Post Published on May 5, 2017 | Last Updated on February 16, 2021 by Jenny
If your cat has been losing hair around their neck, you might be about ready to tear out your own hair trying to find answers. (This question came up over on Facebook.) There are a lot of different reasons cats might be losing hair around their necks, which range in degrees of seriousness. Here some possible causes to investigate:
- An irritating collar
- Diet (dry cat food)
- Food allergies (many purebreds are allergic to chicken, grains, and sometimes fish)
- A particularly bad pollen season causing seasonal allergies
- Flea allergies
- Flea medicine irritating the back of the neck
- A reaction to a drug
- Hormonal imbalance or glandular problems
- Stress
- Alopecia
- Bacterial or fungal infections
- Mange – caused by a cluster of ear or skin mites
- Ringworm
- Pemphigus Foliaceus – an autoimmune disease that manifests hair loss and skin irritation
If your cat is losing their hair, here are a few possible cat hair loss treatments to try:
- Put apple cider vinegar or hydrogen peroxide on a cotton ball and dab it on the itchy spot.
- Make sure they are on a good flea control.
- Immunotherapy for allergies.
- Give them colloidal silver or put it on them.
- Stay on your your vet to run allergy tests. Some treatments your vet might recommend include special shampoo, steroids, a shot of Prednisone, Atopica, or Apoquel.
- Get a biopsy to rule out more serious cat health problems.
- Changing diets
- Switch to wet food (or at least 50/50) diet.
- Try a novel protein diet, like rabbit.
- If you try different diets, your cat will need to be on a diet for at least a month to determine whether or not they are allergic to it.
Try basic solutions like checking on their collar or changing their diet first, but if the hair loss doesn’t go away, the best thing to do is to talk to your vet and see what tests or treatment they recommend.
Have you ever dealt with hair loss in cats around the neck? What was the cause? What treatments did you use? Share here!
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My cat is list hair due to flea treatment, foist time ever, but he is also hyperthyroid
I just noticed tonight that one of the 4 kittens had a thinning of the fur around it’s neck as if it had been wearing a collar and then after looking at the others I see that they ALL have it to one degree or another. It’s just around the neck, nowhere else. this wouldn’t have anything to do with any kind of disease like leukemia or anything with it? I’ve lost the cat to leukemia and it was pretty rough. I now have seven cats besides the kittens and I don’t want to have an epidemic on my hands. None of them tested positive for leukemia but these kittens are by a stray father so I don’t know yet. They are only 6 weeks old.
Thanks for the informative article Jenny. Great that you listed a number of reasons and how to treat it with lots of alternatives. No one here has that so far, but Illaria has begun to pull at her fur at the base of her tail a little for several weeks now. Am keeping a watch on it to see if it is just normal shedding time and she is helping the old fur go so the new fur can come in. It doesn’t appear to be an itchy place either. Am going to put this great article in my special files for reference in case this problem comes up some time later. Thanks so much for always keeping us informed.♥
Thank you so much for this very interesting post and information, Jenny! Very helpful info to have on hand for the future….just in case! So far, Miss PSB has not experienced any hair loss issues other than her normal shedding schtuff. YAY! (Don’t remember any of our kitties from the past experiencing any unusual hair loss either. We’ve been very fortunate!) 🙂 <3
Big hugs & lots of love!
Patti & Miss Pink Sugarbelle 🙂 <3