# Nose??



## cadams5120 (May 20, 2009)

My cats nose goes from pink to a pale pink - does this mean somethings wrong??


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

I've read that a cat's nose can change several shades according to how active they are. When they really get running around, it can get pinker, just like our cheeks flush when we're excited or really active.

But hopefully someone with actual knowledge will post a better answer.


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## cadams5120 (May 20, 2009)

lol thanks!! i googled it, and people are trying to say that its a sign of the flu. but all of the posts started with "if your cat stops eating..." which is soooo not the case in this house.


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

My cat Squirrely-Jo's nose is pink with a booger-spot. (<--- S-Jo is in my avatar) Her nose will go from pale/white to deep pink, depending on her activity. When she is sleeping or resting, it is the pale/white-ish color. When she is up and active, it is pink. If she is *very* active (running around) it is a deeper pink.

It changes color due to oxygenation and blood flow. I think the only time to worry would be if it were looking blue/purple, because that would indicate a severe lack of oxygen. I suppose it could indicate other medical problems, too...like cat flu and such, but again, I'd really only be worried if the nose-color was on the blue-ish/purple side.
heidi =^..^=
PS...as you can see...S-Jo is also a "good eater", so her pale nose color has no affect in *that* department! :lol: 

Here is S-Jo.
In this pic, I think her nose is a medium pink.








In this photo it is a darker pink, because she had just finished killing the TP roll. *_baby pic of Marmalade, below_*








Here is a closer pic of her nose, but the shade looks about in-between the pale/white and pink color.









This is Marmalade (1996-2008) just minutes after my husband brought him to me on his lunch hour. He fell out of a pipe at their jobsite, no other kittens found, and was in the process of dying as he 'shut down'. 
Notice his purple/blue-ish lips/nose due to a lack of oxygen. 
I rushed him to the vet where they gave him fluids and he bounced back almost immediately. I held him in my hands as they gave him the fluids, and as soon as the needle poked into him, he turned his little head and BIT the heel of my hand, holding that bite until the vet removed the needle from him. He was a little fighter and he became a great cat. The first kitten I ever bottle-raised.


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## cadams5120 (May 20, 2009)

god bless you for saving that precious baby!!! i love the toilet paper pic - the betta fish one i love. when i first moved in with my bf (well husband now) we had a fish named bambam. when we got whiskers, we realized after that he loves water so we had to keep the fish in the bathroom w. the door locked. the night before our wedding we had family here and my husbands cousin left the door open so we came home to a soaked bathroom and a missing fish. well he didn't eat the fish, he hid it behind the toilet. poor fishie. happy whiskers. lol


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## WhiteKitties (Dec 22, 2008)

My girls are mostly white, so I have a very good sense of when they're pale pink and when they're beet red. :lol: A kitty's nose will get redder if she is worked up, whether that's from play or stress - it's when the blood pressure is up. When I run the girls ragged playing, their noses, ears and paw pads are all beet red. If they go to the vet, particularly if there are barking dogs around, they get upset and their noses get bright red. When Fergie had surgery her nose was bright red for almost a week from the stress. You'll also notice that they'll feel physically warmer at these times as well - it's just like when we humans run around and get excited or stressed, and we got hot and flushed. Totally normal!


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

cadams5120 said:


> ...we came home to a soaked bathroom and a missing fish.


Ugh, you had a happier ending than me with MY Betta and Squirrely-Jo! 
Here is a story that illustrates why everyone should always locate emergency services immediately after they move to a new area.

*****WARNING***** ...long story ahead!

S-Jo was young, about 8mo old at the time. We had *just* moved into our new home (Georgia), which also happened to be 3,000mi across the country from where we both grew up (California). I woke up and began a lazy Sunday morning. I mixed up my instant-breakfast drink, passing the garage door and I saw the garage light was switched 'up' so the light was on out there and I thought my husband was doing some project in the garage, and then I went to turn on the computer. Dial up. I *thought* I'd heard a 'noise' from the bedroom/bathroom when I was in the kitchen, but I didn't think anything of it. 

As I sat in the office waiting for the computer, I heard a cat in the hallway about to herk up a hairball so I calmly got up and walked past Squirrely-Jo to the bathroom to get a wad of TP to clean up the mess. As I stepped into the bathroom, I realized that 'noise' I'd heard, was the Betta fishbowl being knocked over and my fish, Cid (_CID-Criminal Investigation Department, where I worked as a Sheriff secretary_) was no where to be found on the bathmat! I quickly went into the hall to find S-Jo had vomitted up a 14" long "trail" of mangled Betta fish. I felt bad for my poor fish, but I had no time to grieve for Cid, S-Jo was in trouble! She was having difficulty breathing, she was snorting in/out and foamy, pink-tinged bubbles were coming out of her mouth. She kept running, stopping to paw at her mouth, trying to vomit more, yaking, gagging and continued to have trouble breathing and slinging foamy bubbles everywhere. 

