This cat sneezing fit video will make you smile guaranteed

I am sure that this cat is healthy. Something irritated their nose and this happened. Poor thing but it is not serious. Just a bit amusing.

What causes cat sneezing?

Cat sneezing can occur for various reasons. While the occasional sneeze is normal, frequent or persistent sneezing might indicate an underlying issue. Here are some common causes of cat sneezing:

1. Upper Respiratory Tract Infections (URIs): These are often caused by viruses like feline herpesvirus and feline calicivirus. These infections are contagious among cats but cannot be caught by humans. Stress can worsen the symptoms or increase transmission between cats. Treatment focuses on managing symptoms while the cat’s immune system fights the infection. Secondary bacterial infections may also occur and can be treated with antibiotics.

2. Irritants: Cats may sneeze due to inhaling irritants such as tobacco smoke, dusty cat litter, perfume, cleaning sprays, mold, pollen, or even candles. Pay attention to when your cat sneezes to identify potential triggers.

3. Tooth Root Infections: These infections can drain into the cat’s sinuses and cause sneezing.

4. Foreign Bodies: Inhaled foreign objects like blades of grass can irritate the nasal passages and lead to sneezing.

5. Polyps and Tumors: Polyps or tumours in the nasal passages may cause persistent sneezing.

6. Allergies: Although not common, cats can sneeze if they inhale something irritating.

Remember, if your cat’s sneezing persists or is accompanied by other symptoms like runny nose, eye discharge, coughing, or fatigue, consult your veterinarian for proper diagnosis and treatment. 🐾

Sources: Myself, Purina, PDSA, First Vet, Great Pet Care.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Ginger tabby kitten asks for another kiss. Do cats understand kisses?

A super cute video. It seems to all the world that this little fella (ginger tabbies are nearly always males) wants another gentle kiss from his female caregiver and why not? Good idea. The way she delivers it is like the classic, friendly feline nose greeting. So perhaps her kitten interprets the kiss as that. Cats don't understand human kisses! Sorry but that is true. But they understand friendliness, warmth and affection from humans and respond positively to it as we see in the video.

Ginger tabby kitten asks for another kiss. Screenshot.

This is a TikTok video. They allow downloads and uploads. So, this is not my video. Update: I have delete it because Vimeo don't allow it.

It is a very successful one because of the behavior of the charming kitten. It reminds me of another post I wrote not long ago in which I said that cat caregivers should try and find out what their cat particularly likes and give it to them as much as possible and I am not talking about food! I mean, give them the food they like but not as much of it as possible unless you want your cat to become obese.

RELATED: Do cats know what kisses are?

My cat likes the back of his head rubbed and pressure applied to it. I always take the time to place my hand on the back of his head and hold it there. He meows silently to me when I do it with a look of delight on his face.

My cat loves the feeling of pressure from my hand at the back of his head and neck. I give it to him whenever I can. It is reassuring to him.

RELATED: National Kissing Day: Don’t kiss your cat on the lips.

Domestic cats need reassurance all the time I feel. They want to know that all is well. Perhaps this is because we make them feel like kittens even if they are adults. As we provide their every need like a mom, we keep them in that mental state. And kittens always look to their mom for reassurance. They purr to her and she returns the purr when nursing her them.

Improving the olfactory and visual environment of full-time indoor cats

I have just bumped into something that I think is interesting and which is particularly pertinent today with so many full-time indoor cats. I believe that often these cats are under-stimulated. I'm not apportioning blame. I just think that you can't bring cats in from the outside and confine them to the inside and leave it at that. The human caregiver has more to do and here are two examples.

RELATED: The big flaw that is never admitted in keeping cats indoors full-time.

Olfactory

This tip applies more to shelter cats than to full-time indoor domestic cats in homes but I think it is relevant. It is called "olfactory enrichment". The experts believe that it is relatively underused in animal housing perhaps because humans have a relatively poor sense of smell compared to cats and other animals.

