Cat Ear Mites

Brown gunge caused by ear mites in a ferret. Image in public domain.

Yes, I know this is a ferret! It does show the build-up of dark brown to black ear wax caused by the presence of the cat ear mites in the outer ear canal. This parasite is not restricted to the domestic cat, which makes this photo valid and a useful illustration (I was unable to find a suitable photo of a cat with the condition). Photo Stacy Lynn Baum under a creative commons license.

Can cats give ear mites to humans? Very rarely, yes.

Can cats give ear mites to humans? Yes but very, very rarely indeed.

Ear mites (minute crab like creatures) are one of the causes of inflammation of the outer ear canal (scientific term for this inflammation is Otitis externa). The outer ear canal is the tube that runs from outside to the ear drum (the pathway for the reception of sound), which can be seen when looking at the ear. Otitis externa affects humans and often swimmers as it is called "swimmer's ear" in humans.

This YouTube video show ear mites under a microscope. They are not actually in the ear in this video. There are many possible causes of Otitis externa in cats. The cause of the inflammation can be complicated by the instinctive reactions of the cat when he/she scratches an ear than is irritating her. This leads to tissue damage, which can then lead to infection by bacteria and fungi. 

Discharge from cat ear mites can be foul smelling. Image: PoC.

A cycle starts when the cat scratches more and so on. A cat may also shake her head when mites are present in her ears. These are signs of infestation. Cat ear mites are a known possible underlying cause, however, and the most common cause.

One of those damnable parasites which cause so much discomfort in cats.
Photo in public domain.

The scientific name for an ear mite is Otodectes cynotis and the condition of infestation is called Otocarisis or "canker". The term canker is also used for any long-term outer ear canal inflammation. About 50% of Otitis externa is caused by cat ear mites. The percentage is much lower for dogs. Cats can tolerate a higher level of infestation than dogs and if there are dogs and cats in the same household the cat could infect the dog with ear mites as a consequence. 

Apparently, a high percentage of cats have ear mites at one time (one website quotes 90%, although this seems high to me) The mites stimulate the production of wax by glands situated in the ear canal (these wax producing glands are called ceruminous glands).

Some treatments. Image in public domain.

Excessive production of wax forming a thick brown/black layer is a sign of infestation of cat ear mites. They can be seen with the use of a special device called and auriscope (a kind of illuminating magnifying glass). Although some veterinarians may have a Video Otoscope, a device which transmits an image of the inside of the ear to a screen allowing more than one person to see (including the cat keeper). The mites appear as moving/crawling white objects on the brown/black wax, which is sometimes referred to as ear mite dirt. 

Above: Home remedies for cat ear mites (or any animal with eat mites I guess).  Photo above by Stacy Lynn Baum under a creative commons license. There is though not real substitute to seeing a veterinarian. The cure seems relatively straight forward but there can be complications.

It is important to make sure that the symptoms you see are being caused by ear mites as treatments for ear mites can complicate other causes that have not been spotted. An acaricidal drug is administered into the outer ear canal after the ear has been cleaned (with extreme care and in safe manner). If the ears are not cleaned the wax build up can shelter the mites and prevent the drug working effectively. 

I understand this drug to be a kind of insecticide. In order to prevent recurrence of infestation all dogs and cats in contact with the infected cat should be treated. The treatment should continue long enough to interfere with the 21-day cycle of the ear mite and kill the mites that are in the eggs.

Tense and slitty eyes with downturned mouth clearly in acute discomfort due to intense itching from the head mange mites tunnelling into her skin. Head mange mites are not ear mites but the point I am making is that both parasites cause intense itching and distress and in this cat, you can see it in her facial expression,

In addition, the cat ear mites will migrate from the ear to other parts of the body during the treatment (including the tail as it is sometimes near the ear when the cat is sleeping). The cat's body should therefore also be treated with an appropriate insecticide preparation. 

I have tried one of these once for my cat and I didn't like the effect, she licked it off and started foaming at the mouth. I had to take her to the vets but it was OK in fact. Home treatment remedies are, as you can see, available (my cat touch wood has never suffered from eat mites). 

On a commonsense level, if my cat had suffered from this condition in the past, I would regularly inspect her ears and if infected ask the vet for medication that could be administered by me.

 
Note: don't try and clean the ear by sticking a cotton bud down the ear canal. This is very unwise. See a vet instead please. Ear mites are very distressing for a cat so please don't delay. Ear mites can be a condition that is overlooked as cats are stoic and cat owners can sometimes be very busy and pre-occupied. But you'll be allowing your cat to suffer. You can see the difference in the facial expression of a distressed cat.

Source:

• Veterinary Notes for Cat owners
• BBC health
• Myself
• The Veterinarians' Guide to Your Cats Symptoms
• Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook by Drs Carlson and Giffin
  

Mother cat with pom pom tail followed by 6 pom pom tailed kittens marching along roof

Bobtailed mother cat followed by 6 bobtailed kittens marching on roof. Screenshot.

