New Mark On Kitty's Nose?

[toxicglowsticks]

Meet Kisa. We adopted her from our local shelter after losing our battle with kidney disease with one of our cats.

When we first got her, it looked like she had a scar on her nose from a scratch, which we thought nothing of. She was secluded for a few days, showed no health issues, so allowed her out at supervised times while keeping her in the bathroom at night. About a week later, we noticed that hair began falling out from where the scar area was, which obviously prompted a shelter vet visit for ringworm. The vet took a culture, which we are currently still waiting on. She has received two sulfur baths in the mean time while we quarantine her to our only bathroom. Unfortunately our older cat (2 years) was exposed, so he is also receiving the baths and quarantined to the only spare bedroom we have.. which of course has carpet. Both cats are also now on antibiotics which were started yesterday, because Kisa seemed to bring home a URI from the shelter, which the older cat contracted. My house is currently just wonderful to be in with all the coughing, sneezing, and cleaning.

However, in the duration, she has also gone to our personal vet, whom I do trust very much. He did a Wood's lamp test while explaining that the results are hit and miss, but it was negative. He also said it resembled more of an infection of scar tissue that wasn't fully healed than ringworm. This is definitely probable because she hates kennels and will rub her nose and bite to get out (which is how she lost hair right above her nose). My question is, has anyone seen markings like this in ringworm? She has no additional spots that ringworm typically shows. I'm going to continue treating until the culture comes back, but my heart is just breaking having to quarantine both babies with barely any contact. (Only contact is with gloves and immediately changing clothes). Neither my husband or I have shown any signs of ringworm despite lots of cuddles when we first got her, and our older cat has shown no signs despite sharing food bowls/water and playing.

This was her the night after bringing her home (Nov 7th) versus yesterday afternoon (Nov 18th). So about ~10 days in between.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

OH, she's just adorable .

To answer your questions, I have NOT seen ringworm look like that. Hoping your Vet is correct and it's just an issue with the scar from her being in that cage.

Also hoping the URI going around is quickly dispensed with the antibiotics

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Doesn't look quite right for ringworm to me, either. ! Keep us posted!

 

[Kieka]

I’ve had cats who look worse before looking better when healing. It usually is because there is a zone around the original injury that scans and pulls off the fur when the scab falls off. Hopefully your vet is right and that is all it is. I remember one of the fosters I follow had a little one who hated the kennel and rubbed against it. He looked pretty sad for a while between scab pulling off fur and how thin the fur is in that area.

 

[toxicglowsticks]

Thanks everyone! Currently our main focus has moved to the URI. She was doing very poorly yesterday. A lot of wheezing and nonstop sneezing. Today she is doing better with two full days of antibiotics. She still has coughing and sneezing fits, but not as frequent. Her difficult breathing last night had me wanting to bring her to our emergency hour vet. Running the shower for steam seemed to help.

No real change with the nose aside from the skin getting a bit darker.

 

[Kieka]

Darker is usually good in healing skin.

 

[toxicglowsticks]

Darker is usually good in healing skin.

I sure hope so! There’s no fur growing back quite yet, which is still leaving me to think that it is scar tissue. That and despite being a bit more lax in our cleaning and handling of her (still washing hands but only using gloves when medication is given), we have shown no signs of spots. And I’m technically immunosuppressive, so I was half expecting to be covered.

We have one more week of quarantine of ringworm before we hear back, then possibly a few more days due to the URIs and a bad roundworm infestation. She was throwing them up. Poor girl has had a rough start. Makes me love and care for her more.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

that she kicks that URI soon!

 

[Mamanyt1953]

ABSOLUTELY, Keep that good news coming!

 

[toxicglowsticks]

So this is her nose a few minutes ago. It doesn’t seem like anywhere else is thinning, but the marking still just looks odd to me. Looks like I might have to go back to calling her Scarface. I’m a little interested in the little spot of fur that looks like it’s scabbing. It’s been like that since the beginning, but that’s how her fur looked before it fell out.

As far as the URIs in the House, both cats seem to be slowly improving. Kisa has definitely been more active (she’s currently trying to climb up my leg) and Cheesecurd is starting to eat a little bit more. I’m guessing he either couldn’t smell the food or just didn’t have an appetite.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

I wonder if that is burn scarring...

Glad that the URIs are improving!

CHEESECURD Love that name!

 

[toxicglowsticks]

Cheesecurd was our feral turned sweetheart kitten. We spent four hours luring him out with all we had.. crackers and Cheesecurd (I’m from Wisconsin ). He preferred to eat the Cheesecurds over crackers like a true Wisconsin kitty haha.

 

[toxicglowsticks]

I did want to post a bit of an update. Tuesday will be the two mark point of the culture and when the shelter vet said they’d call back if it was ringworm. So far, no one in the household has shown any spots.

It also does look like a few spots of fur are growing back. My vet figured that she probably lost them at the beginning of the follicles’ cycle, so it could take several weeks. We are still leaning towards her nose being a possible bacterial infection, which her being on antibiotics for the URI should also help with that. Still no growth in fur loss or change in how it looks.

Both cats are improving with the URI’s. Kisa still sneezes and coughs at times, but nothing like before. And Cheesecurd doesn’t sound like a freight train anymore when he breathes. He still has nasal discharge at times though.

The vet techs fell in love with Kisa at our vet. She went to get her distemper booster and was just all over the place and silly. Her favorite spot was to sit on the laptop. They eventually had to lock it or she kept entering in all kinds of passwords and keys.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

LOL, what is it with cats and keyboards? I am ashamed to admit that Hekitty actually showed me how to take a screen shot on my new laptop! I'd never had one, and there was a pretty steep learning curve. But Hek found the PrtSc button and showed me what it was for!

 

[toxicglowsticks]

LOL, what is it with cats and keyboards? I am ashamed to admit that Hekitty actually showed me how to take a screen shot on my new laptop! I'd never had one, and there was a pretty steep learning curve. But Hek found the PrtSc button and showed me what it was for!

It’s crazy what they can teach us, even technology.

 

[toxicglowsticks]

So I wanted to give a small update. Tuesday was the two week mark, and the vet called saying that the culture was negative. Although she has been to my vet twice now, we aren’t sure what happened. Although my vet was suspicious that it may have been a bacterial infection but she has been on Amoxicillin for 13 days now for her URI with a plan of one more day.

It’s nice to finally cuddle my cats though. Her favorite spot to sleep is right between my chin on chest.. which I admit isn’t the most comfortable in the world.

We have noticed that right above her nose is still dark, but we aren’t sure if it’s due to the fur missing and slowly growing back or if it’s a changing in color. We have been watching it pretty close, just in case.

Even as I type this, she is sleeping on my chest, purring away.

 

[Mamanyt1953]

She is a little beauty, and I LOVE her floofies!