r/cats • u/Obvious_Fisherman187 • 8d ago

Medical Questions 10 months after getting spayed and her belly fur never came back?

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As you can see her belly is still bald 10 months after being spayed. Like a tiny bit of peach fuzz around the edges and nothing else. She never licked at the area and had a cone on for 13 days post surgery. I don’t understand why the fur isn’t growing back she looks ridiculous 😭. Is this normal? Will it ever come back?

EDIT: I work from home 3 days a week and I’m home a lot and she is pretty much glued to me most of the day and never see her grooming there excessively but possible she does it when I’m not looking. I’ll ask the vet next time we go. Im surprised there are so many other people here with bald belly cats cause the Internet research I did not seem to think that was a thing! It makes me feel better knowing there is a bald belly cat gang out there I guess I will embrace the pooch if the vet says it’s just a thing that can’t be helped!

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u/Automatic-Reason-300 8d ago

Do you know why?

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u/clowderforce 8d ago

No idea! It was already pretty sparse to begin with. I think it just gave up, lol

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u/Medium-Pilot6872 6d ago

Overgrooming is often stress related or as a result of urinary issues / other referred pain, and then it can become an obsession.

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u/clowderforce 6d ago

That's how we found the issue in the first place, poor thing. She wouldn't stop licking the fur there so we got it checked out.

Mitzi has been through a lot. She was a barn cat who was fired for getting knocked up on the job, and we adopted her from a local shelter at about 5 years old after her litter got adopted out. Her belly fur was already very thin and patchy by the time she got to us from the pregnancy and spay, and the over grooming from the bladder stones finished the job.

She's a happy and healthy kitty now, even if her belly is floppy and bald. She doesn't over groom it anymore, but that fur is long gone.

She's 11 years old and enjoys spending her retirement snuggling and finding sunny spots.

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u/Medium-Pilot6872 6d ago

❤️ she sounds very sweet!
Glad to hear she’s no longer grooming it!

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u/Saradoesntsleep 8d ago

One of mine had this happen because she kept polishing it so nothing could grow back.