This looks like Asia to me but I am unsure. However, pom pom tailed, short-tailed, bobtailed and kinked tailed cats are not uncommon in Asia; in countries like Thailand. Thailand is meant to be the country of origin of the Siamese cat and a high percentage of Siamese cats used to have kinked tails when they were first imported to the UK. The kink has been bred out of the Siamese but you can still feel the kink. It is part of the breed. A sort of trademark. 

It is an unusual sight to people in the West. It might be fairly common in Asia, however.  There is something nice about the video. Although I am sure their lives are hard as they are community cats; unowned cats. They look as if they are in reasonable condition though. But you hardly ever see pom pom tailed stray cats like this in the UK and I suspect that they are rare in the USA too. Like I said it is an Asian trait. 

Someone will tell me now that the video was made in the USA 😎.

Note: This is an embedded video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source or the video is turned into a link which stops it working here. I have no control over this.

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2 physical features differentiate the true African wildcat from the hybrid wildcat

NEWS AND COMMENT-KAMBERG, KWAZULU-NATAL: Conservationists have taken charge of a purebred African wildcat which was trapped by farmers in the Kamberg area of KwaZulu-Natal. African wildcats were incredibly common in South Africa. Incidentally, KwaZulu-Natal is a coastal South African province known for its beaches, mountains and savannah. It sounds delightful. Note: it is nice to know that the farmer called the conservationists and did not simply kill the cat. I guess he was protecting livestock.

But the ubiquitous African wildcat is quite special nowadays as indicated by the report on the website iol.xo.za. The problem is this: they crossbreed with domestic and feral cats. This results in a first filial wildcat hybrid. Such cats are not purebred. They can't be described as wildcats. And this has watered down the population and the purity of the genes of the African wildcat in South Africa and elsewhere on the African continent.

RELATED: African and Asian wildcat – complete information.

African wildcat trapped by farmer. Photo: FreeMe Wildlife.

To confirm that they had a genuine wildcat, they carried out a DNA test and found that it indeed was purebred. This is a genuine wildcat. I must confess that the photograph of the cat does not confirm in my mind that this is a genuine wildcat. And if it is, you might be mistaken if you thought that it was a wild-looking tabby feral cat.

Two distinguishing features

Apparently, the conservationists employ two distinguishing anatomical features of the wildcat which separates them from tabby feral cats.

Back of ear flaps of African wildcat. Photo: FreeMe Wildlife.

The first is that they have a rich, reddish-brown coloration on the backs of their ears. In comparison, domestic and feral cats or domestic/wildcat hybrids have dark grey or black-backed ears. There might be a faint ocelli on the back of the ear flap as well. For tigers this is a white spot. It is very watered down in domestic and wildcat hybrid cats.

Lanky legs of African wildcat. Photo: FreeMe Wildlife.

The second distinguishing feature is that the wildcat has longer legs. They are quite rangy animals. They somewhat approach the gait of a cheetah for this reason. And when they sit upright on their bottom they are in a near vertical position. This is reminiscent of the ancient Egyptian statues. This makes sense because in the days of ancient Egypt, all domestic cats were either domesticated wildcats (Asiatic wildcats) or second third or fourth generation wildcats which had probably become truly domesticated.

RELATED: European wildcat habitat and hunting – classic cat technique.

It needs to be mentioned that the European wildcat does not have these long legs. They are a more stocky, squat and compact-looking cat whereas the African wildcat is slenderer. This is because of the climatic differences. Warmer temperatures produce smaller and lankier cats whereas in the north where it is colder they are bulkier in order to retain heat.

The chief executive officer at FreeMe Wildlife, the organisation which was involved in this rescue, said that they have a second genuine wildcat as well. They will be returned to the wild. They do not touch or get involved with them in order to ensure that they remain truly wild and non-domesticated. This facilitates their survival when returned to the wild.

Domestic cats can tell where you are from your voice and distinguish between voices

I'm not sure that this study furthers the sum knowledge of cat behaviour but at least it is quite nice to have a study confirm what most of us already know.

The study found that the cats "can mentally picture where others are through cues like sound". What that means to me is that domestic cats can visualise the location of a person by hearing the sound of their voice only. This is called 'socio-spatial cognition'. CNN have phrased the skill thus: Cats can track your 'invisible presence' using only their ears. As I say below - no surprise. How do they think cats catch mice in long grass? Through sound that's how. 😇

The large ears of a male Devon Rex in Russia. Photo: Олеся Бондарева (Russia).

Cats can also distinguish between different people and therefore different voices and sounds produced by them. Finally they can also recognise emotional sounds. This is why cats respond to the sound of their owner calling them.

The ability to create mental images is present in other animals such as meerkats and vervet monkeys.

The study took place at Kyoto University. The lead researcher is Saho Takagi. She said that she has always been interested in cats' hearing.

