Broken whiskers from scratching?

[Robbie]

About three weeks ago, I noticed that many of my seven month's whiskers were broken. They looked as if someone had taken scissors and cut them. Though some are growing back, now others look broken. I have been very puzzled as to how this was happening. Last night, as I was brushing my INDOOR dog, I discovered a couple of fleas. When I examined Max, he had several fleas too!! Now I'm wondering if Max broke his whiskers while scratching fleas. Has anyone else experienced this?

[JanH]

Broken whiskers are not uncommon and I would not suspect fleas based on them. However, if the dog has fleas, then the cat should also be treated. Use the better products because some can be dangerous and do not double up on treatments, which is also very dangerous. Use something like Advantage, Revolution ...

[ssjenny1]

When I first got my Monkey, he had lots of broken whiskers. So did his littermates. When the breeder took the litter to the vet for inoculations she asked about the broken whiskers, and its apparently pretty common for these little kitties to break their whiskers when wrestling around with each other. Now that Monkey's older (and only has our big puppy as a playmate) his whiskers are all grown out and quite lovely (as whiskers go that is) Hope you get your flea problem under control soon, those little buggers can get out of hand so fast if not treated!

[Coral]

When using flea treatment, be sure to use the feline products. Dog flea products are dangerous for cats.

[Paulagene]

Both ours had that too but I figured it might be a kitten thing but did not know if it was but it all worked out.

[JanH]

For kittens with the mother cat, it is most likely her. Some queens will bite the whiskers off entirely when grooming them. They can also get broken short in play.

[Robbie]

JanH Wrote:Broken whiskers are not uncommon and I would not suspect fleas based on them. However, if the dog has fleas, then the cat should also be treated. Use the better products because some can be dangerous and do not double up on treatments, which is also very dangerous. Use something like Advantage, Revolution ...

I'm going to take Max to the vet this afternoon. He has scratched so much on the right side of his face that he looks as if he has been in a fight. All fleas were gone by Friday so he has done this awful scratching yesterday. He has broken all his whiskers on that side down to nubs and has clawed two gashes in his cheek. As I said, it looks as if he were in a fight. He has only done this on this one side so I'm not sure what's wrong. If he were having an alergic reaction to something I would think that he would be scratching his whole body.

[Coral]

Poor thing! Please let us know how he's doing and what the vet says.

[Robbie]

The vet says she doesn't know what it is. She gave him a shot for skin allergies and one with antibiotics. Additionally, I am to give him liquid antibiotics for five days. Hopefully he will quit this destructive behavior. Thanks for everybody's help.