Wet Food Cemented on Kittens Face, help!

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Mackie

Mackie

Member Since 2017
The last few weeks I have been fostering two small kittens, I got them at around eight weeks. One of them is solid black (Domestic Shorthair) and because of this, I didn’t notice at first that she had dried wet food stuck on her face. I would wipe her face off after meals but the stuck stuff was already on and it seemed for good.


I have tried working through olive oil, spot-wiping with a warm cloth and warm water, working at it with a fine comb or fingernail (gently). I have even tried a little bit of coconut oil and special kitten shampoo. It barely budges, it looks terrible.


I googled around on how to clean it off and I cannot find much out there. A person suggesting clipping off the food from the face which I find to be a terrible idea as any


Whenever I touch her face she cries and cries and I mean bloody murder. It must hurt her, because when a chunk of this stuff comes out it has a chunk of face fur with it. It breaks my heart, and I’ve made little headway on reclaiming her face from this stuff. She’s scared of me now and hides from me when at once she wouldn’t let my lap be empty. How can I get this stuff off her face?


Thank you for considering this post,


All the Best,


Robin
 
Oh my God poor baby, maybe you should take her to the vet and see what it is.You said a chunk of face hair comes off, it must be raw looking.
 
I just had a battle with cat acne. It looks like black crumbs with red sores underneath. You would barely see it on a black cat. I used bactine to clean and disinfect (and provide pain/itch relief) and an ointment called mupirocin. It’s been a few weeks and it’s still healing but much better.
 
vet has me applying chlorhexidine for Catcat's cat acne -- I'm first smearing on Cetaphil original face wash to dissolve the sebum, wiping afterwards with a cotton square soaked with warm water, then using the gauze squares soaked with chlorhexidine that the vet supplied

chlorhexidine, the solution for veterinary use (considerably diluted from the solution used for human mouthwash, presurgery scrub, or wound care) seems to have a soothing action on raw skin
 
Yes, the vet suggested chlorhexidine, too, for acne. One more thing, this is thought to often be caused by plastic pet dishes. I went to a thrift store and got a bunch of glass baking dishes for water and bought metal food dishes. Good luck.
 
we're using ceramic and glass dishes for Catcat, and stainless steel ones for the dog -- I suspect it has more to do with the cat's hormone levels, certainly seems to be an overproduction of sebum .. at least his does -- his chin looks like my nose used to -- either that or it may have to do with demodex mites, like my rosacea
 
I just never considered it to be anything but her food, she was such a messy eater. I’m positive it’s not litter as I use Dr. Elsey’s Senior Litter which is a silica based litter. She’s very sensitive on her face but there are no open sores and I while she cleans here face with zeal after I put oil on it, I’ve not seen her scratching or fussing with it on her own. She seems to be fine until I get in there. I read that dried on the face can cause hair loss and infection.

Here is a few photos of her face. I have an appointment with a vet this week but that’s on Thursday and I’m anxious I should push to move it up in case it’s not food. It smells and looks like food when I comb it out but in certain areas it’s like the skin has thickened? Poor thing.

Any thoughts are appreciated, advice welcomed, thank you.
 

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I don't know, but I would say it can only help, not hurt things to ask that the appointment get moved up, if you can make it work. Sometimes calling in the morning can get you in that day if there's been a cancellation. Worth a shot!
 
Wow, well cat acne is usually on the chin, so maybe it’s skin irritation from messy eating or who knows? I hope you get in to the vet soon. Let us know what they say.
 
I know, I feel so badly for her. I will definitely post an update. She’s just a love bug and I hate that I could have missed or be missing something and it’s causing her pain. I hope I can get her in tomorrow. Thank you for all your concern.
 
Allergic reactions can cause things to come up from the inside that on the outside look like crumbly scabs. So, that's another possibility. Willow (who has had allergies her entire life) had some come up on her neck. It was a first. I thought maybe she had been itchy and had scratched herself, but I had not seen her scratching. The vet told me that things like this can come out from the inside. Allergic reactions can take many forms. In Willow's case, a round of Temaril P knocked it out, and thus far, we have not had that happen again.
 
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Hi Everyone,

So sorry for my tardiness in posting an update.

Update: I took little black kitten to the vet and he looked closely at her face and his fear was that she might have ringworm!

Oh, boy!

I had to go get her sister and my senior resident cat and bring them in for cultures. Since little black kitten’s sister (little white kitten) and my resident senior kitty (Mackie aka Max) showed no signs of it, I was instructed to quarantine little black kitten until they had a result on the cultures. In the mean time I needed to clean and disinfect my entire house top to bottom everyday.

Here it goes...

Cultures can take a week to show any results, for the next 7 days I diligently cleaned everything with a stream cleaner and a disinfectant the vet recommended, washed the bedding daily, got booties and robes and changed clothes frequently to protect from contamination, etc... I took every precaution as to keep this fungus and it’s evil spores at bay.

Uhg!

Day to day, little black kitten’s face was looking better and better. At this point she had two sulphur dips, but I was told to wait on medication until a positive result was confirmed. By the end of the seven days her face looked completely healthy and normal. You would never know she ever had any issues. I was beginning to suspect perhaps she didn’t have ringworm. Then, at the end of the 7th day, my suspicion, to my relief, was confirmed. All three cultures came back negative!

Whew! Woo-Whoo!

I immediately reunited the sisters and they were so happy to be back together. Their sheer joy at being together again actually made me tear up.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwww!

A follow up at the vet confirmed that, yes, perhaps it was just food all along and it had irritated her skin and tugged on the hair causing it to easily come out.

Grumble....(incoherent mumbling)....

The girls are still with me. They will have their big adoption showing in two weeks after they recover from their surgery (they just got fixed). Both went off without a hitch and they act as though they don’t have huge incisions needing to heal and they are up to their rambunctious antics!

Ack! No,wrestling!

So...happy ending to a very trying couple of weeks. Silver lining: My house has never been cleaner!

Yay?

Thank you all for your concern and advice,

Cheers,

Robin
 
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