The researchers placed speakers apart from each other and out of sight. It seems that they used the voices of the cats' owners. The voice of a person was emitted from these speakers at different location. The participating cats recognised the sounds at these different locations.

I think I can provide a practical example. Many years ago I had placed by now deceased female cat in a boarding cattery for 2 weeks. On my return to collect her as I walked into the large room where there were pens, I called out. I couldn't see her and vice versa. A worker there told me that she turned towards my voice. She recognised my voice which to be honest was entirely expected and of course she knew where it was coming from.

ASSOCIATED: Is my cat losing her hearing?

The reason why I think the study is rather pointless is because we know that cats have incredibly mobile ear flaps driven by around 30 separate muscles. They hear behind them and think nothing of not turning their head to towards the source of the sound. They know where the sound is coming from, locate it and don't even bother to turn their head.

ASSOCIATED: What is the hearing range of a cat?

The incredible mobility of their ear flaps supports the notion that cats pinpoint sounds very accurately. In fact they can detect the position of small prey animals by sound alone. This skill is also present in the serval which has enormous ear flaps. They detect small mammals in long grass by sound alone and pounce on them without seeing the prey animal first.

How do cats keep warm in winter and cool in summer?

I am applying the question to domestic cats which can keep cool in summer by staying inside in a cool corner of a room somewhere or the garage or a shed. And they can keep warm using the central heating! Heat pumps and not gas boilers please!!

Norwegian Forest Cat. Tabby-and-white. Photo copyright Helmi Flick.

Colder climates

But at an anatomical level (which is what the question is all about), you'll find that some cat breeds are selectively bred from cats that have adapted to either hot or cold climates. For northern climates you can name the Maine Coon (Boston area and Maine), British Shorthair (UK) and the Norwegian Forest Cat (Norway). 

Their coats are dense with insulating down, which, in cold weather, stands up erect and traps a thin layer of air as double glazing traps air in a wall of warm air between the panes of glass. 

Under the skin is a layer of fat which retains body heat. Heat is lost one third as fast through fat as through muscle.

It is said that in extreme cold a cat will curl up and place its tail over its mouth.

Warmer climates

Breeds adapted to warm climates radiate heat from their bodies more efficiently. The classic breed with the silky, single coat that does this is the Siamese which hails from Thailand, a country with a hot climate. Although you don't see or rarely see Siamese street cats in Thailand which is strange or which makes me question the origin of the breed.

Oriental SH. Photo copyright Helmi Flick. Single-coated beauty.

ASSOCIATED: Single cat coats are better than double coats

Siamese cats lack down hairs. They can shed primary hairs and their blood vessels dilate which speeds up heat loss from the body.

Although cats don't sweat like humans through their skin generally, they do from their paw pads and they pant like dogs when very hot or stressed.  They also lick their fur to deposit saliva on it which evaporates. The latent heat of evaporation removes heat from the body.

2 nutritional advantages cats have over humans

There are 2 nutritional advantages that cats have over humans. The domestic cat does not require vitamin C. This is because it is synthesized in their livers. Humans don't have this ability. Apparently this deficiency in human biology is due to "a mutation in the GULO (gulonolactone oxidase) gene, which results in the inability to synthesize the protein" (stackexchange.com). 

2 nutritional advantages cats have over humans. Cat drinking. Domestic cats are in general poor drinkers because of their wildcat inheritance. Photo: in public domain.

The second advantage cats have over us in terms of nutritional requirements is that their kidneys are very efficient. This is because their ancestors (North African wildcat) lived on the edge of deserts. They get most of their water from the prey animals they eat. Mice are 70% water. This is why domestic cats are poor drinkers, which is also why they tend not to drink enough water to make up for the lack of water in dry cat food. This arguably leaves them mildly dehydrated if they are on an exclusively dry diet.

ASSOCIATED PAGE: Do older cats need vitamins?

Both these nutritional advantages proved very useful to ships' cats. We've all heard of scurvy due to the lack of vitamin C in a sailor's diet. That health problem does not exist for ships' cats. And if water is scarce onboard ship, the frugal water requirements of ships' cats leaves more for the sailors.

ASSOCIATED PAGE: Link between fish-based foods and chronic kidney disease in domestic cats?

If you throw in polydactyl ships' cats so they can maintain their balance while at sea (thanks to the extra toe!), you have a very useful working animal on board ship. It is said that polydactyl cats were preferred over standard cats because sailors believed that they could keep their balance better. I doubt the story but it makes a bit of sense.

What type of skeleton does a cat have?

All cats have an axial skeleton which consists of a skull, spine, ribs and sternum. Humans also have an axial skeleton. It serves to protect the central nervous system and the organs in the ventral body cavity. The structure of the domestic cat's skeleton is almost identical to that of the big cats with respect to shape and proportion. The only real difference is the size between domestic cats and the big cats.

