My cat is losing weight, hair, and has skin rashes. What should I do?

Question

Hi-18 months old persian cat was fed unlimited dry food and for the last 1.5 month we got him transitioned to small amounts of dry food and calculated periodic amounts of wet food. He has lost considerable weight more towards his lower body in addition to hair loss and when you rub his lower sides of stomach there seems to be skin rashes(probably scratching, I assume). Attaching pics. Eats normal, plays for sometime but Mostly lying down. In God's Grace, all should be fine. Please advise.thanks. Pet's info: Cat | Persian | Male | unneutered | 1 year and 4 months old | 3 lbs

Vanessa Yeager DVM MPH · Accepted Answer

Hi and thanks for posting on Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Hair loss can have many causes in cats- skin infection such as a bacterial infection, allergy such as to food or a flea allergy (especially if Simba is not on any flea preventative) or fungal infection like ringworm can all be causes. Sometimes anxiety can cause cats to lick off their fur but this is typically a diagnosis that is made after all other health conditions are ruled out first. The weight loss could be due to due to simply eating less (this would be a good thing if Simba was previously overweight). Of course, weight loss can also be caused by many different underlying health condition such as certain infections, hyperthyroidism, liver, kidney disease, certain cancers and other endocrine disease. I would recommend Simba see his veterinarian soon for an evaluation. Your veterinary may take a skin scraping and hair sample from the area of hair loss and may recommend running blood work or other diagnostics as necessary. I hope this helps!

My cat is losing weight, hair, and has skin rashes. What should I do?

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