Black specks on my Cat?

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Lauren and Lucy

Lauren and Lucy

Member Since 2017
Hey guys, sorry this isn't directly related to her diabetes!

So I've noticed lately that Lucy seems to have..black specks in her fur, for lack of a better term. It almost loks like pepper is on her fur or something. She doesn't seem to be bothered by it, though.

After a quick look on the internet, it says it may be flea related. Which makes sense, the dog had fleas maybe a month ago (now all gone, thank God!). I did the test to see if it "bled" and she caught them (or whatever the term is) and it did not. So I guess Lucy doesn't have fleas? I don't see any, nor on any of the furniture or other animals.

Short story long: Any ideas of what to do? We have just a regular brush for the cats but I doubt the bristles are small enough to pick them up. Lucy doesn't seem bothered by whatever it is, but I hate to think she's uncomfortable with it!

Thanks all,
Lauren (and Lucy!)
 
That's exactly what 'flea poop' looks like....we go thru it fairly often as we live on ancient beach sand. Fleas are HORRIBLE. My flea comb gets lots of use and we go thru lots of flea meds too for both cats and dogs.
 
Did you treat your dogs for fleas? Are they still scratching? Is lucy scratching more than normal? Even if you treated your dogs, your cat should still receive treatment too. I had indoor only cats at one time and lived on the 3rd floor with only outside stairs and we ended up with a slight infestation problem once. It can happen to anyone, anywhere, at any given time. I would say call your vet and ask what they recommend for flea prevention and try that. I love Revolution. It protects against fleas, heart-worms, hookworms, roundworms, and ear mites and since I started using it non of my kitties have had a problem with any.
 
W.K. said:
Did you treat your dogs for fleas? Are they still scratching? Is lucy scratching more than normal? Even if you treated your dogs, your cat should still receive treatment too. I had indoor only cats at one time and lived on the 3rd floor with only outside stairs and we ended up with a slight infestation problem once. It can happen to anyone, anywhere, at any given time. I would say call your vet and ask what they recommend for flea prevention and try that. I love Revolution. It protects against fleas, heart-worms, hookworms, roundworms, and ear mites and since I started using it non of my kitties have had a problem with any.
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The dog is treated and has been flea free for a little while now! Neither are scratching more than normal-or at all, really! When we treated Winnie, we got treatment for both cats just in case. They didn't seem to carry any, though-at least not enough for them to be scratching or biting!
 
About five years ago, my cats got fleas from my mom's dog visiting. They never scratched or showed any signs of it, expect the little black specks, and after a careful flea combing, I finally found a live one. How long since they were treated? Maybe time for another treatment?
 
Winnie hasn't been "infested"/ther ehasn't been a flea sighting since February at the latest, I would say. (I know I said abut it was about a month ago, I forgot what month it is lol). Her last treatment was sometime mid-March as a precaution after all the fleas appeared to be gone.

And I took one of the "specks" on the moist towel and didn't see any bleeding. What does that mean do you guys think?

Thanks so much for your help! Of course all this flea talk is making me itchy just thinking about it ;)
 
Ha, probably! It could just be old cat syndrome and her loving anxious mother automatically thinks it's the end of days

With her it seems like one minor thing after another (ex: I just confirm it's probably not fleas, I find something on her paw and she's limping). Oh to be a spoiled 14 year old cat!
 
If you are positive it's not flea dirt.....Can you tell by combing her where the flecks originate from? Pay close attention to the base of the tail. If it seems to be from there, it could be sebum from "stud tail". My previous kitty got it in her old age and would get black waxy specks off that area.
Also check her toes...my civvie Anabelle tend to get infection in between her toes for some reason (vet cant figure out why or what it is), and when it's bothering her I will find a few black specks from that.
 
Quick side story. Had a cat with what I always assumed were broken capillaries / blood vessels in his eyes. Finally found out they were copper deposits. This was years ago, memory may be off on the details.
 
katiesmom said:
If you are positive it's not flea dirt.....Can you tell by combing her where the flecks originate from? Pay close attention to the base of the tail. If it seems to be from there, it could be sebum from "stud tail". My previous kitty got it in her old age and would get black waxy specks off that area.
Also check her toes...my civvie Anabelle tend to get infection in between her toes for some reason (vet cant figure out why or what it is), and when it's bothering her I will find a few black specks from that.
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Good to know! I know as of right now it looks like Lucy has an ingrown nail. Maybe that's related?

Either way I have an appointment with the vet on Wednesday to check the paw, I'll see if the spots are correlated!
 
Noah & me said:
Quick side story. Had a cat with what I always assumed were broken capillaries / blood vessels in his eyes. Finally found out they were copper deposits. This was years ago, memory may be off on the details.
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This is very interesting.
Were the blood vessels visible on the whites of eyes? Were they red like broken capillaries? Were the copper deposits due to copper metabolism problems? My dog always had brown spots or marks (lines) on his whites and I always assumed they were some sort of pigmentation marks (Rott/GS X) but it might be something else. The cat has some broken capillaries on his whites. I'm sorry to ask you all these questions as it might be difficult for you to answer them as it was long time ago but if you could tell me what you remember I would be very grateful.
Many thanks
 