Cat skeleton. Image: MikeB

When the domestic cat walks the shoulder blades rise above the spine just as they do with the lion or tiger. The cat's many vertebrae provide 'highly visible flexibility' in the words of Dr. Bruce Fogle.

If things go wrong with the skeleton, it is not caused by design because its design is one of evolution's superb achievements. Disease or hormonal and dietary upsets can cause arthritis, for example, but not nature's design.

ASSOCIATED: Cat anatomy quiz! AND Cat skeleton in some detail

Persian cat skull showing sagittal crest. Image: MikeB

Natural selection resulted in this beautiful structure. It is said that artificial selection (selective breeding) in the cat fancy, particularly with respect to cat breeds such as the flat-faced Persian, has led to anatomical deficiencies because the skeleton has been distorted (cranium or skull) for the sake of appearance to the point where it affects health such as difficulty breathing and tear duct overflow in the Persian.

Halloween cat - reflective eyes

I am being unkind in one way as it is not good to link Halloween with domestic cats because sometimes idiots harm black cats at Halloween. However, this guy is not black but his eyes are a pure white due to the reflection from the tapetum lucidum behind the retina which boosts the amount of light that impinges on the retina enabling cats to 'see in the dark'. But normally the reflection is green or blue/green. He we have a pure reflection of white light from the camera flash. It is strange. The cat also has his mouth open to give a ghoulish appearance. 

Halloween cat - reflective eyes. Photo: Twitter.

ASSOCIATED: Why are black cats associated with Halloween?

Do Selkirk Rex cats shed a lot?

Do Selkirk Rex cats shed a lot? No, is the answer. There is nothing in the history of this breed which indicates that Selkirk Rex cats shed more or less than other cats. The cat has coarse guard (top coat) hairs and these together with the awn and down hairs are curled.

Curly-coated cat. The Selkirk Rex. Photo: Nathalie Jacques, Saint-Léonard d'Aston, Québec, Canada.

Selkirk Rex kittens are born with curly coats. The coat disappears at about 6-months-of-age. It is replaced by sparse wiry hair. At around ten months old the adult coat emerges which is curly, plush and thick.

There is nothing in the literature which supports the belief that the Selkirk Rex sheds a lot. They neither shed more nor less than cats with normal coats to the best of my knowledge.

Hair shedding in cats is due to the change in the amount of light not the amount of heat. That is why shedding is seasonal with more hair shed in the summer months due to more light.

The gene causing the curly coat is dominant in contrast to the other Rex cats. 'Rex' cats are curly haired cats. The Devon and Cornish Rex cats are also well-known. The Selkirk has gained some popularity recently (2018-2021) because of media coverage of cats with sheep's coats.

Why are cat's noses always wet?

I am referring to the visible part of the nose: the nose leather. Cat's noses are NOT, POSITIVELY NOT always wet. Google seems to think that people search for an answer as to why their cat's noses are always wet. It is very peculiar. You don't have to look far to find out that the statement is untrue. Just look at your cat's nose. Under normal conditions, inside the home (and that's important) a healthy cat without an upper respiratory infection (URI), will have a dryish nose leather. As stated, I am talking about the tip of the nose here which is described in the cat fancy as a "nose leather".

Domestic cat's nose. Image by Sa Ka from Pixabay 

However, if a domestic cat is outside on a cold day, their warm breath, emitted from their nostrils, can condense on their nose leather. This will render the tip of their nose a bit damp. This happens to people. We all know that. This is why you see people wiping the nose on a winter's day. It's about condensation.

And of course, an upper respiratory infection will mean that the nose is runny just like a person having a cold. This will make the end of the nose a little bit wet. Particularly as the cat will be licking their nose all the time.

SOME PAGES ON THE CAT'S NOSE.

So, in my committed view, a cat's nose is not always wet but fairly dry. There may, from time to time, be a bit of dampness on it because of condensation and that may even occur inside the home if the air temperature there is on the cold side. But under normal conditions and in a warm home NO, the nose is not always wet.

You will find that that the nose leather of your cat will vary between being dry and perhaps slightly wet throughout the day or over a period of days. It depends upon the circumstances and the ambient temperature. You can't say it's normal for a cat's nose to be wet or dry or even in between. It's a variable state. But just like the human nose it is generally dry if the cat is healthy and the air temperature is normal.

I read briefly in one online submission that cats sweat from their noses. This is not conventional thinking. Cats to my knowledge only sweat from their paw pads.

P.S. The interior of the nose is relatively wet because that's it's normal state due to condensation and the damp mucus membrane. However, the question in the title must refer to the exterior.

P.P.S. When cats engage in displacement behavior such as licking their nose it will make it temporarily damp as saliva is deposited on it.

CONCLUSION: The exterior of cat's nose is not always wet. It varies between dry, a little damp and damp depending on various factors such as air temperature and URIs.

HOW do cats purr?

