Picture of bumps and scabs on a cat's ear caused by an allergic reaction

This picture of the external part of the ear of a domestic cat, called the pinna (ear flap), might be instructive to somebody. It shows bumps and some bloody areas. You might be able to guess what happened. The cat has scratched his ears because they were itching. This sort of condition is often caused by an allergy to something. 

Allergies are caused by allergens and there are a wide range of allergens in very many areas of the life of a domestic cat including in the air and environment generally, in their food, and household items, in chemicals around the house which you don't necessarily know exist and so on. It can be difficult for a veterinarian to work out which allergen is causing an allergic reaction in a domestic cat. They have to run a lot of tests.

I have a particular interest in this sort of ear flap damage as my late mother's Siamese cat, Suki, suffered from the same problem. She did not deal with it properly and promptly which irks me to this day knowing that it caused her cat so much distress.

Picture of bumps and scabs on a cat's ear caused by an allergic reaction. Photo: the cat's owner who remained anonymous.

The symptoms are distressing for a domestic cat because of intense itching. The cat scratches which breaks the skin. This may lead to a secondary bacterial infection and more problems. It's a case of self-mutilation. It's why cat owners need to act promptly to deal with allergies like this. It is called otitis externa: the external part of the air is inflamed in the form of bumps. It is not the whole area but just small parts of it.

A veterinarian diagnosed this condition online through the photograph. As this cat developed the problem during the summer months when he was outside in Atlanta, USA the veterinarian decided that it was a seasonal allergy caused by allergens such as pollen and grasses. She was able to discount other allergens such as those in food and around the house because of its seasonal nature.

But it might have been caused by a flea bite as some cats are allergic to flea bites. Or it might be caused by food and so on. It is just that it was possible to pin this one down more accurately because of its seasonal nature.

A secondary possibility was that the cat had been bitten by flies because he also had bumps on his nose. Fly bites are going to be seasonal as well for obvious reasons.

The picture is quite instructive because I think allergies which manifest themselves on a domestic cat's ear flaps are quite common. They look rather benign and not particularly important but they are. They cause itchiness which is very distressing if that itchiness is present all the time 24/7. Think about it and how it might feel if you had a persistent and powerful itch on your ear all the time.

Please deal with these sorts of illnesses quickly and see a veterinarian because it can be very difficult to self-diagnose domestic cat illnesses and conditions accurately. This condition is dealt with through a topical steroid cream which your veterinarian can provide recommend. 

But of course, the best treatment is proactive, namely to prevent your cat coming into contact with the allergen or allergens which cause the condition. In this instance it would probably be wise for the owner to keep her cat inside during the summer months which would be very difficult because he's got used to being outside enjoying the sun.

Residents of Knox City, Melbourne ordered to keep cats inside 24/7

KNOX CITY, MELBOURNE - NEWS AND COMMENT: This might be a world first but if not, it is one of the very few city councils to order that their citizens keep their domestic cat companions inside the home 24/7. And it seems that the order to do this will go on indefinitely unless somebody changes the ordinance or local law. The mayor of the city council disagrees with it as you can see in the Facebook post below.

Knox City. Pic in public domain.

The reason is to protect wildlife and that is always the reason in Australia for confining cats. The authorities across the continent, to varying degrees, have become somewhat obsessed with protecting native species and I can understand that because humankind is destroying native species with global warming and other human activities. They have to do something about it and as they can't change themselves, they force change upon the cat.

Note: the embedded FB post below may stop working one day. If so, I am sorry.

Dear Residents, I’d like to thank you for taking the time to write to me and express your views in relation to the new...

Posted by Mayor Lisa Cooper - Knox City Council on Wednesday, June 30, 2021

I have read that the owl kills more wildlife than the cat! I'm not sure that that is true but it's a thought. The cat is cast as the culprit in the decimation of native wild species as the Australian authorities see it. But the feral cat does more damage than the domestic cat and you can't confine feral cats but you can shoot them, poison them and kill them in any way you want, which is exactly what happens in Australia according to the news media.

