Cat Health
Hormone Gels and Sprays for People: Hair Loss and Skin Changes in Pets
Many people use hormone medicines that go on the skin, as gels, creams or sprays, for example to ease menopause symptoms [1]. A 2022…
Cat Health
85 articles
Cat Health
Prescription Skin Creams for People: Keeping Dogs and Cats Safe
Some prescription medicines that people put on their own skin can harm pets. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned about two…
Cat Health
Reactions After Flea and Tick Products in Dogs and Cats: What to Do
Flea and tick products protect pets from bites, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns that side effects can happen [1]. This…
Cat Health
Tetanus After a Wound in Dogs and Cats: Stiffness Near the Injury
Tetanus is an illness that can follow a wound. It is caused by a toxin made by the bacterium Clostridium tetani. The toxin acts…
Cat Health
Fungal Mycetomas in Dogs and Cats: Lumps With Grains
A mycetoma is a lump caused by an infection. When a fungus is behind it, vets call it a fungal (eumycotic) mycetoma. The fungi…
Cat Health
Phaeohyphomycosis in Dogs and Cats: Dark Mold Skin Lumps
Phaeohyphomycosis is a skin infection caused by dark-colored molds. A veterinary dermatology handbook from the University of Minnesota describes the cause as a group…
Cat Health
Snakebites on Dogs and Cats: Fang Marks, Swelling and Skin Damage
A bite from a venomous snake is a medical emergency for a dog or cat. Vets in the United States see it often enough…
Cat Health
Skin Cysts in Cats: Keratin Cysts and Dilated Pores
A cyst is a small sac in or under the skin. Some cysts in cats are lined with skin-like cells and slowly fill with…
Cat Health
Skin Flaps and Grafts for Large Wounds in Dogs and Cats
Some wounds are too large to close with stitches alone. In those cases a vet may cover the gap with skin moved from nearby…
Cat Health
Lipomas in Cats: Soft Fatty Lumps on the Belly
A lipoma is a lump made of fat cells. It is a benign tumour, which means it is not cancer and does not spread…
Cat Health
Wound Drains in Dogs and Cats: What the Tube Is For
A wound drain is a tube that a vet places in a wound so fluid can leave it. After surgery, fluid can build up…
Cat Health
Brown Recluse Spider Bites on Dogs and Cats: Blisters and Sores
The brown recluse (Loxosceles reclusa) belongs to a group of spiders called recluse or brown spiders. In North America they are also called violin…
Cat Health
Leishmaniosis in Cats: Hair Loss, Scaling and Ear Ulcers
Leishmaniosis, also called leishmaniasis, is a disease caused by a tiny single-celled parasite called Leishmania. The parasite lives inside the body's own cells, and…
Cat Health
Protothecosis in Cats: Firm Skin Lumps on the Nose, Ears and Tail
Protothecosis is an infection caused by Prototheca, a group of tiny, colourless algae that behave a bit like fungi [3]. These algae live almost…
Cat Health
Valley Fever in Cats: Draining Skin Sores, Lumps and Abscesses
Valley fever, also called coccidioidomycosis, is an infection caused by a fungus named Coccidioides. The fungus lives in the soil of dry regions, and…
Cat Health
Cryptococcosis in Cats: Swelling Over the Nose and Skin Lumps
Cryptococcosis is an infection caused by a yeast-like fungus called Cryptococcus. It is the most common deep (systemic) fungal infection reported in cats [1].…
Cat Health
Nocardiosis in Cats: Skin Abscesses and Draining Wounds
Nocardiosis is a bacterial infection. The Nocardia bacteria behind it live in soil all over the world and feed on dead plant matter [1].…
Cat Health
Urticaria Pigmentosa in Cats: Mast Cell Skin Rash in Sphynx Cats
Feline maculopapular cutaneous mastocytosis, also called urticaria pigmentosa, is a rare skin disease of cats. Under the microscope, the affected skin holds clusters of…
Cat Health
Cancer That Spreads to the Skin in Dogs and Cats
Some cancers start in one part of the body and spread to the skin. This is called skin (cutaneous) metastasis. In dogs and cats…
Cat Health
Bite Wounds in Dogs and Cats: What Your Vet Looks For Under the Skin
Bite wounds are a common reason dogs and cats need a vet, and pets that go outdoors on their own get into more fights…
Cat Health
Gunshot Injuries in Dogs and Cats: Why Small Wounds Can Be Serious
A gunshot wound on a dog or cat can look small. The skin may show only a pinpoint hole while the real damage sits…
Cat Health
Bandages on Dogs and Cats: Why Vets Use Them and What to Watch
Vets use bandages on many kinds of wounds. A bandage protects the wound surface, holds dressings in place and helps control the fluid a…