This is NOT about why cats purr but how they do it. I'll say it again for Google, this article is about how cats purr. And I'll tell you right away that the scientists are slightly unsure even today how they do it. There have been several theories postulated over the years. 

One looks very outdated now which is based upon turbulent blood passing through a cat's veins and heart causing the sound of the purr. I think we can dismiss that categorically for obvious reasons. 

Another theory was called the "false vocal chord (cord) theory". This theory refers to the presence of a 2nd pair of chords thought to be the secret behind the extraordinary purring mechanism. That theory states that purring is no more than noisy breathing of the type that humans indulge in when they are asleep i.e. snoring.

I think we can dismiss that theory too. The modern theory is the one stated in the video below.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

This states that the laryngeal muscles are the source of the famous cat purr. These muscles are responsible for the opening and closing of the glottis, which is the space between the vocal cords. They separate the vocal cords. Studies have apparently shown that the movement of the laryngeal muscles signal from a unique neural oscillator in the cat's brain. 

Like I said it is all very mysterious and hard to visualise. I would love to see an animated film on it to allow me to better understand it. One important factor about the cat purr is that it takes place on the in breath and out breath i.e. on inhaling and exhaling which means that it is produced during the entire respiratory cycle. Vocalisations such as meowing occur on the exploration of the breath.

Kittens purr while suckling. They drink and vocalise the purr at the same time.

Image in public domain and created by MikeB.

There have been some studies (not many!) on how cats purr. One was 1st published in January 1991 titled How Cats Purr. It's published on the ZSL Let's Work for Wildlife website. It is highly complicated but they measured the purring in domestic cats, mountain lions and cheetahs. Some large cats can purr but the big cats can't. They can roar instead although the roar is a long-range call whereas the purr is obviously a short-range vocalisations.

The study states that the frequency of the domestic cat purr is 26·3 ±; 1·95 (S.D.) Hz. The frequency at mid-expiration exceeds that at mid-inspiration by 2.4+ or -1.3 Hz. Mid-expiration means the middle of the outgoing breath and mid-inspiration is the middle of the incoming breath. The frequency of a domestic cat's purr does not change with the age of the individual.

Cats can purr simultaneously with other vocalisations. They can also of course drink simultaneously with purring. The scientists used two-channel acoustic measurements and they confirmed that the "primary mechanism for sound and vibration production is a centrally driven laryngeal modulation of respiratory flow."

This supports the statement made above. They are saying that the laryngeal muscles alter the flow of airflow while breathing causing the purring sound.

On an associated subject, one study published June 28, 2020 titled Emotion Recognition in Cats states that domestic cats are able to recognise human emotions in detecting visual and auditory signals. In other words, they are recognising the sounds that humans make and their body language and movement in order to assess human emotions. That's what I glean from the summary. I would argue that they also employ their knowledge of the history of the relationship through rhythms, habits and routines.

Domestic cats are very much into the rhythms and routines of life in a human home. They understand and recognise the movements of the human companion and caretaker. When that changes, they can read something into it when combined with the human's voice i.e. vocalisations and their body language. That's my take on the conclusions to the study but I've added a little bit to it.

If you can add some info, it would be very welcome. I have written on this three times before!! Click this link for the last in that trio.

It's interesting but judging by the viewing statistics very few people want to know how cats purr. I put quite a lot of effort into this page but nobody is viewing it! I don't mind that much but it would be nice if they did. And while I'm adding an update, I will tell you why cats purr. It is not simply because they are content, although cats do purr when they are content, it is also delivered when they need friendship. You could say purring is a thank you for friendship given and a request for friendship needed. That's why you will see (correction: hear) domestic cats purring sometimes when they are frightened and in pain. It is said that the frequency of purring can heal which may explain why they sometimes purr when they are in pain.

Standard domestic cat slides through 3-inch gap under interior door

This looks entirely genuine: a standard sized moggie gets through a 3-inch gap (max) under an interior door. He or she twists onto their side when half way through and seem to compress their rib cage to get under.  It is remarkable. On this page is the video which may stop working as they often do when they are stored on a third-party site (this time TikTok) and three still images (screenshots) of the feat.

Standard domestic cat slides through 3-inch gap under door

Then she turns over half way through:

The last bit, the legs are the easy part!

Standard domestic cat slides through 3-inch gap under door.

And this is the TikTok video:

@stlrgrl8717

##catsoftiktok ##liquidcat ##wtf ##fyp

♬ Touch Down 2 Cause Hell - Hd4president

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

Do cats feel pain like humans?

Yes and no is the answer. Domestic cats have a very similar physiology to humans. They have a nervous system and a brain. The peripheral nerves feedback to the spinal cord and thence to the brain. The brain processes the electrical impulses which pass along the nervous system and which are triggered in peripheral parts of a cat's anatomy through injury or disease et cetera. So, everything is in place in a domestic cat for them to feel pain like humans.

Humans cause pain in cats through their ignorance. And even intelligent people behave ignorantly such as declawing vets.

