# Of cats and fur (obligitory pictures included) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 30, 2006, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cats-and-fur-obligitory-pictures-included/350498 "2006-03-30T03:55:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cats-and-fur-obligitory-pictures-included/350498/1 "2006-03-30T03:55:39Z")
First the pictures: [Kitty](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/xgxlx/DSCF0812.jpg) (yes that’s her name. She used to have another name, but my dad started calling her Kitty and it stuck.) [Kitty again](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/xgxlx/DSCF0810.jpg) [Sebastian](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v242/xgxlx/DSCF0807.jpg) Now the question: I noticed today when she was cleaning herself that kitty had a bare furless spot on her lower abdomen, kind of in between her legs. I confirmed this by scratching her belly and getting her to lay on her back, she is indeed ‘shaved’ down there. Is this something we should be worried about, or is it just the result of her legs rubbing together for years, wearing the hair away, much like the sockline on my ankles? We’ll be taking them to the vet soon (as in next week), so I’ll probably mention it there, but I just thought I’d check to make sure my beloved Kitty is indeed alright. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cats-and-fur-obligitory-pictures-included/350498/2 "2006-03-30T04:02:37Z")
One of my kitties scratched himself a bald spot when they got fleas recently. Do yours get some kind of flea treatment? ---
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cats-and-fur-obligitory-pictures-included/350498/3 "2006-03-30T04:08:42Z")
> [@ENugent](#): > > One of my kitties scratched himself a bald spot when they got fleas recently. Do yours get some kind of flea treatment? Yeah, but this is in a place where scratching is near impossible, between her two back legs. I’m pretty sure it’s just from them rubbing together, but I want to be on the safe side. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cats-and-fur-obligitory-pictures-included/350498/4 "2006-03-30T04:13:04Z")
Take her to the vet, just in case. Is it just bare of fur, or is it scabbed, or irritated? ---
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cats-and-fur-obligitory-pictures-included/350498/5 "2006-03-30T04:15:48Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Take her to the vet, just in case. Is it just bare of fur, or is it scabbed, or irritated? Just bare. Like I said, they’re both going to the vet anyway. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cats-and-fur-obligitory-pictures-included/350498/6 "2006-03-30T05:03:37Z")
Bare-bare, or just not-a-whole-lot-of-fur-bare? [Here’s my Betsy.](http://fff.fathom.org/pages/Water%20Method/Betsy's%20Belly.jpg) That part of her belly doesn’t have much fur at all, and the areas around her little nipples is just about furless. (And yes, she really does loll about in my lap like this, which my wife finds to be borderline obscene. [Here’s a more dramatic shot of her.](http://monkeyislandgraphics.tripod.com/portfolio/id28.html)) ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cats-and-fur-obligitory-pictures-included/350498/7 "2006-03-30T06:16:22Z")
If she’s spayed, her hormone levels are low. (So said my girls’ vet when they had the same problem.) ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cats-and-fur-obligitory-pictures-included/350498/8 "2006-03-30T10:27:57Z")
Some years ago, our then neighbours said our cat was killing birds. Although this was probably untrue- our cat is too fat and lazy, and the were morons anyway- to keep the peace we put lots of bells around the cats neck. Not one, as I understand that cats can then stalk in a way to account for this. We had three bells. Fast forward a few months and I look at the cats chest. It is now almost bare from the bells rubbing against it. Worse still, the cat has a band around it’s neck where the fur has rubbed off (cat had always had a collar and a tag). It didn’t seem to worry the cat but I removed the collar and bells. Five years later and moronic neighbours have gone, cat still has no collar, the hair on it’s chest has grown back but the fur on it’s neck never did. I asked the vet (who was as bald as a badger) if it would ever grow back - He pointed to his head and said “I wore a hat once”. _sigh_ Anyway, get a vet to look at your cat. It could be permanent. ---
**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cats-and-fur-obligitory-pictures-included/350498/9 "2006-03-30T10:44:57Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > He pointed to his head and said “I wore a hat once”. _sigh_ Got nothing to add about the kitties, but this just made me laugh at the image of the vet wearing his hat once (just once) and all his hair disappearing. ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cats-and-fur-obligitory-pictures-included/350498/10 "2006-03-30T14:28:57Z")
My cat has the same thing. The vet said not to worry unless the skin was irritated. Maybe the cats overgroom a particular spot, maybe it’s just bare. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cats-and-fur-obligitory-pictures-included/350498/11 "2006-03-30T17:00:42Z")
> [@Gaudere](#): > > Maybe the cats **overgroom** a particular spot, maybe it’s just bare. BINGO. (bolding mine) If you look at the area with a magnifying glass you will probably see some broken hairshafts. This is termed “stubble alopecia” and is very common in the area the OP describes. I would point it out the next time the cat is seen for vaccines or another problem. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cats-and-fur-obligitory-pictures-included/350498/12 "2006-03-30T17:30:01Z")
Re: **Cicero** ’s bald vet. When my previous dog had a swollen ear, my vet gave us a bottle of DMSO mixed with some other stuff. He cautioned me against using it on myself or getting it on my hands. He pointed to his head and said that exposure to DMSO probably had accelerated his baldness. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cats-and-fur-obligitory-pictures-included/350498/13 "2006-03-30T22:37:52Z")