The 24/7 cat confinement in Knox City which is a suburb of Melbourne begins on October 1, 2021. It will no doubt result in some cat owners building enclosures in their backyards for their cats as a substitute which I think is a good idea. It is perhaps the beginning of the end of allowing cats to roam freely. There will probably come a time, in Australia initially, but in other countries eventually when the concept of 24/7 cat confinement becomes a norm in society.

The council rules state that cats can still go outside as long as they remain on the property of their owner. From October 1 there will be a transition period during which time owners will receive a warning if their cat is found in someone else's property. After the transition period cat owners will be fined AU$91 if their cat is found away from the property. Repeated breaches of the rule will result in a fine of more than AU$500.

The Mayor of Knox City would have preferred a compromise solution namely a 7 PM to 7 AM overnight cat curfew but it did not get the council vote. The mayor is disappointed and it is her who said that on her understanding owls are the biggest predators of wildlife and yet domestic cats are continually blamed.

Her argument is that as cats do most of their hunting at night a night-time curfew would do the job to protect animals. Although many non-cat owning residents of the suburb are happy with the 24/7 confinement order.

Steve Bouquet convicted of causing criminal damage to 16 cats and possessing a knife

This is a further post on this topic which has flooded the news media in the UK and internationally. I have updated my extensive page on the trial of this man and the cruel things he did to the indoor-outdoor domestic cats of Brighton. He stabbed 16 cats (perhaps more) and killed 9 outright and seriously injured 7. In this post I simply want to focus on the good news that he has been convicted. He was tried in his absence as he disdainfully did not attend his trial. The judge made the point that he must have caused a lot of distress and emotional upset to the owners of these cats.

Steve Bouquet, the devil incarnate. Image: MikeB based in pic by GARETH FULLER/PA

He was caught when making a silly mistake otherwise he might still be doing it. He was caught on a CCTV camera when he came back to check out the camera. He must have felt that he had been videotaped, He was concerned and returned. That is my interpretation of it. He also photographed the cats and pictures were found on his smart phone.

Also, the knife that he used to stab the cats was found in his property and on the blade was the DNA of a cat or cats. Despite the fact that the video was not of great quality, the evidence stacked up to the point where his conviction was almost certain. The jury didn't take that long to decide that he was guilty.

But for the mistake that he made regarding the security camera, the police probably wouldn't have caught him because they were scratching their heads for about 12 months. He worked quite surreptitiously when he was seen around the area behaving unusually. He used a Leatherman tool with an included knife to kill the cats. Nine were killed by stabbings and seven survived. He befriended the cats then violently stabbed them to the body.

There was a huge amount of trauma by the cat owners and the cats. Cats were seen on the doorstep bleeding and owners were rushing their cats to veterinarians to try and save their lives. Steve Bouquet is very easily recognised by his appearance because as you can see has a totally bald head and a rather stark appearance. He is a bouncer by trade.

When interviewed by the police he said that he wasn't a threat to animals. The security camera was attached to a property of one of the cat owners whose cat, incidentally, was stabbed and died (Hannah). Both him and a neighbour whose cat also was stabbed and died (Hendrix) analysed the video material and decided that they had caught the man and reported it to the police.

The attacks went on for about 12 months and it was quite clear that the cats had been stabbed in the same way. Veterinarians confirmed that these were deliberate stabbings by a person judging by the type of injury.

He had to be tried on criminal damage because domestic cats are regarded as property. You can't try a person for murder for the killing of a cat by stabbing. You can't try him for grievous bodily harm or an assault because the cat is not seen as a sentient being by the law but as an inanimate object. That certainly applies in the UK and probably applies in all other countries as well. I guess that he was not tried for cruelty to animals because criminal damage potentially carries a bigger sentence.

However, there is a shift towards recognition that cats are sentient beings and the law might or should be altered. Certainly, the emotional damage done to their owner should be taken into account when punishing crimes such as perpetrated by Steve Bouquet.

He is waiting to be sentenced. Bearing in mind the large number of cats that he stabbed and killed or badly injured and the planned and devious way he carried out his crimes, I would hope that he receives a reasonable prison sentence, perhaps about five years. If he, does it would be a result because in general the criminal courts tend to under-punish criminals who abuse and kill animals whether they be domestic or wild.

