r/blindcats • u/Deet1012 • 5d ago
Question Blind kitten whiskers breaking off
Looking to see if anyone has had a similar experience or any advice on my 3 month old kitten Moonie. For context I adopted him from the shelter around 8 weeks old (lots of whiskers I’ll include pictures). He was already blind from a previous infection when I got him but his eyes got infected a couple weeks into having him he needed to get a double enucleation. He’s had some complications since then and is still in the process of recovering. He’s on his third antibiotic currently and just came back from the vet today where they said his eye is healing great and I made sure to bring up his whiskers because they look like they’re breaking off and they have no idea why. I’m wondering if anyone has experienced this. He is FIV+ and I know they said it could be the mom’s antibodies and to retest but given how long it’s been taking his body to fight off the infections I think he may have it. Also his whiskers are not cut!!!! He is also the only cat in my house so if any one has had a similar experience or any advice I’d really appreciate it!
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u/arod232323 5d ago
He’s not ever around another cat? Sometimes they chew each others whiskers off
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u/reddit_all_333 4d ago
Our first blindie had tiny curly whiskers to begin with, apparently herpesvirus can affect whisker growth too... after a few months he grew normal, long straight whiskers. Big hugs to the poor wee guy, he'll get better.
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u/Deet1012 4d ago
Ohhh interesting!! He does have that as well but I didn’t even think that could be a factor, good to know! Thank you!
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u/reddit_all_333 4d ago
Herpesvirus is apparently the most common virus to affect kittems' eyes to the point they need to be removed and it attacks the whole body, our current blindie has no teeth as well because it caused a chronic gum infection in her and the best way was to take all her teeth out, she is happy and healthy now. But yeah, sneaky viruses...
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u/TheRedLionKing 5d ago
My blind boy when through that when young. I think it's just from interacting with their surroundings with their faces. Thier cute little baby faces. Like the other commenter said, my boy kinda grew out of it, or leaned to navigate better, what have you. Also mine quite quickly lost all the little tiny teeth between the canines due to bumps and such. So don't panic if those itty bitty teeth start disappearing.
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u/Deet1012 5d ago
I’m hoping (but starting to think) that’s the case! I’ll keep an eye out for the baby teeths (:
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u/ferretkona 5d ago
My boy had his left eye enucleated at a few weeks old, they had to create a hood for him out of an old X-ray because he was so tiny. He lost most of his whiskers for months, even now the left ones are brittle.
He did try to chew an eye off his teddy bear a few times. He is 1 1/2 yr now.
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u/Deet1012 5d ago
Aww brave little baby🥹 how sweet wanted his toy just like him 💗 thanks for the response 🫶
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u/smellyfeet25 4d ago
My cat often lost a whisker .She wasn’t blind but I often found one.I used to show them to her but I don’t think she was very interested.I used to collect them for awhile.It was all part of her.lo
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u/Delicious-Safe2862 1d ago
Precious baby. Never had a cats whiskers break off. Hope it's nothing serious. 🤞💜🧡🫂😸🐾
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u/Crumb-Free 5d ago
When my boy first got his eyes removed he lost most of his whiskers. No FIV. Just trauma and stress on his body. He is all black and also started growing grey hair during his healing process.
Took awhile but his whiskers are in full fireworks and he has no more splotchy white fur from going through everything medically. Took about a full year for everything to clear up, including his awful awful dander.
A lot is just medical trauma. Keep an eye on em and keep loving. They'll get better and grow back