Cat overgrooming: how quickly will it stop?

Factual Questions
1

One of my cats is overgrooming. I know the source of the stress and have removed it. How quickly will she stop?

For those who need the entire story: the stress was caused by two other cats introduced to the house recently. They are young males who have not been fixed yet (appointment to do so next month) and they just kept following her around all the time. They’ve been removed from the house for now, although it will take a while for their scent to dissipate, so perhaps the stress isn’t completely gone.

2

I’ve known a couple cats with anxiety issues. IME medication was necessary to alieve their problems once they manifested.

3

Hmm? Cats are such strange beings.

Get some Feliway plug-ins.

And give lots of attention to her.

I can’t swear by the Feliway…it didn’t help my cats. But they’re assholes.

Oh, you could brush her alot yourself. Maybe she still thinks she smells like the boys.

Good luck.

4

OK, went out and got Feliway. Plugged right above the feeding area. Hope it works.

5

I sure hope it works. Keep us posted.

6

Cats are quirky creatures, so they’re unpredictable. They can sometimes cling to behaviors after the initial trigger is long gone. Sometimes you can gently coax them out of it by doing some kitty behavioral therapy, substituting another activity when you see that the licking is getting out of hand.

7

This was the reaction of one of my cats, once. In her case, it was one other cat. He was just more outgoing than she was. She kind of hid away and licked off much of the fur from her waist to the end half of her tail.

As soon as we found another home for mister outgoing, she stopped and came out again. It took awhile for the fur to grow back. Oddly, she didn’t mind the dog.

8

Besides the Feliway, you could try putting a calming collar on her, available from Amazon, Chewy, and various pet stores.

9

Update.

The Feliway didn’t seem to do much, although it’s hard to judge how effective it really is.

One thing I didn’t mention in the OP was that Gina (cat’s name) was also doing lots of scratching. I thought this was part of the whole overgrooming, rather than fleas, since my other cat wasn’t scratching. The two are BFFs and frequently sleep curled up together. So I figured if one has fleas, they both will. Well, the other cat started to scratch as well, so I got some flea killer stuff and applied it to both. That seems to have cut the scratching way down. Fleas can also cause overgrooming, so perhaps the cause is a combination of them plus the other cats.

As far as the overgrooming, it’s hard to judge because she’s frequently in another room and could be grooming out of my sight. But the overgrooming in the areas that are getting bare (the hindquarters and lower abdomen) seems to have decreased, although she still grooms too much in the fore part of her body.