ABOVE: The story of Zoe is nothing less than horrendous and I am sorry to recite it but I have to. Zoe was declawed. His behavior changed because of the pain of - botched surgery. He was then de-toothed. He is now untouchable. He will undergo paw repair surgery by Dr Doub.

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And I believe that these electrical impulses which send signals to the brain are the same as in humans. I also believe that the cat's brain processes the signals in a slightly different way to people. I believe that cats have a filtering system in their brain so that they dampen down the sensation of pain that is signalled to them through their nervous system. It is a method which is akin to humans using psychological therapies to manage chronic pain as taught to them by therapists.

We know that a person cannot or should not use painkillers constantly, day in day out for chronic pain and therefore they are taught to use their mind as one way of better managing pain. And I guess these are psychological techniques which can dampen down chronic pain and make life more bearable or acceptable.

The fact that domestic cats hide pain so successfully is, I would argue, evidence that they are better at controlling it in their mind. Potentially they feel exactly the same amount of pain, let's say because of an injury to a limb, but when the signal gets to their brain it is processed and filtered as mentioned.

These are my personal thoughts and I don't think you will find this concept written about by the experts. I have simply made my own deductions through observing cats and reading about them. I would doubt that you would find studies on the subject either. But evidence points to it because cats inherit this skill to hide pain in the furtherance of their survival.

Rather than reaching for painkillers as humans do and complaining about being in pain, cats tend to shut up and slink away to a safe place where they can defend themselves and snooze. They might not even do this. My elderly female cat who I now believe was in pain for a long time used to sleep in the middle of a large lawn or over a grill leading to a sewer because it produced a cooling air stream which I believe alleviated her pain. It still hurts me to think about it.

And domestic cats do show subtle signs of pain in their facial expressions. Scientists can now measure this. There are other signs which you can read by clicking this link.

Not so long ago, even the experts e.g. vets were unsure that domestic cats felt pain because there is an inherent speciesism in the human mind. Humans come first and animals come second. Animal sentience is an awakening process. Poorly educated people are still unaware of it. A greater awareness of sentience in animals leads to much less animal abuse and an improvement in animal welfare. Sentience is the ability to feel sensations, emotions and of course as mentioned pain.

Sport and trophy hunters temporarily suspend their knowledge that animals feel pain because how else would they be able to cause such acute pain for their entertainment?

What are cats' fangs called?

A cat's fangs are canine teeth. Humans have them too but they are hardly noticeable as they are nowhere near as impressive as the feline versions! The cat with the biggest fangs is the now extinct sabretooth tiger. The canine teeth of domestic cats are very important for killing prey. When a domestic cat chooses to kill prey by breaking the spine, they are able to position one canine tooth between the vertebra at the nape of the neck and insert it at that point which severs the spinal cord, which in turn kills the animal.

Image showing the teeth of a cat including the canines. Image: PoC.

How many teeth do cats have? The answer is 30. For humans it is 32 (this is for adults in both cases).

If it is dark, domestic cats use their whiskers to feel for this position. You can see them instinctively push their whiskers forward when they are interested in an object placed before them. You might see this in play, for example. Whiskers are incredibly sensitive because there is a huge conglomeration of nerve endings at the base of each whisker which allows them to almost feel something and measure the shape of that object. They can feel the minute air currents passing around buildings and objects which allows a cat to "see" during the night together with their night vision based upon a reflective layer behind the retina.

Breaking the spine is one way that a domestic cat kills prey but there are others. For example, I have seen my cat kill a pigeon by suffocating it. This is the method used by the big cats to kill large prey animals. It was very interesting although sad to see him kill a pigeon in the same way. The canine teeth would have been part of that process as they would have pierced the neck of the pigeon.

CLICK THIS LINK TO SEE A RANGE OF ARTICLES ON CAT TEETH

It is the canine teeth, their fangs, which hurt us when a domestic cat bites either their human companion or somebody else. They are not particularly sharp but sharp enough to create a deep puncture wound in a person's leg because the cat's jaw is very strong. In this way they can "inject" mouth bacteria under the skin which is why people have to be cautious after being bitten by a cat. Not every bite leads to an infection but some do and you can check this out by clicking on this link if you wish.

A domestic cat's incisor teeth are very small and rather insignificant but they are there to help groom themselves. You can see this when they nibble their fur with their incisor teeth. And of course, they help when they're eating by tearing off flesh and then passing it back to the carnassial teeth which have a shearing action a bit like scissors as opposed to the grinding action of human molar teeth.

Sectoral heterochromia in an all-white cat

This is called sectoral heterochromia. It is rare and beautiful. No health issues. You do see it in domestic cats. The cat is all-white. It is the dominant white gene which affects eye pigmentation creation in the embryonic stage. It causes the removal of melanin pigment across a part of the iris. The blue color is caused by light refraction only (not blue pigment). The yellow by pigment (eumelanin). All-white cats have no pigment in the hair strands. This is why they can get sunburnt ears - no pigment to block sun and in any case the hairs are thin there.

