We had 2 cats, 1 black (now 9YO) and the other striped (now 8YO). A little over 2 years ago we took in a stray grey cat (now approx 3.5YO). The striped cat has been relatively fine with the new grey cat. However, the black cat, who is a very high strung cat, has not taken as easily. While the black cat has adapted to him better over the past 2 years, he still hisses at the grey cat from time to time and smacks him on the head.
The problem is that the black cat started licking the hair off his own belly shortly after the new grey cat arrived. When that stopped, he started licking the hair off his ankles. That seems to have mostly subsided. But, now he’s licking the hair off his own back. He licks so much that there are little sores. I think it’s stress related, but how do I confirm? More importantly, how do I stop this?
I hate to go to a vet because it seems that most of the time they just want to pump meds into the animals, like they do with people. This same black cat had a belly hair licking issue about 6 years ago. I took him to the vet and the vet said, “here, give him these pills”. The cortisone pills did nothing. My wife and I analyzed the situation a bit and figured the only thing that changed at that time was the “new and improved” version of the cat littler we had been using for years. We changed the littler and, vois la, no more licking. So much for the vet and his meds. The bonehead didn’t even ask questions about change in diet, littler, etc…
All suggestions and input are welcomed.
FYI, they are all male, all fixed and all indoor cats.