Marlena said:
This is very interesting.
Were the blood vessels visible on the whites of eyes? Were they red like broken capillaries? Were the copper deposits due to copper metabolism problems? My dog always had brown spots or marks (lines) on his whites and I always assumed they were some sort of pigmentation marks (Rott/GS X) but it might be something else. The cat has some broken capillaries on his whites. I'm sorry to ask you all these questions as it might be difficult for you to answer them as it was long time ago but if you could tell me what you remember I would be very grateful.
Many thanks
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Oh Boy, Leroy has been gone for 12 years now and that was something only one vet said to me at least 15 years ago. This is what I vaguely remember; cats don't metabolize copper (where on Earth did he ingest copper?), he was always in good health even for a 23 year old cat, his eyes appeared normal, no squinting, soreness, dilation, except for what a layperson would see as very thin red lines that looked exactly like capillaries that were overabundant and very red. I remember being told it wouldn't harm him and not to alter his diet. He did break his jaw very badly once. A blow to the head either from a car or someone kicked him. He was a bloody mess when I found him, had to have his jaw wired. Like the same blows to the head I've received. Concussions in North America still aren't taken seriously enough, I've had at least 10 and have been knocked out cold 3 times.
 
Noah & me said:
Oh Boy, Leroy has been gone for 12 years now and that was something only one vet said to me at least 15 years ago. This is what I vaguely remember; cats don't metabolize copper (where on Earth did he ingest copper?), he was always in good health even for a 23 year old cat, his eyes appeared normal, no squinting, soreness, dilation, except for what a layperson would see as very thin red lines that looked exactly like capillaries that were overabundant and very red. I remember being told it wouldn't harm him and not to alter his diet. He did break his jaw very badly once. A blow to the head either from a car or someone kicked him. He was a bloody mess when I found him, had to have his jaw wired. Like the same blows to the head I've received. Concussions in North America still aren't taken seriously enough, I've had at least 10 and have been knocked out cold 3 times.
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Thank you so much.
Sorry to hear about your concussions, your poor head took a lot of knocking out! Boxing?
 
Not boxing, general man stupidity. Sports and motorcycles. Hospitals here HATE dealing with anything neurological. If they can't x-ray something like a broken bone they don't want to deal with you. Thank God for my wife, CT and MRI scans or I literally would not be here today.
 
Noah & me said:
Not boxing, general man stupidity. Sports and motorcycles. Hospitals here HATE dealing with anything neurological. If they can't x-ray something like a broken bone they don't want to deal with you. Thank God for my wife, CT and MRI scans or I literally would not be here today.
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X-rays are very cheep, CTs and MRIs are expensive, neurological problems are difficult to diagnose, everybody wants everything EASY! I'm glad you're still with us and OK. God bless you!
 
I had an aneurysm, Circle of Willis, that bled. I was "diagnosed" with a sinus infection. I could have dropped dead in the waiting room. I didn't expect fast, I wanted someone to care. I know it's late there and I'm washing dishes (because I love the heat, more broken bones) so I'll have to continue this later. Just for fun I also have persistent ear infections, Tinnitus, migraines, Trigeminal neuralgia (really painful) and Chiari malformation. Sounds like fun?
 
@Marlena That description of Leroy's eyes was kind of vague. He never had vision problems even at the age of 23 and that's not why he was at the vet that day. I just mentioned his eyes in passing and that's the explanation I got. The vet wasn't concerned at all. Copper in food? Back then I fed them supermarket food (Pig-slop) because there were no big Pet stores and no clumping litter. The only good food was Hill's from the vet. I don't think people knew what taurine was back then and there was no raw or grain free. An outdoor cat eating awful food living to 23, pretty amazing.
 
Noah & me said:
I had an aneurysm, Circle of Willis, that bled. I was "diagnosed" with a sinus infection. I could have dropped dead in the waiting room. I didn't expect fast, I wanted someone to care. I know it's late there and I'm washing dishes (because I love the heat, more broken bones) so I'll have to continue this later. Just for fun I also have persistent ear infections, Tinnitus, migraines, Trigeminal neuralgia (really painful) and Chiari malformation. Sounds like fun?
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No, not really but you are a trooper! Aneurysm is not a joke, glad you're still here. If you died then they would have thought that sinus infection killed you...
Please look after yourself.
Sending healing vines:bighug::bighug::bighug:
 
re Aneurysm Modern medicine, it was fixed in two hours and I was home the next morning. When those things blow you've got 30 seconds to tell your wife you love her and then the room goes dark. I once showed a young doctor the scar on my leg from pre-arthroscopic knee surgery. He was shocked, like something he'd seen cave paintings of. Just a chipped kneecap and I was in the hospital for 3 days! Now you have a baby in the parking lot and they send you home.
 
Free healthcare is great but it also means every handyman who hits his thumb with a hammer shoes up in emergency on Friday night. They want a neurosurgeon, an MRI and a private room. Remember when people had some hydrogen peroxide and a bandage at home? Everything is someone else's fault.
 
Agreed, stupidly high taxes, failing infrastructure, government pensions; it comes from somewhere. The new thing now is privatized parking at hospitals. Lots of people who can afford a car can't pay for parking so they miss appointments. Wait a minute, you can afford a car but you're too stupid to take public transit? Maybe you need a different kind of doctor. Toronto has a small downtown airport and they built a tunnel under the water channel so we wouldn't have to take a 5 minute ferry ride. How about a simple pedestrian bridge? No, that would not have been fancy enough.
 
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