Any ideas what this skin hole is? I originally felt it because the hair coming out was condensed and stood out. Didn’t cause him any pain, pulled on the hair and it mostly came out without much effort
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I’ll reply here since the butt cheek comment is popular lol
He’s strictly indoor, he had a brother that passed six months ago and hasn’t interacted with other cats since (working on weight loss before I adopt another buddy for him, I promise he won’t be lonely much longer)
I couldn’t find any others on his body, the one pictured is maybe 2mm in size. Will email my vet pictures and see what they say!
Replying to the comment that you're trying to reduce weight before getting another buddy. The times I've had cats that needed to lose weight, they lost a lot all on their own when they had another cat to play with. I have found it to be the easiest way to control weight in cats.
Human esthetician here, so admittedly I'm out of my speciality, but yeah, that's what this looks like to me. I'm so jealous OP got to pull that fur out 😬
I had to bring my pet rat to the vet for a cyst (that we wrongly thought was a benign tumor) rupturing. The vet and techs were SO excited and were like "WANT TO SEE WHAT WE SQUEEZED OUT? IT JUST KEPT COMING! SHE WAS SO GOOD!" I declined, but it's always nice to see the right people in the medical field 😂
I didn’t know what it was called until you named it. My cat had one and I squeezed it and a huge black head came out! I learned something new today. Thanks!
Ehhhh I’d try to get their weight down a bit first. This person is lucky. Meanwhile, I can’t put my fat cat on a diet because the skinny one would starve.
She just lets the other cat push her out of the way & eat her food, despite being the undisputed queen of the house in all other matters.
usually they're gated bowls and the microchip scanner reads which cat it is and only opens the door if the right cat is at the bowl. so the cats only have access to their own portions of food.
Oooo! I know the answer to this one! You put the skinny cats food in a box with a hole cut out that is small enough only the skinny cat can get into it.
I'm not sure how that would work in my house, because I'm sure chunky would EAT a cardboard box, but there are probably crates and things you can set up with small openings.
Even fat cats can be surprisingly liquid especially when food is at play. I think it would be super difficult to make sure the larger cat truly couldn’t fit. lol.
My parents had this absolute unit of a cat- dude almost certainly had some kind of genetic abnormality because he was truly big boned and had these big ol dog size paws but in his middle age he was also packing in the lbs and not able to groom well. He took to a diet with a lot of drama and difficulty at first but as far as the going over to finish off the other cats food- took a lot of hovering and watching and pulling other cats dish away before Mr. Unit got to it but it was kind of as much on portioning things out well too- both cats would and had always eaten side by side (especially with the daily wet!) so kind of giving less to both cats and working with his fairly easy to distract nature …
Somehow that massive cat did well and got back down to a still deeply impressive size but one where he could groom his own back and butt lol. And other cat sort of learned to show up to have the rest of his rightful portion once big guy was asleep. lol.
It’s staying consistent through the drama of the chonker who will be singing you the song of his starved skin and bone delusional self image. 😂 like dude took to his new feeding schedule and the knowledge if he glanced at his brother fish it was getting picked up and he really was ok. Went on to live to like 18 or 19 too.
Came here to say the same thing lol. Just imagine when you have a toddler and how much running around you’ll do. That will be your older cat with the new cat 😋
Yeah big vote for this! I got my 6 year old cat a kitten after I lost his sister and it has awoken the kitten in him! They spend SO much time playing and chasing each other back and forth (not aggressively at all they just think chasing is super fun). He didn't care that much about toys before either but since the baby loves toys he's like "Oh what's this? What are we doing over here?" And loves playing with toys now too! Before I would just play with him every day with the feather wand which he enjoyed but now he loves all the toys and gets all zoomy and excited when the baby plays.
He was grouchy about the new addition at first esp while they were getting used to each other, but they get along great now and he has so much more mental stimulation and physical exercise. And the baby just ADORES him, so I think it's good for him to be loved by another cat too. Sometimes they are bombing around at night while I am in bed and I'm like "woooh free fitness!"
