Freya is losing her whiskers too often

Antonio65

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I know that cats can lose whiskers every now and then, it is normal to find some of them in the house, and many of use also store them away as relics, I do the same thing.

I noticed, though, that I'm finding lots of whiskers from my younger cat Freya in the last weeks/months, normally twice a week on an average, and I wonder how normal it is.
I mean, is losing whiskers too often a sign for something? Is twice a week too often?
She is 15 months old, spayed, fully vaccinated, lives indoors only.

Her hair is fine, she doesn't shed at all, and even when I brush her I collect very little hair in the brush.
She shows no sign of skin issues, dandruff, itch, or parasites.
She eats premium food, both dry and wet, has fresh bottled water daily.
I think I can rule out any hormonal diseases that usually lead to hair loss, like HT, because she's way too young, and anyway other usual symptoms are missing.
She does play fight with the other cat, but if this is the reason, why am I not finding any whiskers from the other cat?

She had a recent blood panel done, and the only thing that stood out was a low iron level in her blood, HERE is the page with her blood report.
She's booked for a follow up visit and bloodworks on Jan 27, so I will surely mention this to my vet, but if you have any hint on this I will consider it as well and might discuss it with the vet.

Thanks!
 

Caspers Human

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How many whiskers does she still have left?

Cats have an average of 24 whiskers on their faces. Old whiskers will fall out before being replaced by new ones but, overall, they should always have about the same number.

If you look and find that she has fewer whiskers, that probably means that they are falling out faster than they can grow back. That would be something to be concerned about.

As long as new whiskers are growing in at the same rate as old ones fall out, everything should be okay.

If she's in generally good health and she's eating a healthy diet, maybe her whiskers are just growing and shedding faster than average.

It just MIGHT mean that you're taking really good care of your cat! :) :) :)
 
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Antonio65

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Yes, I should have mentioned that she isn't missing any of her whiskers. I forgot it, sorry 😔
I do know they have 24 whiskers (12 each side), and she has them all.

What I find unusual is that I keep finding a whisker on the floor about twice a week on average, but twice in three days, one this morning, one on Monday.
I keep them all in a small pocket diary, where I also write down daily notes on them, like what they ate, if they did something unusual, their weight once a week, vet visits, and so on.

I guess I am taking good care of my cats, or at least I'm trying to 😉
 

Caspers Human

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Just remember that "average" doesn't mean that your cat will always shed the same number of whiskers in a week.
You could just be seeing a trend that goes against the averages just on random chance.

If you flip a fair coin, it should come up "tails" or "heads" about half the time, on average but it is quite possible to flip a coin one hundred times and have it come up "heads" one hundred times in a row.

It's good that you keep your eyes open and pay attention to your cat's health but, unless you have good reason to believe that something is amiss, it is possible or even likely that you are seeing one of those "One hundred 'heads' in a row" trends. :)

Casper's Girl-Human saves his shed whiskers and claws. She keeps the best ones and saves them in a little locket with his picture on one side and his "souvenirs" on the other. :)

I often joke around with her... Some day in the future, if they ever perfect cloning, we might be able to use those kitty whiskers to clone another version of Casper! :D
 
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Antonio65

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Just remember that "average" doesn't mean that your cat will always shed the same number of whiskers in a week.
Yes, I agree, but I have a good number of whiskers in my diary.
I used to do the same thing with my previous cats, and I can't remember such an amount of whiskers in the same amount of time.
I will keep an eye on it.

Because she had some poor levels in her last blood report, I was just thinking that they could be a possible cause for this shedding.

Casper's Girl-Human saves his shed whiskers and claws. She keeps the best ones and saves them in a little locket with his picture on one side and his "souvenirs" on the other. :)

I often joke around with her... Some day in the future, if they ever perfect cloning, we might be able to use those kitty whiskers to clone another version of Casper! :D
Same here with my previous cats whiskers, claws and tufts of hair, hoping they will be helpful for cloning them one day 😄
 

Caspers Human

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Y'know... I was just looking that up, a moment ago!

If you've got a spare $35,000 lying around, you can get your cat cloned, right now! ;)

If they could get that down to less than $1,000, we'd have a whole flock of little Caspers running around our house! ;) ;) ;)

 
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Antonio65

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They need fresh tissue samples.
Claws, fur, teeth and whiskers do not apply... Unfortunately... ☹
 

Caspers Human

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I wonder if we could use that to get around the "One Cat Rule" in our apartment lease?

It doesn't say anything about clones! ;) ;) ;)

Yes, cloning usually does require "live" tissue samples.
But, in all the sci-fi movies, they often clone people from the leftovers from a hairbrush or something.
Too bad, they can't do that in real life. :(
 

Juniper_Junebug

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Yes, I should have mentioned that she isn't missing any of her whiskers. I forgot it, sorry 😔
I do know they have 24 whiskers (12 each side), and she has them all.

What I find unusual is that I keep finding a whisker on the floor about twice a week on average, but twice in three days, one this morning, one on Monday.
I keep them all in a small pocket diary, where I also write down daily notes on them, like what they ate, if they did something unusual, their weight once a week, vet visits, and so on.

I guess I am taking good care of my cats, or at least I'm trying to 😉
Last month I noticed my kitty lost three or four whiskers in a week. Then none since. Maybe they were all on the same shift?
 
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