healing purrs and love his way!!
No one believes us when we say how old he is, but he was definitely over a year old when Mom got him in 2008, and they told us most likely around three and the vet agreed.
Oh, Bert, not the cone! I do hope the meds help and resolve your skin issue. Get well, furry friend! XOXO Sparkle
We think the cone is worse than all his bald spots.
Poor Bert. The cone of shame isn’t fun for pups or kitties. I hope it’s something simple and has an easy cure. Fingers and toes crossed.
Thank you for joining the Feline Friday Blog Hop.
Have a purrfect Feline Friday and weekend. Scritches all around and healing hugs to Bert. My best to your wonderful mom. ♥
It is not easy to figure out since the tests didn’t show an allergy and nothing has changed in his life to cause stress. We will see what happens in a couple weeks.
We sure hope the medicine works for Bert. We’ve had cats but haven’t dealt with hair loss…only hair balls! Sending lots of prayers
Well, he has had some hairballs as well! Mom has never had a cat lose fur before either and she has had at least one cat since she was seven.
poor baby, is he an outdoor cat? i would worry that someone sprayed something on their yard, or, did they do skin scrapes for mites? We hope he is better soon
No, he is an indoor only cat.
Aw, poor Bert! He is such a good sport though, I’m not sure I’ve ever had a cat who didn’t hate going to the vet! We hope this treatment works. ♥ It’s tough when you don’t know exactly what’s going on. I feel like I’ve read about another cat who did have a similar thing, but I can’t remember who now. I’ll try to think of it.
Mom thought stress or allergy, but nothing is new in his life and the allergy test came back pretty neutral. We will see if the current plan works.
If the current vet treatment doesn’t work we have a 5 year old female spayed that suddenly started doing that with large patches of fur missing. There was no bloody spots. Sometimes cats get stressed for reasons we don’t know or understand. Amitriptyline 5mg per day and being sure she had extra attention helped it. I am not a vet so please don’t do anything without one. Hope Bert is back to his usual self really soon!
Poor Bert Feel better
He is not a happy camper these days.
Oh dear- I hope your kitty gets better…..
He is quite a mess, but we think he is starting to get better.
Poor Bert! We are so glad you have a good mom who looks out for you and sisters who like you even with the silly cone. Hope the medicaine works. We only know about thyroid and pituitary causing hair to fall out. Glad your kidneys are good, that is the biggest issue we know about in “senior” cats.
The cause is the puzzle, but hopefully his furs will come back and all will be good.
Paws crossed that Bert’s bald spots are healed with the meds he’s taking!
xoxo,
Rosy, Jakey & Arty
We hope so too.
As long as it’s not ringworm, they are doing a culture just to be sure, right?
No, not ring worm for sure. May be an infection, auto immune disease or something like that if it doesn’t go away now.
How awful for you Bert, we hope the Vet magic gets to the bottom of it and the fur loss stops. Purrs and hugs from all of us.
Thank you all. We wish your family lots of love, support and healing.
We send purrayers and Power of the Paw that the meds help and Bert is better soon !
Hopefully he can get the cone off soon for starters.
Poor Bert. Hope he begins to feel better and the meds makes the bald spots regain their fur.
We took his cone off today, so we will see how that works out.
Bert I’m so very sorry about the cone…and everything crossed by the time you see this you are feeling some better after the meds
Hugs Cecilia
We will have to see how he is doing after the cone is off for a couple days, and then when the meds are finished.