Hair missing?

Sapsorrow

Hi we just recovered our cat from an empty house she got trapped in unbeknownst to us yesterday morning, apart from being really hungry she's grand but she had all these big chunks of hair missing and patchs of skin showing now. Does anyone know what thats from? The house is our landladies sons altough he doesn't live there, she was over there yesterday with a plumber fixing a leak in the garden and lily has a habit of snekaing into peoples houses for snoozes and got locked in. We went looking for her this evening and it occured to me to check, she seemed really distraught at the window when she heard us calling her and we had to wait an hour and a half for the landlady to come out before she was freed. I can't imagine anything in the room she was locked in doing it to her

PaulB91

is it possible she tried to escape and got caught on something - does the skin look red? - maybe she tried to get out up a chimney or under a door?

Sapsorrow

Ya it's a bit irritated looking alright, there was no gap under the door, but there was a fire place. Actually come to think of it she tries to climb up the chimney in our house sometimes so that could be it although there's no evidence of dirt on her she's imaaculate as always. She's an eccentric character in general but she's being really wierd since we got her back. I'm a bit worried about her tbh especially since I found the bald patchs. I hope she's not too traumatised, I'm trying to cuddle her (she's normally a total cuddle whore) but she's having none of it

boodlesdoodles

Any chance she was pulling at her hair with the trauma of being unable to get out? Poor little thing. I'm not really a cat person but we had a dog that got lost years ago at home, he'd been shot by neighbour for nothing only badness. When we eventually found him he'd pulled a load of his hair out from around his wound, vet said it was stress related. I suppose like us humans chewing on our nails or hair. Hope she'll be ok, she probably needs time to find her feet again with you.

The Sweeper

Take her to the vet for a once-over just to make sure she hasn't done herself damage. The hair thing worries me. There needs to be quite a bit of violent action to make a cat loose hair in clumps big enough to show bare skin beneath. How much hair are we talking here? What sort of bald patches??

You want to get a patient vet to have a look, and make sure there isn't another issue - e.g. if another cat was in the house and fought with her (unlikely I know) she could have wounds, or more likely if she got caught somewhere and struggled to free herself she could have some foreign body under the skin like splinters, and they could abscess if left. If something closed or fell on her and she had to struggle violently to get out from under it, or free herself generally, she may have an underlying injury, a break or fracture - cats are buggers for hiding their injuries.

If she had to struggle for some time to free herself, for whatever reason, inside the house, that will have contributed massively to how upset she is.

She may be very traumatised about the whole thing - cats can be funny like that. 'Mood settlers' for cats include Feliway, which is a synthetic cat happy-hormone - you can buy it in plug-in form, like a plug-in air freshener, and leave it in the room she spends most of her time in. It's not cheap, but it can have a startling effect. Another option is a Bachs Flower Remedy like Rescue Remedy for cats. You can drop a couple of drops on her ears (the backs, not the fronts)and rub it in. The vet may have Feliway in stock, and you can try the chemist for Bachs, or buy it online.

Until you can get her to a vet, make sure your cat has a quiet space, with her favourite things - toys, blanket that smells familiar, favourite food - and let her have some calm time while the house continues on around her the way it usually does.

Sapsorrow

Jesus thats an awful storey about your dog, christ above just shooting a dog like that what a nutcase! :mad: Ya maybe she did do it herself, I think chickens do that when they're stressed in farms? She'll be grand ina day or two she's not very smart as far as cats go so I'd say she'll forget quick enough, hopefully she'll have learnt her lesson this time though. Shes a fecker for inviting herself into peoples houses. We used to live on a terrace in the city and she rotated who's bed she slept in at night between 3 or 4 houses the tart! She's going around smelling everything in the house with her jaw hanging open (it's not injured its just that wierd thing they do to smell things more sensitively).

Sapsorrow

The Sweeper wrote: »

Take her to the vet for a once-over just to make sure she hasn't done herself damage. The hair thing worries me. There needs to be quite a bit of violent action to make a cat loose hair in clumps big enough to show bare skin beneath. How much hair are we talking here? What sort of bald patches??

You want to get a patient vet to have a look, and make sure there isn't another issue - e.g. if another cat was in the house and fought with her (unlikely I know) she could have wounds, or more likely if she got caught somewhere and struggled to free herself she could have some foreign body under the skin like splinters, and they could abscess if left. If something closed or fell on her and she had to struggle violently to get out from under it, or free herself generally, she may have an underlying injury, a break or fracture - cats are buggers for hiding their injuries.

If she had to struggle for some time to free herself, for whatever reason, inside the house, that will have contributed massively to how upset she is.

She may be very traumatised about the whole thing - cats can be funny like that. 'Mood settlers' for cats include Feliway, which is a synthetic cat happy-hormone - you can buy it in plug-in form, like a plug-in air freshener, and leave it in the room she spends most of her time in. It's not cheap, but it can have a startling effect. Another option is a Bachs Flower Remedy like Rescue Remedy for cats. You can drop a couple of drops on her ears (the backs, not the fronts)and rub it in. The vet may have Feliway in stock, and you can try the chemist for Bachs, or buy it online.

Until you can get her to a vet, make sure your cat has a quiet space, with her favourite things - toys, blanket that smells familiar, favourite food - and let her have some calm time while the house continues on around her the way it usually does.

Thanks for that post, thats brilliant what great advice! Are you a vet or something like that? I will get her to the vet in a day or two, the one we use is really caring. She's a short hair but the bare patchs are about as big as a cent coin along her sides and on her lower back. Theres no sign or broken skin or anything like that it's just bare. We had a look around the room (the landlady had actually locked the sitting room door) and there was no sign of any disruption so I think it might have been stress or the chimney seeing as she has a history of doing that. The second she got out she ran into the garden and started rolling around and I picked her up and carried her home and she didn't make a peep apart from purring (she's a mute anyway) so don't think there's anything wrong with her bones. Thank god we found her, the landlady only checks that house every few weeks she could have gotten seriously dehydrated!
Actually I have a spray bottle of that feliway somewhere I must dig it out, she went through a phase of peeing a few years ago when we got 2 new kittens so I got that to try and mellow her out a bit. I've got a bottle of cream in the fridge with her name on it too, she already ate 3 pouches of wet food.

Here's the princess: http://i810.photobucket.com/albums/zz21/khrystyna100/CIMG7394.jpg

boodlesdoodles

Aw she's gorgeous! Here's to a swift return to herself

Sapsorrow

boodlesdoodles wrote: »

Aw she's gorgeous! Here's to a swift return to herself

Thanks a mil

nearly

khrystyna100 wrote: »

Hi we just recovered our cat from an empty house she got trapped in unbeknownst to us yesterday morning.

How did you find your kitty? How long was she gone for?

I'm so curious how you found out she was in the house- was it far from where you live?

My cat's missing in Thursday ( http://twitpic.com/1ec0a7 ) and I'm gutted. Really the only word for it.

I put up a thread asking any stories of how people found their cats to get some ideas and stop myself being so upset.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055879929

I'd love to hear more about this story!