My senior diabetic cat is tearing out his fur. Why is this happening?

Question

my senior male cat (who is diabetic) has started to tear his fur out. What causes this behavior? Pet's info: Cat | Mixed Breed | Male | neutered | 8 years and 4 months old | 18 lbs

Dr. Massimo Orioles, DVM, Cert AVP, MRCVS · Accepted Answer

This is probably due to an allergy, although it could also be infection or mites or it could be stress related. First of all, in order to rule out skin parasites, you will need to treat with a high quality flea treatment (advocate or advantage), then ask the vet to perform a skin scrape - this might reveal an infection or a mite infestation. If all of those came back negative, the next step is to treat the allergy symptomatically and try to discover the cause of the allergy. Three main type of allergies are usually affecting pets: food allergies, flea and parasite related ones and environmental type (allergens coming from trees, pollens, dust etc etc). If allergy is not identified this behaviour could be purely stress related. Some medications can be given by the vet in order to repair the skin lesions (steroids and antibiotics). Please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

My senior diabetic cat is tearing out his fur. Why is this happening?

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