Whiskers are more than twice as thick as ordinary hairs, and their roots are set three times deeper than hairs in a cat's tissue. Cats shed whiskers just as they shed fur. Whiskers Don’t Need Trimming! why is my cat losing his eyebrow over his right eye/ Customer Question. There might be a health reason, or it may be just age. Each side has 12 whiskers. Oddly enough, we had one cat who liked to nip the “eyebrow” whiskers off one of our other cats. Just as humans shed their hair and eyelashes, so too do cats lose their whiskers every now and again. I almost never trimmed my cat’s whiskers. I … When he was still a kitten with his mother, he lived with the people who resided over the hill from me. Whiskers are an essential part and strength of a cat in feeling the world. She is mostly Siamese and is 15 years old. The results are suffering pets, heartbroken owners, and a higher financial cost. If your dog experiences cancer-care whisker loss, the whiskers will grow back but may have a different texture. Probably their adorable little noses and their even cuter whiskers. Cats that are nervous or upset will pin the whiskers back toward the face. When the proprioceptors touch an object, vibrations travel down the whiskers to follicles that are rooted in nerve-rich areas of your cat’s body—mostly in his face, but also behind his front paws. Whiskers are harder, thicker, and firmer hairs on a cat that allow a cat to sense what’s around them quickly and easily, which makes getting into small spaces, gauging whether their bodies can even fit, even determining how windy it is much easier due to the sensory data they get out of their whiskers. OTOH, we have an orange cat with 3 black whiskers on one side. With this condition, the cat’s fur may not grow back at all and if it does, it may grow back in odd patches. Submitted: 13 years ago. Cats have four rows of whiskers placed horizontally on either side of their face arranged 12 to a row for a total of 24. So, cats can accurately measure the environment around them. You might think that aging cats might have fewer whiskers, after all, if we lose hair with age it might stand to reason that a cat would lose its whiskers with age too? She wasn’t very even in her pruning, either, so her victim went around looking a bit lopsided. Now you know! I would consult your vet on that one. One side effect of chemotherapy for dogs undergoing cancer treatment is whisker loss. A couple days later I got him into the neurologist (soonest possible) fully prepared to say goodbye but they said we were not there yet. A bald spot on your cat can vary in appearance, and your cat may have many areas of fur loss or just one or two. Those Whiskers. It … Besides the fact that it reduces the usefulness of the whiskers to the cat, the appearance of cat “stubble” just seems like it would be weird…especially since the whiskers would have blunt tips, as a result (they’re wider towards the base). He would alert me one would be happening by crying out and his head would go back while his limbs would point straight out. She is mostly Siamese and is 15 years old. The cat will likely collide with objects, and get so anxious vomiting may occur. All of his other whiskers are white. I got my cat after she'd been hit by a car. SHe'd had all the fur on one side of her face shaved off, whiskers included. Paul Townsend. If your cat is losing whiskers frequently, contact your vet. Depending on the cause, you may also notice that your cat has scabbing in places where they used to have fur. For the main ones, on either side of a cats nose (the muzzle or called the snout) is 12 whiskers or normally 24 in total. With that function, is cutting cats’ whiskers okay? They grew back in a couple of months and now you can't even tell they were shaved off at all. Cats have whiskers above their eyes, on their chins, and on their front legs. Cats typically have about 24 whiskers on their muzzle. Your cat’s whiskers are just as important to her as your eyesight and sense of touch are to you. One week later he began to have seizures and on thanksgiving day had a total of fifteen all under one minute. They are incredibly sensitive at the tips, where each has a sensory organ called a proprioceptor. Answered in 7 minutes by: 1/15/2008. If a cat does lose his whiskers for some reason, be reassured that they grow back. Another one you may not have heard about is feline acne, which is seen most commonly around a cat’s mouth and chin, and may affect his whiskers.