Cat Health
Stitched or Left Open: How Vets Decide for Dog and Cat Wounds
Some wounds are closed by a vet, and others are left open to heal. Once a wound has been checked and cleaned, the vet…
Cat Health
How Wounds Heal in Dogs and Cats: The Three Stages Explained
A wound is any break in the normal structure of living tissue, such as a cut, scrape, tear or puncture [1]. Skin heals by…
Cat Health
How Vets Use Shampoos and Other Topical Care for Skin Problems
Many treatments for dog and cat skin problems go directly on the skin. For bacterial infections that stay near the surface of a dog's…
Cat Health
Albinism and White Coats in Dogs and Cats: Skin and Sun Risks
Albinism and very white coats are differences in skin and coat color. Some of them come with a higher risk of skin problems. In…
Cat Health
Epitheliogenesis Imperfecta (Missing Skin) in Kittens and Puppies
Epitheliogenesis imperfecta is a skin problem a kitten or puppy is born with. Some patches of the body never grow a proper skin covering,…
Cat Health
Hives (Urticaria) in Cats: Signs, Causes and When It Is an Emergency
Hives (urticaria) are raised, red, puffy patches that appear on the skin, often suddenly, and they may itch. They are part of an allergic…
Cat Health
Malignant Fibrous Histiocytoma (Soft Tissue Giant Cell Tumor) in Cats
Malignant fibrous histiocytoma is a cancer of the skin and the soft tissues under it. Pathologists now usually call it pleomorphic sarcoma (or undifferentiated…
Cat Health
How Dog and Cat Skin Works: Layers, Hair Coat and Glands
Skin is the biggest organ of the body. A US National Institutes of Health (NIH) lesson on skin lists its jobs: it covers and…
Cat Health
Skin Tags, Collagenous Nevi and Fibromas in Dogs and Cats
Skin tags, collagenous nevi and fibromas are lumps made mostly of fibrous tissue. In a lab report from a skin sample, a skin tag…
Cat Health
How Vets Diagnose Skin Problems in Dogs and Cats: Scrapings, Tape, Cultures and Biopsy
Finding the cause of a skin problem usually takes three things: the story of the problem (the history), a careful look at the whole…
Cat Health
Nerve Sheath Tumors of the Skin in Dogs and Cats (Neurofibromas and Neurofibrosarcomas)
Every nerve runs inside a wrapping of connective tissue called the nerve sheath. Tumors can grow from the cells of this wrapping. Vets group…
Cat Health
Electrical Cord Burns in Dogs and Cats: Mouth Burns and Electric Shock
Electrical injury happens when electric current passes through a pet's body. It is not common in dogs and cats, and when it does happen,…
Cat Health
Epidermolysis Bullosa in Dogs and Cats: Fragile Skin That Blisters
Epidermolysis bullosa is an inherited disease that makes the skin so fragile that it blisters from minor rubbing. It is a group of related…
Cat Health
Black Spots on an Orange Cat’s Lips and Nose: Lentigo in Cats
Lentigo is a pigment change in which small dark spots, like freckles, appear on a cat's skin. Under the microscope it is an extra…
Cat Health
Slow-Healing Wounds in Dogs and Cats: What Can Hold Healing Back
Wounds heal in steps, and many things can slow them down. A 2026 review of wound care in small animals describes repair as a…
Cat Health
Degloving Injuries in Dogs and Cats: When the Skin Is Torn Away
A degloving injury is a wound where the skin is torn away from the tissue below it, the way a glove is pulled off…
Cat Health
Pressure Sores (Bed Sores) in Dogs and Cats: Who Gets Them and How to Prevent Them
A pressure sore is a wound that forms where the body presses on the same spot for too long. The US National Library of…
Cat Health
Food Allergy in Dogs and Cats: The Skin Signs and How Vets Confirm It
A food allergy is an immune reaction to something a pet eats. In dogs and cats it shows up mostly on the skin, and…
Cat Health
Injection-Site Sarcoma in Cats: Lumps Where Vaccines Are Given
An injection-site sarcoma is a malignant tumor that grows under the skin of cats, in places where vaccines or other injections are given. Around…
Cat Health
Chiggers (Trombiculosis) in Dogs and Cats: Orange-Red Dots and Itchy Skin
Chiggers, also called harvest mites, are the larval stage of tiny mites in the family Trombiculidae. The adults live freely outdoors and lay their…
Cat Health
Sweat Gland (Apocrine) Tumors in Dogs and Cats: Adenomas and Adenocarcinomas
Dogs have two kinds of sweat glands. Apocrine glands sit in the deeper skin across the body, while eccrine glands are found only in…
Cat Health
Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Skin in Dogs and Cats: Sun, Sores and Toes
Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is a cancer that starts in the cells of the outer skin layer [6]. It is one of the skin…
Cat Health
Ceruminous Gland Tumors in Dogs and Cats
Ceruminous glands are the glands that make earwax in the ear canal. They are a special kind of sweat gland [1]. A ceruminous gland…
Cat Health
Hereditary Hair Loss (Hypotrichosis) in Dogs and Cats
Alopecia means hair loss of any degree, and hypotrichosis means a coat with less hair than normal [2]. In a small number of dogs…
Cat Health
Mast Cell Tumors of the Skin in Dogs and Cats
Mast cells are immune cells found in the skin and other tissues. They take part in allergic and inflammatory reactions [2]. A mast cell…
Cat Health
Sebaceous Gland Tumors in Dogs and Cats
Sebaceous glands sit next to the hair follicles. They make an oily substance called sebum, which keeps the skin surface and the hairs supple…
Cat Health
Dermatophilosis in Dogs and Cats
Dermatophilosis is a skin infection caused by the bacterium Dermatophilus congolensis [1][2]. It used to go by names such as rain rot and rain…
Cat Health
Flea Allergy Dermatitis in Dogs and Cats
Flea allergy dermatitis, or FAD, is an itchy skin allergy to flea bites. When a flea bites, it leaves saliva in the skin. Some…
Cat Health
Hair Follicle and Basal Cell Tumors in Dogs and Cats
Basal cell tumors and hair follicle tumors are growths that start in the skin and the hair follicles, the small pockets that each hair…
Cat Health
Feline Atopic Skin Syndrome: Environmental Allergies in Cats
Feline atopic skin syndrome, or FASS, is an itchy skin allergy to things in a cat's surroundings, such as house dust mites or pollen.…
Cat Health
Vitiligo in Dogs and Cats: Why Skin and Hair Lose Their Color
Vitiligo is a condition in which patches of skin, and sometimes hair and claws, lose their color. It is acquired, not present from birth:…
Cat Health
Proliferative and Necrotizing Otitis Externa in Cats: Thick Ear Crusts Explained
Proliferative and necrotizing otitis externa is a rare disease that causes thick crusts on the inside of a cat's ear flaps and at the…
Cat Health
Contact Dermatitis in Dogs and Cats: Skin Reactions to Ear Medicines and Other Products
Contact dermatitis is inflammation of the skin caused by something that touches it. A University of Minnesota veterinary dermatology handbook describes it as an…
Cat Health
Auricular Chondritis in Dogs and Cats: Painful, Misshapen Ear Flaps
Auricular chondritis is inflammation of the cartilage inside the ear flap. A 2025 review of feline immune-mediated skin disease describes it as a rare…
Cat Health
Solar Dermatitis in Cats: Sunburned Ear Tips, Skin Cancer Risk and Vet Care
Solar dermatitis is skin damage caused by the sun. Fur shields the skin from ultraviolet (UV) light, so the damage turns up mostly on…
Cat Health
Aural Hematoma in Dogs and Cats: Swollen Ear Flap Causes and Vet Care
An aural hematoma is a swelling of the ear flap (pinna) filled with blood-tinged fluid. It forms when tiny blood vessels inside the ear…
Cat Health
Skin Signs of Internal Cancer in Cats: Paraneoplastic Alopecia and Exfoliative Dermatitis
Sometimes a change in a cat's skin is a sign of a disease inside the body. Skin signs can point to internal disease, and…
Cat Health
Frostbite in Dogs and Cats: Signs, First Steps and When to See a Vet
Frostbite is damage to the skin and the tissue under it caused by cold. In dogs and cats the parts most at risk are…
Cat Health
Sporotrichosis in Cats and Dogs: A Fungal Skin Infection People Can Catch
Sporotrichosis is a long-lasting fungal infection of the skin. It causes lumps and open, draining sores that do not heal. Cats get it more…
Cat Health
Blood Vessel Tumors of the Skin in Dogs and Cats: Hemangioma and Hemangiosarcoma
Some skin lumps in dogs and cats grow from blood vessels. A hemangioma is a benign (non-cancerous) growth of this kind, while a hemangiosarcoma…
Cat Health
Fragile, Stretchy Skin in Dogs and Cats: Cutaneous Asthenia (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome)
Cutaneous asthenia, also called dermatosparaxis or Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), is a group of inherited connective tissue disorders. Affected animals have fragile skin that stretches…
Cat Health
Skin Melanoma in Dogs and Cats: Dark Lumps, Toes, Lips and Ears
A melanoma is a tumor that grows from melanocytes, the cells that produce pigment in the skin [1]. In dogs and cats these tumors…
