Question for cat owners.

[yecats]

Question for cat owners? I have sort of adopted 2 stray cats. They don't live in my home (we have dogs and have always had dogs) but live in my yard and we have been feeding them for 3 years and caught them a year or so ago and had them both fixed for free (one of these capture and release programs we have here in the city).

Anyway, one cat must've been someone's house cat as he does allow me to pick him up and pet him for hours. He is an older cat and seems to hate the cold weather so when it was cold, I began to take him at night and put him out in the morning when I head off to work. The other cat who hangs around him is a female ferrell cat and is just beginning to let us pet her a bit (we can not pick her up as she freaks out). Well in March she lost a considerable amount of hair and some weight. We attempted to try to catch her again but that didn't work. She has since grown her hair back and gained a bit of weight but we are noticing that other neighborhood strays are doing the same thing.

One of my neighbors just told me a few nights ago he had a stray cat that he thought was dead in his back yard. He went to go pick it up and it wasn't dead but had gotten very thin and lost a lot of hair. He had it picked up by the SPCA. Does anyone know what these cats may have? Anyone else experienced this? The other cat that I was taking in hasn't developed these symptoms.

 

[Kim&Chris]

Years ago, we had a cat that had similar symptoms. We took him to the vet, and it turned out that he had 'feline leukemia', which has symptoms similar to human AIDS.

I apologize, because I don't really know too much about it, except that it is VERY CONTAGIOUS between cats.

I'm not trying to say that's what your cat has, but it is something that certainly sounds pretty similar.

Good luck. I hope the poor baby is OK.

 

[Kismetdreams]

This may not apply to your cats, since hey live outside and this is a new series of symptoms, but my girl cat is allergic to fleas, and if I don't put on Advantage (she's allergic to Frontline, too!) every three weeks, then she has a horrible reaction to the fleas and starts to chew and scratch and loose hair and weight, until I get her back on the medicine.

 

[yecats]

I just knew someone was going to say cat Leukemia. I thought it myself as well and picked up some literature on it. I guess time will tell. I certainly hope though that it is the later of the two responses.

Thanks to you both.

P.S. Kismetdreams - beautiful wedding photo's. Glad to see you found your prince charming, wishing you many wonderful years vacationing at Disney.

 

[Laura]

It could be fleas, I did have a cat who became ill and lost weight due to the aggravation of the bites.

Since "your" cat regained weight and grew hair back, I don't know if that's symptomatic of feline leukemia or FIV. I would think they'd get progressively worse; I never had a cat with either disease. There are lots of nasty things that might be going around, though. I hope you find out.

 

[Cinderellafifi]

How awful!! Those kitties are very lucky to have someone looking out for them! I hope you can find answers and a cure fast!

 

[yecats]

Thanks for the responses. I am praying that it is only an allergy to fleas. My block is sort of a wierd little area, there are several of us that leave out food for the ferrell cats; however, my two cats don't like any other cats to cross their path so we have to hide the food for the other cats while we are feeding ours in the backyard. Time will tell, I am praying that there around here for a very long time.

 

[Carl]

In general cats do not do well if left outside. All our cats have been strictly inside pets.

 

[goofygirl]

It may be mange, which causes hairloss. Not sure though. good luck!


PS- I am also a "yecats" (Stacey)