Cats get very similar skin cancers to what you and I can get. They can get melanomas, squamous cell carcinomas, mast cell tumors, and multiple different types of skin cancers.

The big thing is trying to keep the cat groomed, keeping them combed out, keeping them from getting matted, and then looking for lumps and bumps. It's the perfect opportunity to look for lumps and bumps as you're keeping your cat groomed. If you can bathe your cat, good for you. That's great. I have an almost 18-year-old cat. I've never bathed him and probably never will at this point. Cats tend to groom so well that they really don't need bathing nearly as much as dogs.

Grooming products possibly can. A lot of people don't use grooming products on their cats. If you're using an aloe and oatmeal type shampoo, we don't tend to see problems, but some of the other products, sure. We can. If you're using some type of a scented spray on your cat, something along that line, then sure. We can see sensitivity and contact dermatitis from that.

It can. Cats are very temperamental, and they tend to be, as we have said, great groomers, but over-grooming can cause hair loss and secondary skin irritation, and secondary skin infection. One of the reasons that cats tend to overgrow is they're stressed. What stresses a cat, and what doesn't stress a cat? Everything. You name it. You change your furniture, the litter, there's a stray cat outside, there's a new dog in the neighborhood, and your mother-in-law comes over for the day. I mean, you name it; it can stress out a cat and cause them to lick. We definitely will see some of those cases, and then it's a matter of trying to determine what's causing the anxiety and then relieving it in some way or the other. Pheromones might be a help there. There are some diet changes we can do there. There are several things we can do to help.

Yes. The allergies issue in cats is honestly not as bad as it is in dogs. We do see allergies and cats. We see more food allergies in cats than we do anything else, and that's a difficult syndrome to work through. It requires putting your cat on a special diet for an extended period of time, which can frequently be difficult because cats tend to be finicky eaters and don't want to eat it, and they won't eat it. And then what do you do?

Unfortunately, that's not a question that can be easily answered without seeing the pet. When it's itchy and where it's itchy, both matter, and there are many things that cause itchiness. We really need to see the cat to kind of hone down and figure out why it's truly itching because most skin conditions and cats cause itchiness.

Dermatitis is a general term that means the skin's inflamed. There are many things that cause inflammation, including the things we just talked about, infections, abscesses, ticks, fleas, all parasites, and allergies, those types of things. We see a fair amount of food allergies with cats that we have to deal with. We can definitely see some pollen atopy allergy issues with cats as well. A fungus, like ringworm, which is not a parasite, can also cause skin issues. It's a fungus that affects the skin and can cause hair loss and, unfortunately, can be given to you. We see bacterial infections on the skin as well. We have mentioned fleas already because they're such a common issue for us.