Q: I have an 11-year-old spayed female cat that is licking the fur off of her stomach. I think the extra fur she is ingesting is giving her more hairballs than she normally has also. Any ideas why she might be doing this or how it could be stopped?

A: Excess licking and grooming to the point of removing hair can be caused by a number of different things; these include allergies, endocrine or hormonal abnormalities and behavioral problems.

Ask your veterinarian to evaluate your cat for the common medical conditions that could cause this behavior. While you are getting it figured out, children’s onesies fit cats really well and can prevent this excess licking and hair pulling! Good luck!

Dr. Donna Spector, DVM, DACVIM

Do you need vet advice? Post a comment with your veterinary questions and we will send them to Dr. Donna Spector to be answered in a future column.

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This entry was posted on Friday, October 17th, 2008 at 11:04 am and is filed under Ask a Vet, Dr Donna Spector, Pet Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.