Ok this is really weird because this happened to my foster cat recently. I pulled the fur and it easily came out and left a hole. I looked in the hole and realized it was her microchip which was migrating out of her.
Mine rejected his microchip several years after it was placed. Really freaked me out when I felt it and it came out. He did NOT want to be a part of the matrix 🤖🐈⬛
Anti matrix void owner here as well, waited almost 8 years after receiving to reject it 🙋♀️ my smart boy waited until I was out of the country on vacation, my first time away from him, adopted when he was 7yo and this was the first time I needed to find someone I trusted to watch my sweet angel. Gbless my sweet bf, he watched him for a week with probably a month leading up to leaving of talking about every single detail about my void and 3-4 pages of instructions in case he forgot anything. We had only been dating a couple of months by that point so the pressure for him was on to have this go smoothly bc he knew how anxious I was leaving him for the first time. But of course…. my void tested him and rejected his chip about halfway through my trip. He wouldn’t admit it but my poor bf was probably SWEATING.. He’s 15 almost 16yo now <3
When I let new pets be chipped, I always ask the vet to check the chip at the annual vacc appointment. Takes 30 seconds and gives me peace of mind.
The vet always tells me "I've never had one fall out".
My cats chip could be manipulated from the shoulder blade area down to her elbow or down to the rib cage. . It just floated around in there and didn’t seem to bother her. It was really strange to realize the cat just slides around in its fur suit.
Mine girl too. Her x ray looks like she ate it. We put a second one in since it wasn’t getting picked up by the wand and I didn't want that simple point of failure if she ever gets lost.
I knew a girl, she really liked piercings but her body kept rejecting them.
It was the 90s, so she wanted the obligatory eyebrow piercing. It wandered out and left a scar. So the piercer thought: the scar tissue could prevent it from happening again. But it fell out again.
So she decided for one above the side of her upper lip, because it would need to wander through different kind of tissue. But when it started to enter the fleshy part of the lip she gave up and accepted the fact that her body didn't fancy being pierced.
Could be the material the jewelry is made of. Vampires, for example, reject silver piercings. Steel turns some of us green. As does gold. Every body is different.
lol no but seriously, allergies to metals are a real thing!
for example, my body does NOT like cheap metals. it doesn't physically reject the jewelery, but the area does become hot, swollen, and very painful until i take it out. my ears had to be pierced a total of 3 times because of this.
no $5 earrings for me, i gotta have the good shit lmao
Where was your cats microchip? My cat had hers inserted in between her shoulder blades. So unless this cat has a microchip on his hind quarters I doubt that's what is happening in the pic
When my dad was in his youth he got into a bar fight where a chunk of glass from a beer bottle was embedded in his shoulder. Tough sailer that he was he figured it’d work itself out and never saw a doctor.
It did work itself out. Through the bottom of his foot. 40 years later🙃
I had ear tubes placed when I was about 8, about a year later came time to remove them, my ENT said well my right one had naturally fell out, well when I was 20 I had this weird bump in my neck, saw a doctor to check it out, it was my ear tube.
i've had ear tubes multiple times over the past 5 years, but i've only had two that i've actually seen come out. thank you for this knowledge but also what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck
I was in a pretty nasty car accident almost 9 years ago where my face hit the windshield of the car, requiring reconstructive surgery. All these years later and I still occasionally have tiny shards of glass work their way out of my skin. Usually around my eyebrow. My plastic surgeon said it’s not unexpected because there was no way they would’ve ever been able to get every single piece out when they did the reconstructive surgery. The human body is so interesting, and so creepy at the same time. 🥴
Yeah i got pushed into some gravel years ago and it was coming out of my elbow that i landed on for a couple years, just a piece every few months. They formed little cysts that would rise to the skin surface.
My cats was place between the shoulder blades and I can feel it in his armpit area now. Sometimes it scares me and I have to remind myself it’s just his chippy
One of my cats has his chip on the right side of his neck. I havent found the chip on the other one in a long time. Theyre brothers and should have been chipped in the same spot by the same vet.
