Hi Sarah,

There are lots of things you can do to help your cat. First, here is a great link about it :http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/health_information/brochure_destructive.cfm

Make sure to provide lots of other options for her, scratching posts are great, or the rigid cardboard scratcher boxes–you sprinkle some cat nip on them to lure them and encourage her to scratch.

Clip her nails as short as possible. If you are not comfortable doing this, take her to a groomer or your vet. It’s important to do this every 4 weeks so they don’t get too long. This will help a great deal.

Make sure she has a lot of things to keep her busy,,cat tree, interactive toys, etc..that should help too.

Finally, if you catch her in the act. You can try sound as a deterrent. Take a metal can–like a soup or coffee can, fill it with a few pennies and seal it. When you see her start to try to scratch, loudly shake the can and say NO in a firm voice. After a few times of doing this , you may see her not trying to go near the furniture.

Good Luck! Make sure to check out the link I put in at the top of this, lots of good advice there.

~kelly

Someone I know trained his cat to not scratch furniture by putting double sided tape on it

Please don’t give your dog human medication it could be toxic to her. Only give meds the Vet prescribes. 

First, get all grain out of her diet — find a grain-free premium dog food.  The first 2 ingredients must be meat — such as elk, chicken, turkey — words that you understand as meat.  Meal means the whole animal was ground up and dried, so ‘salmon meal’ means meat too.  Avoid any thing that has “by-products” listed such as “chicken by-products” this could be just chicken feathers!  Not a good source of protein.  

Be sure the treats are grain-free also!  Stop sharing cookies and bread crusts!  Grains impact the dogs ability to fight off allergens.  If she is really chewing off hair or damaging the skin try a generic Zyrtec. Same dosage for a human (typically one pill in the morning, one pill at night.  

Rinse your dog’s feed and belly when she comes in from outdoors to help remove pollen and mold spores, and to keep those things out of the house.  I keep a tub of water at the back door and change the water daily.  It can be plain water or a mix of water and vinegar (1/3 vinegar, 2/3 water).

You can rinse your entire dog with the vinegar mix — either just that, or after an Aveeno bath (Aveeno is an oatmeal soap that helps sooth skin).  Allow the vinegar mix to dry on her skin and fur.  This will help with itching and help heal the skin.  Organic cider vinegar is best, but it may stain a white dog to beige. 

If she has raw, wet spots (hot spots they are often called), I would take her to a vet for evaluation.  You can help heal a hot spot with witch hazel with aloe and blot it on the spot to help with itch and heal the skin.  You can find the witch hazel with aloe in any pharmacy over the counter.

Grain free, primo diet, reduce the allergen load of pollen and spores.  These things will probably help over time.  In the mean time, work with your vet to give her some relief.

As I stated in my reply

are you sure it’s fear?  cats will slowly close their eyes when looking at people they trust, and it’s their way of showing their trust for that person.

Alright thank you for your input much appreciated and I will try those helpful tips! And she might be not feeling well at times the weather changes her moods and sleep patterns… have a great weekend

HI David,
Try just soap/water instead of the hydrogen peroxide,,,that stuff actually will irritate and dry out. If he’s biting and scratching you need to figure out the cause. If he is indeed tick and flea free, it sounds like a trip to the vet to figure out the cause of the skin irritation as well as the issue with his nipples.

Good luck!!
~kelly

Thank you for your help. I will call my vet for appt. Thanks again.

She sounds super cute and a handful 🙂 Dont have anything to add, but have an injured kitten that im handling who sounds very similar to yours before she got injured. Didn’t know a drop trap even existed until now. i like it! Will try finding one for my next vet visit.