# Brown/black gunk around eyes and nose.



## Linsmd

Hi everyone! 
I have a question regarding my cat Tails. He has always had watery eyes which results in some crustyness that I wipe out for him, but lately it has been much more frequent. 
My main issue is I recently noticed he has black crust that lines his nostrils. I it wipes away just like his eyes and is crusty but what worries me is it's brown/black. Are cat boogers black? Haha. I'm worried it's blood or something but he is acting fine and this has been going on for a few weeks now. Could it be an allergy? Also he is half-Persian so maybe something respiratory?
He's due for his annual shots in January so I'm hoping I can wait til then to check with the get about it. Partially because of money but mostly I work and go to school full time so it would mean me having to lose out on working a shift! 

Any insight would be great! I just wiped his eyes and nose before this post so I can't provide any pictures but I will once the "gunk" reappears.


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## CatMonkeys

Is there any chance the black stuff on his nose is dust? One of my cats constantly has dark colored dust stuck to the moisture on the edge of her nostrils. (I'm usually meticulous about cleaning, so she must have a dust stash somewhere!) My other cat occasionally has dust boogers on his nose, but my girl seems better at finding/attraction dust lol. 

If Tails is prone to having a little crust around his eyes, it wouldn't surprise me if his nose is a bit runny and attracts dust (both issues may be caused by herpes, which is common in cats). You could try giving him lysine to see if that helps with symptoms. 


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## maggie23

our angel has always had watery eyes and the discharge is often brown/black and crusty. :-( vet gave us some eyedrops that did help some for the couple weeks we were supposed to give them to her, but it never completely got rid of the discharge AND she absolutely HATED them. she's a pretty difficult kitty and does not like to be handled. i would have to scruff her every time and unlike some well-behaved kitties (gee, i wonder what they're like...), she would still try to pull away from me and she'd run like crazy when i was done. she wouldn't come anywhere near me during the whole 2 weeks plus. 

i know some people who do give eyedrops everyday, so it's do-able, but not for me unfortunately.

we just do our best to wipe and wash her eyes when we can. usually it's in the middle of the night, though, when she's sleeping in bed with us. she's a completely different and lovable kitty in bed! let's us do almost anything to her that she wouldn't normally allow during the day.


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## cat face

maggie23 said:


> our angel has always had watery eyes and the discharge is often brown/black and crusty. :-( vet gave us some eyedrops that did help some for the couple weeks we were supposed to give them to her, but it never completely got rid of the discharge AND she absolutely HATED them. she's a pretty difficult kitty and does not like to be handled. i would have to scruff her every time and unlike some well-behaved kitties (gee, i wonder what they're like...),* she would still try to pull away from me and she'd run like crazy when i was done. she wouldn't come anywhere near me during the whole 2 weeks plus*.
> 
> i know some people who do give eyedrops everyday, so it's do-able, but not for me unfortunately.
> 
> we just do our best to wipe and wash her eyes when we can. usually it's in the middle of the night, though, when she's sleeping in bed with us. * she's a completely different and lovable kitty in bed! let's us do almost anything to her that she wouldn't normally allow during the day.*


Oh an, do I know what THAT is like! That's every month with flea drops or nail trimming or brushing, or...!! You'd think that I pluck out their little eyelashes with rusty tweezers, the way they act!!
And just let me try to approach them during the day... NOT!!
Oh, they will play with me. Heck, we can play games all day long, but forget any of that holding or petting stuff!! 
pppssssshhhht, I have no idea what I'm thinking!!

..but at night, when the one is sleeping in her little bed, or the other one in bed with me, you would think I had the most loveable little kitties. :fust


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## Linsmd

It could be dust be he honestly is not very adventurous. He's one of those cats that eats, sleeps and then stretches artfully across the couch to be admired. Like so:







Haha

















Here are some pictures. The black like down the center of his nose is a freckle. Then as you can see he has a little nose crust around the bottom of his nostril. Maybe I'm just over reacting and never noticed it because he has freckles! Also could be dust. Maybe tomorrow I will pay more attention to things he sniffs at during the day.


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## NOLAKitties

I think it's a mild case of URI. You can give him l-lysine supplement to help him with the symptom (watery eyes/nose & discharge). You can use the powder form from drug store (sprinkle on food) or a treat form (pet naturals vermont brand). The dosage is between 250mg to 500mg per day. My cat takes the 250 mg/day if I see his eyes gets watery & sneezing for a few days. I don't give him this supplement all the time. Just as needed and I use smaller dosage. If this doesn't help take him to the vet.


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## 10cats2dogs

I've been following this thread because the senior cat I pet sit, has the same problem! 
Both eyes and nose!
I thought maybe dust at first from their garage...but when I brought her over to my house so I could take care of her foot, it continued to happen...
My cats just get regular 'sandman' eye goobers!
So I've often wondered as well...


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## cat face

Sadie gets 'em pretty often, but considering, I think she does a good job at trying to keep them clean too. It's just that they can get 'too much' for her sometimes, and I have to do the warm moist soft cloth thing and give her... "cwean eyedz". I know.

Her's gets kind of a reddish colour kindof like rust but darker. I notice she has more of a problem when it's windy outside, and there's all kinds of dust blowing around.

I always put it down to Sadie having so much white in her, and she probably has some kind of gene in her that's common to Persian type white cats. you know the ones that suffer tear staining.

Belle doesn't seem to suffer more then the odd crusty, every once in a great while.


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## katrina89

Your kitty reminds me of Seamus. He has the same eye/ nose thing too

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## Linsmd

cat face said:


> Her's gets kind of a reddish colour kindof like rust but darker. I notice she has more of a problem when it's windy outside, and there's all kinds of dust blowing around.


His are a dark rust color too. That's why I worried it was blood. I will have to try the URI treatment stated above. 
They sell something called angel eyes that is supposed to stop teary eye crust at the pet shop I've contemplated trying but it's pretty expensive for something that I'm not even sure will work.




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## cat face

Sadie has been seen by the vet a few time now and usually has a big goop thing going on in the corner of her eye (it will generally be the left eye, sometimes the right too but not as much as the left)
The ONLY thing that was ever said about the eye stuff was by a vet nurse. Doing a health check she noticed and said to Sadie (lol), "You should clean your eyes young lady." 
I explained that she does, but she seems to be more prone to producing eye gunk than her sister. She nodded and gently wiped out the stuff in Sadie's eye and just said cats generally take care of that themselves.

There was never anything said like, "It's a nasty red colour, you should have that taken care of." or "Eye goop is a sign of ___ and the vet should see her." Sadie never acts like any of it bothers her. So, I've just carried on, and when I see it's bad because of a windy dusty day, I'll gently wipe away the excess and the rest of the time Sadie does a pretty good job at keeping her own eyes clean.

I just say to her, "cween eyedz?" (I know lol) and she looks at me and then after I say it a time or too more I'll see her licking her paw and wiping her eyes. Other times, she'll ignore me and go on her way LOL


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## Yuki'sMum

Yuki has the brown eye boogers and black nose stuff too. Seeing as so many of our kitties have it and they're healthy I'd say it's normal. My vet hasn't commented on it during Yuki's annual check up. I'd read somewhere that the brown colouring is due to protein in the tears, so that Angel Eyes product must be an enzyme that breaks it down. Yuki already has dark eyeliner so you don't notice it on her! 


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