It’s on his front paw and it’s probably about .5 cm in diameter. If it were a human hand it would be between his index and middle finger. He’s an indoor/outdoor cat and is acting normally (not licking or biting his paw, eating well, etc). I am not able to take him to the vet this week so I need to know if this is serious enough to get somebody else to take him. Thanks!
Usually, a bald spot would appear around a wound – but that doesn’t seem to be the case with your kitty. So, it’s time to call in the experts - Crazycatwoman (I may have messed up that user ID as to capitalization, so sorry).
I have heard of cats pulling out their own fur because of a sort of… well… extra-nervous kitty condition. I actually knew one that was put on kitty-prozac to stop it.
It could be some kind of fungus. Cats do occasionally get skin conditions that cause their hair to fall out.
I once had a kitty that got a bald spot on his back. It was in the same location where he’d had a tick, and then later crawled through a window that had some mildew on it. I thought, “Oh, boy…” when I saw the mildew/mold on the window while rescuing him because the tick bite spot was so recent. (And he was pressed against it right where the tick bite was.) Sure enough, my hunch was correct, the hair started falling out around that spot a couple of days later.
The vet checked it with a black light. Apparently the fungus would flouresce (sp?) under blacklight, but otherwise it was invisible. We treated it with anti-fungal cream and kitty was all happy and hairy again.
So do you guys think I can let it go unless it gets bigger or doesn’t eventually go away? Like I said, he doesn’t seem to be picking or biting at it.
You might want to take him and and have him checked for ringworm (it’s a fungus, not a worm). It’s highly contagious to other pets and to people - not deadly or anything but the more it spreads, the harder it is to get rid of. And ringworm spores are practically impossible to kill once they settle into your house. Might be worth it to have him checked out.
If you’re worried about it, take the cat in to the vet. It may be nothing but at least you’ll get peace of mind.
A few questions:
How does the skin where the hair is missing look? Is it red, flaky, rashy?
Is the bald spot isolated to this one area or are there other spots? Look carefully; sometimes you can miss other spots. Check the other feet especially.
Have you changed the diet recently? Sometimes food allergies result in hair loss, but usually it is not in isolated patches and is usually accompanied by itching. It is always good to consider allergies, though. For some reason food allergies especially love to make the feet lose hair.
Is the cat on flea preventative? Flea bite allergies can cause hair to fall out. The skin will usually look thickened and pustulated, and the cat will be itchy. It doesn’t sound like this is the case.
The vet will probably do a skin scrape to check for mites. They may also pull some hairs out around the bald spot to rule out ring worm, as well as do the black light trick that Fairblue mentioned. Both of these conditions are treatable and/or self-resolving over time. I’d recommend a trip to the vet just to be sure.
–ywtf, dvm
It looks normal, as if I took the clippers to it.
Nope. Purina Cat Chow for as long as I can remember.
Naw. I don’t think so either.
I think you’re right. This ringworm crap has me worried now.
I’d check for ringworm ASAP. Especially because it’s transferable to humans.
[Ringworm in cats](http://www.vetinfo.com/zringwrm.html#Ringworm in a cat)
If you catch ringworm in time, you’ll be all right. My babies, Buffy and Gypsy had ringworm as kittens. Basically, it’s more of a major pain in the ass than a life-threatening emergency. We had to catch them and rub medicine on the spots AND pill them. And we had to check them for new spots, and when it was really bad, we couldn’t touch them a lot, or we’d have to wash our hands after-they had it all over-especially Gypsy! The poor things looked so ugly-but they’re all better now, and none the worse for it (although I’d SWEAR that’s why Gypsy runs away when we approach her or go by her-bad memories)
Good luck. Ringworm is pretty common among kittens.
This happened to our cat around her eye. The vet said it was perfectly normal and may relate to a seasonal allergy. I would watch to see if it grows larger, but I wouldn’t tend to be too concerned about it.