Catnip gives your cat pleasure. Image: Johnsons veterinary products.

We know that you can buy catnip spray. I think that if you use catnip spray from time to time to spray into the environment you will find that there will be an increasing amount of time that the cat in that home is active because they will be stimulated by the chemical, nepetalactone, which we know excites and stimulates domestic cats.

A study examined the effect of introducing four odours on the behaviour of six zoo-housed black-footed cats. These are small wild cats are known to be the most prolific hunters of all the cats as it happens. The odours that were introduced were nutmeg, catnip, body odour of prey (quail) and no artificial odour and control. They found that there was an increase in their activity with all of the genuine odours with nutmeg causing less of an effect than catnip or odour of prey. As mentioned, catnip is a known stimulant for cats. Although not all cats are affected similarly.

Visual

In a cat's life there are two forms of cat television. There is the human television or perhaps iPad through which you can show images which may help to stimulate your cat. I've seen many videos of cats watching television with great interest. I am sure that you can buy programs for a television designed for cats. You'll need a CD player attached to the TV if you can't access programs provided in the usual way.

Window box for indoor cats. Image in public domain.

Perhaps a better form of cat television is the humble window. Full-time indoor cats spend a lot of time at windows looking out. They can get an awful lot of enjoyment doing that. There should be access to a window or windows in the home of a full-time indoor cat. 

To improve the arrangement you can build or buy window boxes which are inserted into the window and which overhang on the outside of the house. The front of the window box should not be glazed but should be open to the elements with a grill. In this way the cat can both see and smell the outside.

Window box is a firm favorite. Image in the public domain.

I would have thought that such a construction would be a fundamental necessity for any full-time indoor cat or cats. I would have thought where there are more than one indoor cat you could build more than one window box arrangement. They are like mini-catios and you see a whole range of designs. How many households have them? I would say very few relative to the number of indoor cats.

They are actually decorative as well and improve the appearance and ambience of a house.

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.

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.

The end of a cat's nose should be dry under normal conditions

The end of a cat's nose should be dry under normal conditions and good health in my considered viewpoint subject to condensation (see below). Over the years, there has been quite a lot of discussion about the end of a domestic cat's nose and whether it should be dry or wet or damp or whatever else it should be. I think people are getting confused about it.

It depends upon the external conditions. If you take an indoor cat who is healthy and on the assumption that the ambient temperature in the home is comfortable for human and cat then the end of that cat's nose should be dry. If that cat then goes outside into cold winter weather the end of her nose may become damp because of condensation from her damp breath forming on the end of her nose.

Temporarily her nose will be damp but this is due to physics. It has nothing to do with her health. If she is unhealthy with a cold then she may have a runny nose so the end of her nose will be damp. If she is a little confused or stressed she may engage in what is called "displacement activity". This may entail her licking the end of her nose repeatedly. This would make her nose damp.

Dr Yuki Hattori, a well-known Japanese veterinarian, in his book What Cats Want states incorrectly in my view that the end of a cat's nose should be damp. I genuinely believe that he is confused about this. He argues that it is damp so the cat can smell scent molecules more effectively. That I just cannot believe. Yes, certainly if scent molecules are damp they can be smelled more effectively but this is not a reason why the end of a cat's nose should be damp.

My cat's nose is dry. I've just touched it. He's inside with me in dry, warm conditions. His nose reflects those ambient conditions. I would challenge anybody who reads this (and they will be very few people who do!) to carry out their own test and touch the end of their cat's nose. You can then tell me in a comment whether it is dry or wet or something in between such is damp.

To reiterate, the dampness or dryness of the end of your cat's nose depends upon a range of circumstances and conditions one of which is the ambient air temperature. You cannot discuss the end of your cat's nose in isolation of ambient air temperature and a cat's health. But the default situation should be a dry nose leather in my view. The phrase "nose leather" is a cat fancy term meaning the end of the cat's nose which looks a bit like leather. As the flat bit out ofwhich two nostrils protrude.