Pink Nose Turning White?

[PsychoEmoVampire]

I have a white cat named Momo. Her nose is always shades of pink, until earlier today. I looked at her and most of her nose has turned white. The very bottom by the nostrils is still pink, but halfway up the nostrils it starts turning white. I'm extremely concerned since this has never happened before. She's about 3-3 1/2 years old. I don't know her breed since she was a farm kitten. Pure white coat, any skin showing is pink (except her nose now). I took the best picture I could of her since she kept moving. If anyone has some advice, I'd love to hear from you.

 

[Jesset1977]

She looks very healthy still. Some cats hate drinking water...maybe give her some wet food. It helps hydrate them.

 

[PsychoEmoVampire]

Ok, I'll cave and give her wet food. We usually only give our cats wet food once ever few days cause they stop eating it after a while. If she's dehydrated though, I'll let her have what she wants. Thanks for the suggestion

 

[Jesset1977]

You're welcome. If you get your cat to love chasing ice cubes you can try dumping a few in the water bowl. It forces them to hydrate while they play Bob the ice cube lol.

 

[marmoset]

I think what you are seeing is normal. We've seen nose changes in our lighter cats in summer or with age. We call it "summer nose". Our white boy even developed black spots on his eyelid where he was pink before- we did go to the vet for that and it was deemed normal pigmentation change. But that's purely anecedotal. White cats are prone to skin damage from the sun and cancer so if this is an indoor outdoor cat or an outdoor cat I'd have a vet check just to be sure. Even if she just spends a lot of time in windows it's worth checking out.

 

[PsychoEmoVampire]

You're welcome. If you get your cat to love chasing ice cubes you can try dumping a few in the water bowl. It forces them to hydrate while they play Bob the ice cube lol.

We actually do something similar. They use to have trouble seeing the water so we put some decorative rocks in the water, small enough not to take up all the space but big enough not to fit in their mouths. They actually clank them around the glass bowl when they're low on water and want the bowl filled.

 

[PsychoEmoVampire]

I think what you are seeing is normal. We've seen nose changes in our lighter cats in summer or with age. We call it "summer nose". Our white boy even developed black spots on his eyelid where he was pink before- we did go to the vet for that and it was deemed normal pigmentation change. But that's purely anecedotal. White cats are prone to skin damage from the sun and cancer so if this is an indoor outdoor cat or an outdoor cat I'd have a vet check just to be sure. Even if she just spends a lot of time in windows it's worth checking out.

Our cats are mostly indoor. They're only allowed out while supervised and we put a harness on them and attach them to a tether so they can't leave the yard. Also, it's the ending weeks of winter here, the snow just started melting 2 days ago so I'm not sure if it's this "summer nose". My white cat is the only one of the 3 who doesn't sun bath much, she's always been a warm cat so sunbathing probably bugs her. It's my first time owning a cat that's white so I didn't know they experience color changes.

 

[PsychoEmoVampire]

Update: woke up this morning to check on my cat, her nose is nice and pink now. She was probably dehydrated and the wet food helped. Thanks a bunch for the suggestions, I really appreciate it. When it comes to my cat, I get easily panicked. That's why I wanted to ask for some advice before jumping to take her to the vet. Thanks again

 

[Antonio65]

One of my two cats had a similar issue for all her life.
She was nearly 6 years old when I first noticed that her nose turned white as her coat while she was resting on the window sill. I checked her gums and they were white too, and her ears, that should have been pink when seen against the light, where white too.
So I called the vet and the vet wanted to see her. We ran a complete blood test, an ultrasound of her chest and heart, nothing came out, all clear.

It happened several times more for all her life, and I was never able to link the event to anything that the cat had done, eaten, seen, etc... Not even the season or the temperature were a clue, it could happen in December or in July, early morning or night, while she was sleeping or playing.

We never understood what it was, but in our case it wasn't a life-threatening issue, because the cat lived to be 17.

Hopefully your case is just like mine.