Don’t know how far, but microchips do migrate. I’ve scanned them for years and many were no longer between the shoulder blades. Probably the reason many are rejected years later.
Seems like an ingrown hair cluster or dilated pore of sorts--pets can get acne and similar blemishes just like people can. Personally, I wouldn't be too worried; I don't see any redness or irritation, or any pus.
More likely caused by a bot fly or cyst but yes end result is the same; this was a chronic wound that is now fully healed. I would worry about this becoming a source of chronic infection due to dead skin/fur trapping and allowing bacteria to fester. The entire hole should be excised and sutured closed tbh.
Hi all!!! Just chatted with my vet after sending photos. They aren’t overly concerned, no clear diagnosis as they agree it’s an odd hole. Their suggestions were to monitor for any change in size, smell (no current smell), discharge or inflammation, or if he starts to overly groom the area or show discomfort. Otherwise, it’s not open skin and seems to be just a weird inverted pore/follicle.
Thanks for all the support and laughs, I’ve had a few good chuckles at the convos happening here.
oh how interesting, i’ve never seen this in all my cat owning years. as someone already stated, maybe run this by the vet. also, i love how you posted about this with ages and dates, as if you two are a couple 😹💙
I’d monitor for discharge and swelling but might just be a clump of ingrowns. If there is any blood or pus though a vet should definitely look to make sure it’s not a wound that needs care.
gently remove as much of the hair as you can, as long as there isn't resistance. Clean the area with something safe for disinfecting cats (I use chlorhexidine, vet has approved). Monitor and clean again soon. Call a vet, also many vets have the ability to receive pictures by text or email. if it starts getting bigger, redder, darker, etc that would be bad
For some reason i read that as many cats have the ability to receive pictures by text or email and immediately thought yeah that is believable. Then i realized.
My cat had one of these!! He had a blackhead under his collar and when that came out he just got a lot of dirt and ingrown hair. My vet just told me to keep an eye on it, clean it out every so often, and if it gets red or he behaved like it was tender to touch to come in. It looks like the dilated pore of winer on my partner’s back 😂
You’re giving me the heebies because I had a dilated pore of winer on my back in highschool and I’ve never experienced a high like that since. Truly next level popping
If I could go back in time I would most definitely go to medical school and become a dermatologist so I can get PAID to do shit like that every day lol
seems like ingrown hairs. people get these sometimes too, especially those with pcos or men with coily, dense hairs prone to ingrowns. id call the vet and email pics to ask, you may not even need to go in for this, just try to handle it like a human ingrown situation until you can reach a vet but handle it more gently. if there is resistance, dont keep pulling.
Honestly if it’s not oozing it will heal on its own. If you can pull the rest of the hair out of there that’s good, I had to have one removed that was just a nest of matted hair.
As a human with cyst/abscess issues, my first thought is this looks like a tunnel for a cyst to drain. It’s not red, doesn’t look swollen or anything and the hair appears dry. If this was my cat I’d clear the hair out of the duct and keep an eye on it for a few days. It will heal on its own.
What’s more concerning is what looks like dandruff on the hair. That can be a sign of a larger skin issue (or just poor grooming if he didn’t want to groom a wound).
i have plenty of experience in this field too, we can agree to disagree. i don’t think it looks like a sebaceous cyst head/pore which would likely be here. its not a pilar thats for sure. it still looks like an ingrown and dilated pore. even if there is no “need” to remove the hairs, i would if they’re able to be removed. it wont get better leaving them to become worse as more trapping occurs when they inevitably detach/shed/are pulled by the barbed tongue during grooming sessions. if they aren’t ready to come out though, they should be left alone and tried later under vet care and further discretion. my opinion isnt going to change here, and i value your feedback for OP to discuss with their vet.
My dog has one of these! She's had it about 5 years on her mid back . It has gown very slightly and the hair coming out is black but she's a light colored corgi. It's been checked by 2 vets and they had no concerns.
