My cat is losing hair where I applied Frontline. Is this normal?

Hello and thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. You should try a different spot-on product. Local skin irritation and hair loss is the most common side effect of the spot-on medications but if you use a different one, it will hopefully not upset the skin. The other is a collar, for example Seresto.

This is probably due to an allergy, although it could also be infection or mites. First of all, in order to rule out skin parasites, you will need to treat with a high quality flea treatment, then ask the vet to perform a skin scrape - this might reveal an infection or a mite infestation. If all of those came back negative, the next step is to treat the allergy symptomatically and try to discover the cause of the allergy. Three main type of allergies are usually affecting pets: food allergies, flea and parasite related ones and environmental type (allergens coming from trees, pollens, dust etc etc). Some medications can be given by the vet in order to repair any possible skin lesions (like steroids and antibiotics). Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

Hi and thank you for posting your question on Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! It is hard to say exactly what the issue is with Miss Kitty sight unseen, but I can offer you a possibility. If her scratching has subsided after Frontline Plus administration, then it is possible she did have a flea allergy. As long as you continue to use the flea preventative every month to help keep fleas from coming back onto Miss Kitty, her fur should grow back in a couple weeks. :) I hope this has helped and best wishes to you and Miss Kitty!

There are a few things that can cause this to happen: loss of hair where the microchip was placed (if he has one), reaction to a topical medication like (Bravecto, Frontline, Revolutions, etc), skin mites, topical allergic reaction, trauma.....just to name a few common things. To me this looks like a reaction to a topical product. The reaction does not always happen immediately and can take weeks or months to show up depending on what phase of growth the hair was in when it was damaged. I would not be overly worried but it would be best to have your vet check it out. Hope this helps. Best wishes.

I am not sure if he is losing the hair just in the area where you applied the flea and tick medication or is he losing hair in general? It is a ell known side effect. Some cats have more sensitive skin and so react with losing their hair in the area of the application. As long a the skin does not look angry or red or injured you do not have to worry. Most of the time the hair will regrow. Should the skin react angrily you will need to have your vet examine your kitty. He may need some ointment on the lesion.

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Poor Ginger! It isn't serious but it is a complication of some of the topicals. It likely will happen with the 2nd dose too so you may want to consider the other option your Vet provided. I hope this helps and I wish Ginger the very best!

I have seen this as a reaction to certain spot-on flea/tick treatments, vaccines and microchipping. If any of these were recently done, then I would be most suspicious of them being the cause. The skin appears a red, which indicates that something is irritating it and it appears oily, but I'm assuming that's from the antibiotic ointment. For now, it's best to just keep the area clean with a medicated cat shampoo. You can get this at the pet store. I would clean it once daily and not put the antibiotic cream on it. Use cool water when washing and rinsing to give some relief. You can stop the daily cleanings when the skin appears healthy again and the hair is obviously growing back. If the hair loss continues and the skin appears worse, then it's best to have a vet look at it, because it may need special treatment. I hope that helps and Phoebe gets better soon.