My Healthy Cat Overgrooms to the Point of Balding: Help!

There are many medical reasons that can cause overgrooming in cats, but I’ve noticed that a lot of people who have this problem have already taken their cats to the vet, had them checked for everything under the sun, and yet they still overgroom to the point of balding.

I’ve had one such cat in my life – Aramis, and while she most certainly goes further at times than even just overgrooming (even going so far as to scratch really hard and break skin), usually the first sign that there’s something irritating her is overgrooming.

With her, licking and cleaning are normal, but when her behaviours get excessive and she starts licking to the point where she has bald patches, it seems like there’s always something triggering this excess grooming that vets have had a lot of trouble diagnosing.

We found a number of culprits over the years, and I feel like it’s fair to say that most if not all of them have likely been allergies – some which we’ve learned, others which sadly we haven’t yet figured out.

If you’ve gone through the ins and outs of vet visits and come up dry, and still don’t know why your cat is overgrooming, I would look for potential sources of allergens.

The other potential cause if it’s not medical is stress and anxiety – but if your cat seems relatively stress-free and you’re not finding that adding extra daily play time with your cat makes a difference to the overgrooming, I’d look for allergens as a potential cause for the overgrooming.

These can come from a variety of different sources so I’m going to try to break down a few tips for where to look for the source of a cat’s allergy.

Cat Overgrooming to the Point of Balding? Look for Possible Allergies

1. Cat overgrooming most if not all the time? Start by looking at food.

For Aramis, a very, very big trigger was specifically salmon. Salmon oil, salmon in food – whatever form it came in, it was a problem for her. This one was super obvious to us because of how dramatically her behaviour changed when I started trying to supplement her diet with some salmon oil. So luckily we caught it early and eliminated it.

Harder was figuring out a few of my cats, including her, had issues with grain. My guess is their issue is with specifically gluten, but nonetheless, food is a good place to start, and if you need help with pet foods to try that are fine for cats with allergies, please ask your vet for their advice. This is a great place to start, however.

2. Another place to look for cat allergies: cat litter.

If your litter is scented, it is more likely to be a problem for a cat with allergies. It’s a good rule of thumb to never use a scented litter, as allergies and aversions to the scent can create problems in both the short and long run.

If you’re recently changed litters and found your cat overgrooming, this can be a pretty obvious indicator, but to my knowledge, cats can take some time to develop reactions to allergens, so make sure to look here.

3. Cleaning products, laundry detergent, lotions, and other smelly substances.

These are another good place to look. It’s really useful to have an idea of when your cat deals with a lot more overgrooming. Is it after you wash your bedsheets? Is your cat worse when you’re petting him or her at night? Could it be a lotion, shampoo, cleaning product, or laundry detergent causing your cat to have issues?

All these are potential allergens, so make sure to keep an eye out for when the overgrooming is worst as a potential clue into what your kitty’s particular issue may be with.

4. Plants like grasses, trees, and flowers, inside or outside.

Even if you have an indoor cat and never have any live plants in the house your cat still may have issues with flowers and trees and grasses, pollen being a massive allergy source for cats as well as humans.

You might be able to figure out the cause if you find that your cat is overgrooming during certain parts of the year. And if you figure out something may be a potential allergen, it’s time to get rid of it from your garden if it’s at all possible.

There’s a pretty hedge like flowering bush that my brother has recently suspected is causing his cat, and himself, allergies. And while we’re not 100% sure if this is the culprit, the only way of knowing for sure is to get rid of it and replace it with a plant that’s more likely to not cause any allergy symptoms. Crossing fingers it does the trick for stopping Aramis’ overgrooming for good.

5. Dust mites, molds, and mildew.

A lot of humans are allergic to dust mites, and mold and mildew definitely make for potential allergens as well. Try to keep your cat’s space as clean as possible, and to make things easier, you can always throw an inexpensive blanket into cat beds so that you can easily throw them in the wash more regularly to prevent a lot of dust mite build up.

Regular vacuuming helps. I’ve also found that running a dehumidifier helps a lot with this (where we live it gets quite humid), as dust mites and molds and mildew don’t grow so much when the humidity is low.

I’d recommend asking your vet for more sources of allergies if you’ve tried looking as hard as you can around your house and can’t seem to figure out potential allergens that might be causing the overgrooming.

Of course the overgrooming could be caused by something else, like anxiety for instance, but if you’ve looked at absolutely everything you could that’s health related at the vet’s and your cat seems relatively unstressed – and still can’t figure out a potential solution, I’d continue to look for potential allergens causing the overgrooming.

Your Turn: Healthy Cat Overgrooming Thoughts?

Do you have any tips, advice, or stories to share about cats overgrooming? What do you think the solution might be for cats who do this? Do you think allergies is the most likely, or something else, if the cat has been to the vet and seems completely healthy?

Do you have any advice on where to look for potential allergens? Have any experience with any that have happened in your home and triggered allergies in your cats?

Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments down below!