This is a result of that continuing attitude of human beings that animals are lesser creatures to humans. This belief goes back hundreds of years and it is outdated.

Where do Abyssinian cats come from?

We are not sure where Abyssinian cats come from. However, the best assessment is that they come from Abyssinia which is what the citizens of Ethiopia call their country nowadays. Officially it is called the Ethiopian Empire. It is in north-east Africa. It is believed that the first Abyssinian cat in England was called Zula. This individual cat, it is believed, was brought to England by the wife of Captain Barrett-Lennard in 1868. 

This is according to Gordon Stables writing in 1874. The date, 1868, coincides with the end of the Abyssinian confrontation and it is probable that she obtained the cat from one of the returning soldiers from that war. The name of the cat, Zula, is the name of the northern Abyssinian port at which the British military force established its first base in 1867.

 Where do Abyssinian cats come from? See map above.

It is then believed that the cat was selectively bred in England during the early years of the cat fancy from ticked tabby coated cats brought back to England from Abyssinia after this brief war. It appears that more than one cat was brought back which allowed selective breeding to take place and to found or create the new breed which was labelled the Abyssinian cat.

The cat was first listed as a distinct breed in 1882. Its status was contested. The first breed standard for this cat was published in 1889 by Harrison Weir who is described as the father of the cat fancy. The first Abyssinian cats to be registered in the National Cat Club studbook occurred in 1896 and in 1907 the first Abyssinian caps were exported to the United States.

Abyssinian cat. Photo in public domain nowadays/

It should be strongly noted, however, that there are a lot of theories about the origin of the Abyssinian cat. We don't know for sure. A lot of what is said is either a best guesstimate, a decent analysis or pure speculation. But the name of the cat points strongly to Ethiopia as the country of origin and it does tie in quite nicely with the fact that there was a war there which allowed soldiers to bring animals back. The cats must have seemed quite exotic at that time because of the interesting ticked tabby coat. This is a coat which does not have markings like the classic tabby (except the M on the forehead and a dark tipped tail) but the coat has a broken and rusty appearance.

Some writers of the era speculated that the Abyssinian cat might be a direct descendant of the sacred cat of the ancient Egyptians. Egypt is close to Abyssinia. And the Abyssinian cat, when in the sitting position, looks very like the statuettes of the ancient Egyptian era right down to the appearance of the face. But there's no hard evidence to back up the idea that this is a cat from ancient Egypt.

Why do kittens throw toys in the air over their shoulder?

This is an instinctive fishing action by a kitten who knows how to do it even if they weren't taught by their mother. It is not a kitten trying to create a bird flying through the air which they then catch and bring to the ground. In a study, it was found that kittens learn to catch fish from ponds at about seven weeks into their life. If they were taught to do it by their mother, they did it at five weeks-of-age. They learn faster when taught by their mother but it is still in their DNA to hunt like this.

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Why do kittens throw toys in the air over their shoulder? To replicate fish hunting. Image: Pixabay.

There are three primary animals that cats hunt namely mice, fish and birds. Of course, they also catch insects quite often and other prey animals such as reptiles and amphibians. It is the hunting action when catching fish which is replicated in this kitten play behaviour.

They scoop the fish out of the water with their sharp claws and throw it over the shoulder onto the ground behind them. They turn, pounce and kill the fish with a bite. I would expect them to eat the fish while it is still alive.

Catching birds is a different process. They stalk and pounce but often the bird takes off. The cat has to leap up and grab the bird in their claws. If successful, they bring it to the ground and then kill the bird with a nape of the neck bite or a suffocation bite.

As for mice, often cats wait incredibly patiently by a mouse den. When the mouse emerges they pounce and kill with a bite. They immobilise the mouse with their front paws. This is essentially a stalk and pounce process again but a variation on the bird hunting technique.

Of these three techniques the kitten throwing a toy into the air most accurately replicates the fishing technique. Kittens will do this over and over again and pounce on the toy at the end.

Some people think that when kittens do this they are trying to make a bird fly. This appears to be a misconception because very rarely do cat owners see their cat hunting fish but it is commonplace to see them hunt mice and birds if they are allowed outside.