I re-homed an 8 year old cat a couple of weeks ago and he had some problems with over grooming and pulling his hair while he was in the shelter. The vet thought that this was probably due to stress, but once we took the buster/elizabethan collar off, he started grooming one of the previously affected areas for about 5 minutes, occasionally pulling again.
He does not seem stressed now and his skin has healed over, but his hair has not fully grown back in these areas. Is it likely that he is licking and pulling out the hair in these areas due to being itchy as the hair grows back and is there any way we can discourage this behavior without him having to wear the collar?