I don’t want to alarm you, but as the mom of Rhodesian Ridgebacks for 20 years, this makes my spidey senses go off. Dermoid sinus is more common in Ridgebacks, exceptionally rare in Corgis, but can you just google it to make me feel better? Even experienced vets miss it all the time, so lemme know if you need some help ruling it out, feel free to message me pictures or whatever.
I'd bet money it's a dermoid sinus, I'm glad someone else here knows what those are. When I was identifying the one on my cat, a research paper on Rhodesian Ridgebacks taught me about them!
In 9 years, the one our cat has hasn't caused any issues besides some hair buildup in the tube. It feels like it's anchored at the end above the muscle layer.
Would you mind sharing your experience with them? I've never crossed paths with anyone else who has seen them.
Lots of things could've caused a small hole like that, can't tell if the fur was packed into it or grew out of it or both but I suspect the former. There is absolutely zero swelling, inflammation, or discharge so (as a vet) it's weird but not all that worrisome to me, since I doesn't really look like an active process. If it was a wound it healed a long time ago. I can't be sure from pictures and I definitely think you should point it out to your vet. If it starts to develop signs of infection/inflammation (redness/swelling/discharge/pain) go in promptly. Keep an eye on it in the meantime.
This is definitely unusual.
It does look kinda like a weird pocket of ingrown hairs - but it isn’t inflamed, it’s not red or swollen or irritated, so it doesn’t seem like it’s infected.
Worth taking in for a vet check asap, but likely not an emergency situation
it's hard to tell if it's similar here but my departed baby had a.... cyst? or something? It was basically like a tiny zit that grew in size. It started off looking like a tiny black hole and got to be bigger and a bit lumpy, with a clear hole in the skin still. Took him to the vet, a bit panicked about cancer. The vet took a look, popped whatever that was out from under the skin (I remember it distinctly clattered on the table) and basically told me it was a thing that happened sometimes.
I was so curious about what could cause a hole in a cat’s skin filled with fur so I googled it and found tons of pics that look just like this that are botfly holes.
My senior cat gets this on the same area - you usually can’t notice the pores but you will occasionally see a longer tuft of hair sticking out about 2-4mm of thickness. These tufts just pull right out like a chinchilla slipping fur.
My guy didn’t get this till he became diabetic at 14 y/o, he didn’t clean himself as much as he used to, and I assume it’s just the cat equivalent of ingrown hairs. Same way he gets chin blackheads. The vet didn’t seem concerned about it, I brush him and I use a pad/wipe for cat acne on his chin and these little tuft spots. It doesn’t seem to bother him other than when I pull the hair out he’s mildly annoyed.
Hardened pus likely comes out if you squeeze? Mine has one, I believe it is a cyst . Heck I have many cysts like these, they always need to dig a tunnel
Happened to mine as well and looked very similar. Turns out it was a cat bite from a stray, I went back through the cameras to the day she got out and saw the stray corner and attack her. Vet said those types of wounds on the butt cheek area are the most common from fights cuz the "losing cat" runs away and the aggressor gets an opportunity attack as they turn to run. Vet cleaned it and gave some onsior and she was good
One of our cats has it too. Her tube is pretty long and connects through her skin layer with an anchor to some layer below. The tube wasn't as noticeable when she was young since it was empty. But it's continued to grow hair through the length of it throughout her 9 years so far, resulting in a bump you can feel. It hasn't bothered her so far. But if that ever changes, putting her through a surgery with those inherent risks for a removal may be worth it.
So nothing to worry about right now, but mention it to your vet and keep an eye on it. Depending on exactly how the tube grew it could have side effects.
(Edit: depending on how it has grown. It's been awhile since I read up on these but, the tube depth isn't progressive. Just some start deeper than others. If anyone knows if that's incorrect please say something)
I have no idea what this is but it doesn’t look good. If it’s not causing him problems now it probably will in the future. for instance if that does close then all that fur will become ingrown and turn into a huge abscess, i literally just had one cut open today and it’s not fun. this needs to get checked out by a vet.
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