The normal, most common, sort of heterochromia in cats is when they have odd-eyes. One eye is blue and the other is yellow normally. But there are various types of heterochromia and the one we see on this page is called sectoral heterochromia because each eye is divided up into two colours i.e. there are two sections to the eyes. Turkish Angoras sometimes have odd-eyes and they are favoured. They are often all-white cats too. The classic real Turkish Angora is all-white with odd-eye colour.

The cat below looks a bit like an Angora but is not to the best of my knowledge.

Sectoral heterochromia in an all-white cat. Photo: Reddit.com.

How many hairs on a domestic cat?

CONCLUSION: 68,250,000 hairs on a standard-sized cat weighing 10 pounds.

I have tried to work this out before. Perhaps it would be easier to simply read what somebody else has calculated. It is very hard to be accurate because the geometry of the domestic cat means that it is very difficult to apply some basic formulas to work out the surface area. My research indicates that there are about 60,000 pairs per square inch or 25,000 hairs per square centimetre on a normal cat.

Image by Anja🤗#helpinghands #solidarity#stays healthy🙏 from Pixabay 

I decided to work out the number of hairs on the torso of a cat which is somewhat cylindrical and then add in the legs and head and tail. Fortunately, there is an online calculator to work out the surface area of a cylinder.

Smaller or standard domestic cat

I have found a veterinary chart on the MSD Veterinary Manual website which converts cat weight to surface area. A 10 pounds cat weighs 4.54 kilograms with a surface area of 0.273 square meters or 2730 square centimeters. Multiplying 2730 x 25,000 makes 68,250,000 hairs on a 10 pound cat.

Chart showing the surface area of cats of different body weights. Source: see above.

Large domestic cat!

I worked this out from scratch because I had not found the above chart at the time.

If we say that the length of the torso of a cat is 45 cm and the radius of this imaginary cylinder is 12.7 cm, the total surface area works out at 4662 cm². If we multiply that number by 25,000 (the number of hairs per square centimetre on a normal) we come to the grand total of 116,550,000 hairs on a standard domestic cat excluding the head, legs and tail.

I'm going to estimate that the area of all four legs is about 250 cm². The head has a radius of about 5 cm and if we take the head to be a sphere, which is not but it is near as I can get when working out the surface area, my online calculator makes that 314 cm². If we add that to the legs, we get 564 cm² which we then multiply by 25,000 to make 14,100,000. We then add that to the number of hairs on the torso to make 130,650,000 hairs on a normal cat's body.

I am now going to try and measure my cat to make sure that the length of his torso is as I have stated! Result: my cat is about 35 cms long on the torso. Can't measure the radius! Surprised?

Why do cats have wet noses?

The first question to ask is whether domestic cats have wet noses normally. Under normal circumstances, by which I mean nothing strange climatically, domestic cats do not have wet noses. Their noses are quite dry and I can rely on personal experience - years of it. So a domestic cat's nose is dry and we are referring to the nose leather as cat lovers call it. This is the tip of the nose.

Image by I. Aa van der from Pixabay 

If the nose leather is wet it is probably due to one of two reasons. Firstly: condensation - if a cat is outside in cold weather their warm breath exiting through the nostrils of the nose condenses on the nose leather and when it does so the breath turns into liquid which makes the nose leather wet. Humans encounter this all the time when, for example, going for a walk in winter. 

The second reason would be that the cat has a cold or to put it more technically an upper respiratory infection (URI) which causes a nasal discharge, some of which ends is up on the nose leather.

Ah..there is a third possibility. A cat has licked his nose due to displacement activity! That happens quite a lot. When cats are unsure they temporarily remove the uncomfortableness of that feeling by displacing it with a nose lick.

That, as far as I can see, is the full answer. It appears to me that some people think that a nose should be wet because the question is pitched in a way which presupposes that the nose is wet. This is not true in my opinion. It's a misconception. If it is wet a lot for some cat owners then it is because of condensation as mentioned above. It may be because their home is quite cold.

If the home is cold a cat's nose leather will be cold. So when the hot air of the breath meets the cold nose leather the water vapour in the breath condenses into a liquid on that surface. It's just a question of physics. We see condensation all over the place. It happens most normally or likely on windows inside the home or the car.

If there are, say, four people inside a car and it is winter, the breath of these people may condense on the cold windows of the car. It's exactly the same physics. That's enough I think! No, here is some physics.

What is condensation and how does it work? Condensation is the opposite to evaporation, which is when a liquid water becomes a vapour. In condensation water vapour becomes a liquid. When water vapour condenses on a surface it is because the air is cooled to its dew point. The dew point is the temperature at which condensation happens. The dew that we see on the grass in the morning is water that has condensed out of the atmosphere. The dew point varies based on the saturation levels of the water in the atmosphere and the air temperature known as relative humidity.