Cat Health
Photosensitization in Dogs and Cats: When Sunlight Harms the Skin
Photosensitization is a condition in which a pet's skin overreacts to light because a light-sensitive substance has built up in it. It can look…
Cat Health
Skin Lymphoma in Dogs and Cats: Signs, Diagnosis and What to Expect
Cutaneous (skin) lymphoma is a cancer of lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell, that settles in the skin. In dogs it is a…
Cat Health
Footpad Problems in Cats: Swollen, Ulcerated and Crusted Paw Pads
A cat's footpads are skin too, and several diseases can make them swell, ulcerate, bleed or crust. This guide covers the footpad problems that…
Cat Health
Nail and Nail-Bed Problems in Dogs and Cats: Infections, Claw Loss and Toe Tumors
Claws grow from the skin at the end of each toe, so infections, immune diseases and tumors of the skin can reach the claw…
Cat Health
Hair Loss in Cats: Bald Patches, Thinning Fur and What They Can Mean
Hair loss (alopecia) is something you see, not a disease in itself. Hair grows in cycles of growth, rest and shedding, and anything that…
Cat Health
Fly and Mosquito Bites on Dogs and Cats: Sore Ear Tips, Mosquito Bite Allergy and When to See Your Vet
Mosquitoes and several kinds of biting flies, among them stable flies, black flies, biting midges and sand flies, feed on blood. Their bites irritate…
Cat Health
Cowpox (Catpox) in Cats: Signs, Diagnosis, Treatment and the Risk to People
Cowpox is a pox virus infection that cats pick up from small rodents, not from cows. The name is a leftover from history. [1]…
Cat Health
Parasitic Worms of the Skin in Dogs and Cats: Guinea Worm, Pelodera Dermatitis and Hookworm Skin Rash
Most worms that infect pets live in the gut, but a few end up in the skin. This guide covers three of them: the…
Cat Health
Warts on Dogs and Cats: Papillomas, What They Look Like and When to See the Vet
Warts (papillomas) are caused by papillomaviruses. In dogs they are very common, and many probably come and go without the owner ever noticing. [1]…
Cat Health
Pyoderma in Cats: Bacterial Skin Infections, Their Triggers and Treatment
Pyoderma means a bacterial infection of the skin. In cats it is usually not a disease on its own: something else, such as an…
Cat Health
Lumps and Bumps on Cats: Skin Tumors, Injection-Site Lumps and When to Worry
Lumps in and under the skin are among the growths vets see most often in cats. In a national survey of feline tumors in…
Cat Health
Mange in Cats: Feline Scabies, Demodex and Other Skin Mites
"Mange" is a loose name for skin disease caused by tiny mites. Several kinds can live on or in a cat's skin, and they…
Cat Health
Pemphigus Foliaceus in Dogs and Cats: The Autoimmune Crusting Disease
Crusts and pustules on a pet's skin are sometimes caused by the pet's own immune system. Pemphigus foliaceus is an autoimmune skin disease, and…
Cat Health
Maggots and Warbles in Dogs and Cats: Fly Strike and Cuterebra Explained
Finding maggots in a pet's wound, or a swelling with a small hole in it, is upsetting. Both are caused by fly larvae, and…
Cat Health
Lice on Dogs and Cats: Signs, Nits and How Vets Treat Them
Lice are small, flightless insects that live in the hair of animals. They are uncommon in dogs and cats, but when a pet does…
Cat Health
Ticks on Dogs and Cats: Finding, Removing and Watching the Bite Site
Finding a tick on your dog or cat is unpleasant, but knowing what to do makes it easier. Ticks are small parasites that feed…
Cat Health
Eosinophilic Granuloma Complex in Cats: Lip Ulcers, Plaques and Lumps Explained
A raw-looking sore on your cat's lip, a red, raised itchy patch on the belly, or a firm swelling on the chin can all…
Cat Health
Cat Chin Acne: Blackheads, Bumps and Crusts on Your Cat’s Chin
If you have noticed tiny black specks on your cat's chin that look like dirt but do not brush off, your cat may have…
Cat Health
Cat Ear Problems: Ear Mites, Ear Infections and When to See Your Vet
If your cat keeps scratching at their ears, shaking their head, or you notice dark debris or a smell from the ear, something is…
Cat Health
Ringworm in Dogs and Cats: Signs, Diagnosis, Treatment and Protecting Your Family
Despite the name, ringworm has nothing to do with worms. It is an infection of the skin, hair or claws caused by a type…
Cat Health
Itchy Cat or Overgrooming? Common Causes and What Your Vet Will Check
Cats are private about itching. Instead of scratching where you can see it, many simply groom more: licking their belly bald, pulling out fur…