My cat is licking/gnawing bald spots on himself... allergies?

My male cat is 1 yr old and has been on IAMs food since day 1. I haven't changed the type of litter he has, either. This summer we treated him with Zodiac flea meds and it eventually left a little bald spot on the back of his neck (this was in June). Since, we've treated him three times with Advantix with success.





Now, he is constantly licking himself all over and has gnawed a bald patch on his side where he has broken the skin. Could this be continued allergies to the Zodiac meds from months ago? Is this a common thing or should I be getting him to the vet asap?

My cat is licking/gnawing bald spots on himself... allergies?
Food allergies can turn up randomly, even when an animal has been on the same food the whole time. However, I think this is more likely to be a flea allergy. Advantix is good, but if your dog is allergic to fleas, you'll need more - i.e a housespray, to ensure that you've got rid of 100% of the fleas. You'll also need to treat year round - fleas still get around in the winter, they like to overwinter in your house, under your nice warm central heating!





First thing to do is get a complete regime of flea treatment. I do not think this has anything to do with the Zodiac, this stuff will be long since out of his system, but you're quite right to stay away from store-bought flea meds!





Chalice
Reply:go to the vet
Reply:it could be allergies or stress, has there been any new people coming around, any new routines any new things that might stress him out? take your cat to the vet to get it checked out it could be something or it could be nothing.........





one of my cats all of the sudden I noticed some bald patches on top of his head and under his chin and on his back....vet couldn't see anything "textbook" going on with him gave us some drops to put on the affected areas and we did that and with in 24 hrs there was significant improvemnt and you can't tell that he had any bald patches with in a week. the next step if that didn't work they were going to do some skin scrapings to see if there was something going on. and then blood work, but being that he responded to those drops, we didn't need to proced to the skin scrapings or blood work.
Reply:It could be allergies, or some other condition. And yes, a visit to the vet would help in finding out what you're dealing with.





Good luck!
Reply:We had problems with one of our five cats being allergic to flea bites. Even with flea meds, he still licked and had problems until we moved from "flea country".





http://www.sniksnak.com/cathealth/flea-a...





If your cat is an outside cat, even with the flea meds, he will still be bit occasionally and just one bite will cause a reaction with his allergy to flea saliva. Check the site I left for things you can do for him.





And he had licked off all the fur on his lower belly, patches on the sides of him as well as the base of his tail. He is an inside cat and once we beat the flea problem, he is beautiful again.
Reply:Does he actually have fleas? If not I'd seriously consider stopping all flea meds and see if the condition improves.





If it doesn't, then it may be food or environmental allergies. Look at the label on the food you give him; if it shows wheat/corn/soy, you may have found the culprit. Dry food contains lots of fillers that cats may be allergic to.

star of bethlehem