This happened to my cat due to stress (from adding a second cat to the family). We got her tested for everything under the sun, she was fine. The fur eventually did grow back. She has a beautiful furry belly again, now. Not to alarm you, but this can be a sign of cancer and serious stuff. As my vet explained, that’s not likely to be the explanation if the cat is otherwise healthy (good weight, active, etc.). ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cats-and-fur-obligitory-pictures-included/350498/14 "2006-03-30T22:40:32Z")
I wore a hat. Once. In 1960. For 20 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2006, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cats-and-fur-obligitory-pictures-included/350498/15 "2006-03-30T23:46:11Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > I wore a hat. Once. In 1960. For 20 minutes. That’s deep. If you know what I mean. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kiminy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Kiminy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiminy)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cats-and-fur-obligitory-pictures-included/350498/16 "2006-03-31T02:10:43Z")
We had a cat who was pretty much hairless around the base of her tail. Otherwise, she was in good health, with a good appetite and good spirits, so the vet just chalked it up to overgrooming. The hair came back the year we lived in France, when the cat went to live with my in-laws, then disappeared again shortly after we got back to the States and she came to live with us again. It wasn’t until we moved from living in apartments into our own house and her hair came back again that we made an association between the hair loss and roaches–neither our new house my our in-laws’ house had roaches, but every apartment we lived in did. (Nothing close to infestation levels–just a few that wandered in every once in a while to see what snacks they could find.) We’re pretty sure that the hair loss was an allergic reaction, either to the roaches themselves or to the sprays used to try to eliminate the roaches. The cat lived to a ripe age of 18, and was pretty much happy all the time, so it obviously didn’t really affect her healthwise. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2006, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cats-and-fur-obligitory-pictures-included/350498/17 "2006-03-31T04:57:36Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > Bare-bare, or just not-a-whole-lot-of-fur-bare? > > [Here’s my Betsy.](http://fff.fathom.org/pages/Water%20Method/Betsy's%20Belly.jpg) > > That part of her belly doesn’t have much fur at all, and the areas around her little nipples is just about furless. The little nipples are properly known as “itty bitty kitty titties”. > [@](#): > > (And yes, she really does loll about in my lap like this, which my wife finds to be borderline obscene. [Here’s a more dramatic shot of her.](http://monkeyislandgraphics.tripod.com/portfolio/id28.html)) There’s no “borderline” about it. That IS obscene. For some reason, female cats make the most obscene propositions to human males. ---
**Author:** ![NajaNivea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/22d042/32.png) [@NajaNivea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NajaNivea)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2006, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cats-and-fur-obligitory-pictures-included/350498/18 "2006-04-02T20:57:07Z")
> [@vetbridge](#): > > BINGO. (bolding mine) If you look at the area with a magnifying glass you will probably see some broken hairshafts. This is termed “stubble alopecia” and is very common in the area the OP describes. I would point it out the next time the cat is seen for vaccines or another problem. I have a cat who was a vet science research subject reject. He was bred and born in the Center for Lab Animal Science facilities and was in a study with a group of ten cats until he was two, when I took him home. He’s a weird cat. Really strange. He doesn’t do a lot of normal cat behavior things, and there are some things he does that I can only imagine where they came from. I say that only to explain that there might be no explanation for what he’s doing. He’s now four, we’ve had him for two years. A couple months ago, we noticed that the fur on his belly was thinning. A while later, we realized that he’s overgrooming himself, and has at this point stripped off the fur on his belly, inner thighs, lower hind legs, lower back above the base of his tail, and a chunk of the base of his tail. He is the most godawful, mangy looking cat you can possibly imagine. I feel bad for him, he’s a very friendly, very personable feline, and I am really pretty fond of him… but boy is he nasty looking, heh. We took him to the vet for a thorough checkup, and they didn’t have any ideas. He said it might be allergies, so they gave him cortisone or something similar, which didn’t help at all, but otherwise said there’s nothing wrong with him and sent us on our way. **PapaArmadillo DVM** doesn’t have any suggestions, but he’s six hundred miles away, so can’t really take a look at him. If it is stubble alopecia, is there anything we can do about it? He doesn’t seem unhappy or uncomfortable, he’s just… nasty looking. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2006, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/of-cats-and-fur-obligitory-pictures-included/350498/19 "2006-04-02T22:21:23Z")
MixieArmadillo, take your cat to a felline dermatologist. One of mine had a similar thing and I messed around with cortisone and the regular vets for almost a year with no success. One series of meds with the derm. and he is completely well. The meds were really expensive but it would not have been nearly so bad if I hadn’t already spent so much money on ineffective vets & ineffective meds & special diets & so on. By the way my cat’s allergy was to fleas and the derm. said this is by far the most common cause of derm. problems in cats, even if you think they don’t have fleas, which I did think. I use Advantage and was doing it once a month or 5 weeks or so; now I do it every 3 weeks and the kitty is fine.