You notice it while stroking them: a strip of belly that has gone almost bare, or a row of tiny scabs along the spine that feel like grains of sand under your fingers. And yet you never saw your cat scratching. That is normal — cats do most of their grooming where nobody is watching.
Cats itch quietly
Owners usually spot the result, not the behaviour: the hair loss, the scabs, the hairballs that suddenly got more frequent. Most overgrooming is not a habit and not "nerves" — it is pruritus, plain itchiness. Pain and stress can do it too, but vets look at those after ruling out the itch.
Where the fur is missing tells you a lot
- Lower back, base of the tail, back of the neck. Think fleas first. In flea allergy a single bite can set off days of itching, which is why "I've never seen a flea" proves nothing.
- Belly, inner thighs, front legs. The easy-to-reach places: this pattern is self-trauma, and the itch itself may be coming from anywhere.
- Head, neck and ears, with scratches and scabs. Food allergy and environmental allergy tend to show up here.
- Small crusty bumps like millet seeds, anywhere on the body. Vets call this miliary dermatitis; by far the most common cause is an allergy to flea bites.
Check for fleas — even for an indoor cat
Cats groom fleas off themselves so thoroughly that you often find no insect at all. Look for flea dirt instead: comb the lower back over a sheet of damp white paper. Black specks that spread into rusty red are digested blood — proof of fleas. A heated home means there is no off-season, and every pet in the household has to be treated, not just the itchy one.
What you can do
- Year-round flea prevention for every animal in the home, chosen with your vet. Never use a dog product on a cat.
- Two or three minutes with a comb each day. You will find scabs while they are small, and less loose fur gets swallowed.
- Wash bedding hot and vacuum the favourite sleeping spots, especially once the heating is on.
- Write down when it happens. An itch that arrives every autumn points to the environment; one that never goes away points more towards food.
When to see the vet
Go if a bald patch is spreading, if there are open sores or scabs, if your cat is shaking their head and scratching their ears, or if the grooming has become frantic. Skin problems in cats look alike from the outside, so the vet's job is to sort fleas from food allergy from environmental allergy — usually with a skin scrape, a flea treatment trial or a diet trial. Almost all of it is treatable once the cause has a name, and a cat that has stopped itching stops pulling their fur out.
One practical thing: log the bald patches and scratching days in PawKit, and photograph the patch every couple of weeks. "It has been spreading since September" is a far more useful sentence at the clinic than "it's been a while".
