Sores on my cat's face

by Jennifer
(Rio Rancho, NM)

My cat keeps getting sores on her head near her ear. We've taken her to the vet once before this and all it did was land me a $200 bill and some advice to keep the wound clean until it healed.


For some reason it keeps coming back. We were assuming that it was allergies. Recently a sore on the corner of her mouth formed. We have been putting ointment on it to try to heal it. I was just about to give her a quarter of a Benadryl tablet. When I tried to pry her mouth open it started foaming. She became timid backing into a corner and darting away from us. I thought it may be rabies at this point. I put fresh water in a bowl and gave her some treats just to make sure she was eating. She barely ate half of the treat and with difficulty at that. Now she is eating and drinking as I am writing this E-mail. I am just confused, I don't know what to do because I can't afford the vet especially for them to send me away again. Please help. They tested for fleas and mites when I took her in lest time and the results were negative.

Reply
Hi
After reading your question I would say that this episode is different from the last as the mouth may be the main concern here.

I say this because as your vet has made sure that mites or fleas are not the cause then it is possible that your cat is over grooming her
head due to anxiety caused by some other illness. the over grooming causing the sores etc. Have you see her grooming this area lately?

the trouble is there could be many different causes for your cat to have problems with her mouth, ranging from digestive ones, to stings, to gum disease or loose teethe or infections.

I would say that you should not try to give your cat any human medicine at all. A cats systems is very different from our own and cannot process the same chemicals in the same way even in low doses.

There are also condition such as cat acne which may cause the sore on your cats mouth, as the chin area is the main place for this.

it is very difficult to point in you in the right direction as the symptoms could be caused by all sorts of things and normally what would happen is that the vet would go through a serious of tests and a process of elimination to discover the exact cause.

Also there is no way of knowing whether the mouth sore and the sores on the head are related.

i am sorry to say that to really get to the bottom of this problem a trip to your vets is probably your best option.

As you say an allergy may be at the root of this but further tests would have to be carried out.

i do have a page about cat allergy which you may find of further help here

https://www.our-happy-cat.com/cat-allergy.html

I hope the cause can be discovered soon

best wishes kate

Comments for Sores on my cat's face

Click here to add your own comments

How to cure naturally
by: Earlgrey

I cured my cats naturally:
- rub 2% foodgrade Lugol's Iodine on the infected area twice a day for one week then once a day with a Q-tip
- add 3 drops of food grade Lugol's in a small bowl of water daily
- sprinkle half cap 200mcg 1X a week in a large amount of dry food-
- sprinkle some psyllium husk powder once a week on food
- DE on food daily for 2 months then 2X a week
- Cod Liver oil by Nordic Naturals
- clean cats teeth with olive oiled Q-tip
- Weruva Cat food
cat foaming at mouth
by: Anonymous

I have had this problem when giving oral medicine to my cat. It is caused by anxiety and the bad taste of the medicine. You should not be concerned about rabies.
Feline herpes
by: Anonymous

Feline herpes causes no sores. It cause flu like symptoms.
What Is Feline Herpes? Sneezing, congestion, watery eyes and nose.…Has your cat caught a cold? It could be feline herpes, also known as feline viral rhinopneumonitis (FVR), rhinotracheitis virus and feline herpesvirus type 1 (FHV-1), and one of the most common causes of upper respiratory infections in cats. Many cats are exposed to this virus at some point in their lives.
What Are the Symptoms of Feline Herpes?
Sneezing “attacks”
Discharge from the nose and eyes
Conjunctivitis or pink eye (inflammation of the eyelid)
Lesions in and around the eyes
Eye ulcers
Congestion
Fever
Depression
Loss of appetite
Drooling
Squinting
Lethargy
Cats weakened by the virus may also develop secondary infections.


Our cat was vaccinated as a kitten against this. She gets big bumps and several smaller ones over her head.
Same thing with ours.
by: Anonymous

Tatti gets the same things but the mouth doesn't get a sore but rather a swollen on her front bottom lip and it happens every time she gets the oozing swollen sore on the head between the eye and ear. It is always a big (boil looking one with a lot of smaller bright pinkish red ones to one side of the big one. She is around 17 now and she was my sisters cat first. My sister said she has always gotten these and doesn't know what they are either. The big sore acts like a herpes and swells then starts leaking and gets raw and takes about 2 weeks to heal.
It has to be a disease that cats get as what yours and mine gets sound exactly the same.
sores on face
by: Kevin Johnson

When you're able to get your cat to the vet, ask the vet to test for feline herpes virus.
foaming at the mouth
by: pauline

I think your cat is allergic to something. the foaming is because benadryl is very bitter . my cat was taking flagyl for some gastro illness and he foamed fountains of saliva, I thought he was poisoned . the vet said they do this when they dont like the taste.they hate pills and also compounded medication like in tuna juice or chicken flavoring. you can get a vet to give you a pill gun which puts the pills deep in heir throats so they swallow. it isnt as nasty as it sounds.also 1/2 pill. check with vet to be sure they can ake human medications some can kill a cat but the benaryl ,Ive used before.best of lucksometimes they do it to themselves by exesive rubbing and itching. the benaryl may calm the anumal down- good luck

--

Click here to add your own comments

Return to Cat Questions.

I'd love to hear what you think of this page or my site. Let me know if you like what you have read or if it has helped you with a problem.

It's easy to do just leave a comment in the box below and click the like / share or +1 to let others know about my site. Thank You It really is most appreciated.

Enjoy this page? Please pay it forward. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.