A Michael Broad Blog
When this cat did urinate it was bloody. He also groomed his abdomen excessively. These are the unmistakeable signs of an anxious and stressed cat. He had developed cystitis (infection of the bladder) which is often linked to stress. He was one of six cats in the home. Unfortunately he was not friendly with …
Cats are both predators and prey. As an instinctual survival strategy, to avoid detection they are extremely fastidious about their personal hygiene. Amazingly, cats can spend up to 50% of each day self-grooming. There are times however, when cats overdo this fastidious behavior and begin over-grooming; a behavior which can result in open skin …
UK: the Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors (APBC) represents a group of experienced and qualified pet behaviour counsellors (I hasten to add that I’m not that keen on the concept of cat behaviourists or cat behaviour counsellors). In the UK the most readily published information about cat behaviour problems as at 2003 was produced …
In the UK, Cats Protection’s survey concluded that more than 50% of cat owners cuddled their cat to calm her/him down. This is often not the correct response, to be honest. In fact, some research indicates that some cats find being cuddled or petted stressful. The picture below shows us that cats have facial …
When a cat licks the fur of her lower belly because she grooms a lot it is almost certainly going to be psychogenic alopecia which is compulsive self grooming rather than a hormone deficiency causing a loss of hair. Grooming is often a response to stress by cat. Stress might be caused by almost …
The reason why I am writing a short article on this topic is because it might be useful to a cat owner to set out some possible causes on the basis that, on my reading of the situation, some veterinarians might resort to steroid treatments a little too hastily. They might do this because …
Overgrooming in cats can be quite a serious health problem. Cats can lick the fur off their bodies and don’t even stop there, sometimes. A cat can lick exposed skin raw to the point where it bleeds and becomes infected. Then the skin might itch. Your cat might scratch it and so the problem …
I’ll tell you why my cat overgrooms. I am writing about Charlie my three-legged cat. When I first adopted him after my mother died, I did notice that he had a slightly bald patch on his stomach. I thought nothing of it. For the first year I did notice that he groomed with a …