Why do cats wag their tails?

Definition: wagging a tail means moving it from left to right horizontally. Cats do this when they are unsure of what to do. It is an indicator of uncertainty which may lead to irritation. Some say tail wagging indicates annoyance. I disagree, unless the irritation leads to annoyance.

Tail wagging in cats reflects an uncertain state of mind. Picture: MikeB

CLICK THIS LINK FOR MORE IF YOU WISH.

Tail wagging mirrors the tail's function as a balancing tool. It moves from right to left horizontally when a cat - wild or domestic - needs to correct balance usually when climbing.

The word 'balance' is important because a state of uncertainty is a mentally balanced state. A position between two outcomes. 

So, the tail reflects a state of mind which is between two decisions. When the decision is made the tail stops wagging. Tail up is a friendly greeting. 

You will find that some websites state that when a cat wags her tail, she is annoyed. In short, it is a symptom of annoyance. I think this is probably incorrect but "annoyance" is very close to "uncertainty". I'm arguing that a cat wags her tail when she is uncertain about what to do next as a kind of visual balancing act between making one decision and another. Uncertainty creates a little bit of irritation and irritation is quite close to annoyance and therefore I see an overlap here.

The thing is that dogs wag their tail as a clear signal of happiness and excitement and perhaps a bit of nervousness. This knowledge may misguide us in interpreting domestic cat body language and behaviour.

I am following, and I agree with, the best expert on the planet in respect of domestic cat behaviour. His name is Dr. Desmond Morris. He wrote the world-renowned book CATWATCHING. And he starts off his page about cat tail wagging by stating, "Most people imagine that if a cat wags its tail it must be angry, but this is only a partial truth."

He then goes on to say that "the real answer is that the cat is in a state of conflict". The cat wants to do two things at once and each desire blocks the other. You might see this when your cat wants to go outside but it is raining. His tail may start to wag as he sits behind the cat flap trying to decide to go out. 

He may go out but becomes wet and therefore more uncertain about his decision and so his tail may wag more furiously. He decides to come in again. At that point he's made his mind up and his tail stops wagging. This is because he had resolved his conflict. The mood is not one of anger but of frustration and irritation.

This balancing act between two decisions occurs under a wide range of circumstances. That said, I do not see my cat wagging his tail very often. If he does, it'll be because he is on the lawn behind an object waiting to stalk a pigeon feeding on birdseed. 

He will have to traverse the lawn in his final rush to capture the pigeon. He is uncertain as to whether he can be successful or not. Can he make it to the pigeon before the pigeon flies off? Should he hold back? His mind is in mental conflict and as a consequence he wags his tail by being brushed across the lawn from left to right.

What are cats' whiskers made of?

Cats' whiskers are made of keratin. This is the same substance that makes our finger nails and the claws of our cats. And a cat's fur is made of keratin. A rhino's horn is made of keratin too, by the way, which is why it is so strange that some people think it has medicinal properties. It does not. The reason for the gradual extinction of the rhino is because people think eating rhino horn is beneficial. They might just as well eat their finger nails. It would be a lot cheaper and it would protect the precious rhino.

Cat whiskers are made of keratin. Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Keratin is also the material that makes an animal's scales, feathers, hooves and calluses.

So what is keratin? It is a fibrous structural protein. At the cellular level the production of keratin is called 'cornification' which is the process of 'forming an epidermal barrier in stratified squamous epithelial tissue'. Yes, it is very technical.

Keratin has to be strong and it is. Science Direct tells me that "keratins are cysteine-rich proteins endowed by nature with high mechanical strength owing to the large number of disulphide bonds". More technical stuff.

Never trim a cat's whiskers. They need them for a range of tasks. They are connected to a mass of nerves in the muzzle which allows whiskers to 'feel' air currents which in turn allows cats to detect objects that they can't see. They are also used to detect the exact location of the vertebrae in the neck of prey so the cat can severe it with a precise bite.

You might see whiskers being trusted forwards like tentacles when a cat has something interesting in front of him. They are reaching out to detect what that interesting object is.

Video of tabby cat with bright emerald eyes

This is a video on Reddit.com of a tabby cat with the most astonishing emerald eyes. Initially when I saw a still image of the cat (and not the video) I thought that this was an example of excellent photo-editing. But can you photo-edit video material like this? I think you can because I just can't bring myself to believe that this eye colour is genuine.

Update: the video failed. They always do from Reddit. They are hopeless on embedded videos. So hopeless that I think they deliberately make them fail. But if you click here you can see it on Reddit (hopefully).

Here is a screenshot from the video:

Tabby cat with bright emerald eyes. Screenshot.

But, you know, I could be wrong. It could be genuine. I'd love someone to tell me that I am wrong in a comment. Amazing cat. He/she should have an Instagram page. I can't find a page on Instagram which features this cat. Is that proof that the eyes are too special to be real?