Katz Tales: Dealing with a cat who is losing his bum fur

Inkie having office cuddles.

Inkie is on my lap, purring, headbutting and stamping happily but when I rub his tailbone, he stops and gives me stare that’s loaded with suspicion. You see, we’ve had drama again.

It started with a cuddle. Several times a day, Inkie strolls into my office, jumps on the back of my chair, and slides onto my lap. I rub his chin and ears with one hand and run my other down his spine to his tail.

Inkie adores it. He stamps and headbutts, purring like a small locomotive.

He’s also shedding at the moment, so each visit is marked with copious clouds of long, soft, black fur that blankets my desk like a gothic winter scene.

It was a few days after the last Katz Tales that I noticed an odd patch on his front elbow. The hair was missing in a round patch. The skin seemed fine so I half thought he must have skinned it while wrestling with Tic Tac.

They play race and chase that ends in wrestling matches where they bite each other. Given that Inkie is twice Tic Tac's size, our princess evens the odds by fighting dirty.

As she was taught by Target who is a complete lunatic when in battle, Inkie has his paws full trying to keep her under control.

Mostly, he loses.

Inkie relaxing after a traumatic fortnight.

Worrying spots

So I sent Inkie on his way and gave Tic Tac a lecture on being too rough. As she put her ears back and yawned in my face, she put me firmly in my place: at the bottom of the totem pole.

Two days later I spotted a large hairless area on Inkie’s bottom. Examining it was a challenge.

When I lifted his tail, Inkie bolted. I have a bad back so can’t chase him, and he knew it.

Inkie’s flat ears and narrowed eyes signalled he planned to avoid me – but being a scatterbrain, he forgot.

An hour later, he was back. This time I put an arm around him and looked at his bum. The hairless patch was irregular. There was a graze too.

Inkie was struggling, rattling my back, but I held on and kept looking. Down on one of his back paws, there was a similar patch.

At this point I had to let go. Inkie rocketed out of the office and stood in the hall, scolding me roundly. A man-cat’s bottom is private, and I was to mind my own business. Tic Tac rushed over to support him. She licked him on the ear, glared at me, and the two went off to play.

If we were at our Malaysian home in Subang Jaya, Inkie would have been at the vet within an hour. But our experience with British vets has been uninspiring. Their charges are insanely expensive and their care, substandard. It’s £42 (RM230) just to walk in the door.

Inkie was not amused at having his bottom inspected.

Guessing game

As it was definitely not an anal gland issue (see sidebar) and the grazes were minor, I had a powwow with Tom.

Bare skin and lesions can be ringworm, a kind of fungus. While Inkie is an indoor boy, the fungus can travel via shoes. Tic Tac has garden adventures too.

But I’ve seen a lot of ringworm and this didn’t look like it. Finally, the last time we had ringworm, which was back in Melaka some 20 years ago, I got it too. Totting it all up, it seemed unlikely.

Next, we considered fleas and allergic flea dermatitis (AFD). Some cats just get bites and others have a severe allergic reaction that includes hair loss and rashes.

Fleas seemed unlikely as Tic Tac’s white fur would show up trouble in a second, and we have not noticed any trouble.

We looked, just in case, rubbing her fur, looking in her paw pits, on her tummy and in her ears too.

Our girl loved it. She took it as a luxury massage, and purred herself hoarse.

Finding nothing, we discounted that idea too.

Watching Inkie watching the birds outside, I remembered we’d just had the windows cleaned.

We use pet friendly products only but as I can’t walk at the moment, we have a cleaner lady. She’d been away the month before. I forgot to tell her about the products and she had used a water and bleach mix. By the time I smelled it, she had powered through the house.

Maybe Inkie had sat down on a damp surface.

 

Finding a remedy

While I sank into self-blame, Tom pointed out that the pet shop had run out of our cat litter too.

Instead of our unscented litter, they’d sent rose scented stuff. Maybe Inkie was allergic.

Whatever it was, it certainly was not Tic Tac. I apologised and she was very sweet about it, licking my hand and very graciously accepting a creamy treat. The boys rocked up instantly, so it was treats all round.

The humans blasted into action. We stocked the cat trays with unscented litter and reminded the ladies to use the pet safe cleaners.

I bought some special healing goop for cat skin and three times a day lathered it on Inkie’s bottom, paw and elbow. He was deeply suspicious at first but as it has a cooling effect, he decided he liked it.

Within two days, the grazes had cleared. The area was still bare but cats heal on their own schedule. You wait, think nothing is happening, and then the fur suddenly sprouts.

Inkie’s bottom was bare three days ago and today it’s almost grown. His elbow and paw are healed completely.

To celebrate, we’re having a glorious time joking about our drama. Like we never got to the bottom of it, but Inkie’s bum is back to normal and Tic Tac was compensated for taking the bum rap.