I panicked.

I yelled for my husband, trying to get him to come in from the garage and help me. I was running after S-Jo, trying to monitor her. I grabbed the phone in the kitchen...but when I picked up the phone...I heard that annoying noise that indicated the computer was trying to connect. Now, don't ask me why I didn't just carry the cordless phone to the office with me instead of hanging it back up, my only excuse is I was panicking, but I hung it back up in the kitchen and ran for the office to log off the computer. 

When I ran back to the kitchen to check the phone, it was still making that noise. I again yelled for my husband as I ran back to the office to check the status of the computer. It said it was logging off and I ran back to the kitchen phone where it was *still* making that noise. I debated running across the yard to the neighbor's house to use their phone (_I was only wearing a t-shirt and unders_) and I stopped my running long enough to open the garage door and yell for my husband...to find...he was not home, because my sportscar was gone.

My heart just dropped. He had taken *my* car that I was familiar with and comfortable driving, leaving me with the new SUV that we had bought just last week and I'd only driven once, to try to rush my S-Jo to the vet in. I was certain we were doomed and I would wreck the SUV if I tried to drive it like my 'vette.

I checked the phone again and it was *still* making that dang noise and I ran to the office, considering yanking OUT the computer's phone lines and plugs from the surge strip so I could use my phone...but I'd carried the phone with me this time, and the line was finally clear. I called the first vet # in the phone book, and being Sunday, I got their message which directed me to an Emergency Vet phone number I could call. I called them and was still panicking because S-Jo had not really improved at all, she was still hunched up, pawing at her mouth and blowing bubbles with her breathing. The E-vet told me to bring her right in. I had to ask for directions, and what was bad, is when she asked where I was in relation to their clinic, *I didn't know*, because I was brand new to the area. She was finally able to give me directions, but during the time it took to do this, S-Jo had quieted down considerable and was no longer blowing bubbles. I told the ER-tech this, and she assured me Bettas were not poisonous and for me to monitor S-Jo and if she got worse, or didn't get better, I could still bring her in.

Shortly after this, my husband came home with my car and I told him the whole, sorry tale. I was so wound up, I needed to unwind and I told him to keep an eye on the cat, I was going to go buy another fish. When I got back, I asked him how she was and he said she was just fine. Breathing completely normal and was playing with the other cats. Then he pointed at Mousie. It wasn't _Mousie_ who'd had trouble, and when I brought him to S-Jo and he heard her, he realized his mistake. I called the ER-vet back and told them I was bringing her in because she was still having trouble breathing. They planned to scope her and told us we could pick her up at 10pm. 

When we picked her up, they said they found nothing to indicate any breathing problems, but you could still clearly hear she was a little snuffle-y/rattle-y as she breathed. They said everything was clear and she had barely any irritation in her throat from the fish and vomit. So they sent us home as she was still a little wobble-y and had a bandage on her forearm. We got home at almost 11:30pm and decided to remove the bandage while she was still sort of loopy...and I found...she still had a catheter in her vein!
O. M. G.
I called them up and told them what I'd found and they said we could bring her back in to remove it. I was incredulous! We'd only just got home, both of us had to work the next day, and they wanted us to spend *another* hour and a half traveling back/forth? I told her to tell me how to remove it and if we had problems _then_ we'd bring her back. Anyhow, we got the catheter out just fine with no bleeding or problems. 
Poor S-Jo! What a _night_ she was having!
I kept her in our bedroom that night, and again the next day while we worked. She was a bit subdued, and not very active at all. She ate and drank a little, but not much. I checked on her at my lunch hour and she was still snuffle-y and rattle-y with her breathing. When I got home from work a few hours later, she was perfectly fine! Happy, bouncing around and no breathing problems! 

I think, when she vomitted up Cid, a piece got lodged in her nasal cavity/area, which caused the breathing sounds I was hearing and would be the reason why nothing was visible with the scope. I think she either sneezed or shook her head, and that was enough movement to dislodge whatever was stuck and then she was fine.
My husband used the calculator and figured with the cost of S-Jo's E-vet bill and determined if Cid had been sold by the pound, for what we spent...he would have gone for $7k/pound. Cid was one expensive fish!
PSA and moral of this story:
ALWAYS list E-numbers and directions (_hospitals/vets_) when moving to new areas.


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## cadams5120 (May 20, 2009)

oh.my.god. I cannot even believe that happened. Whiskers loved the water, but wanted to play with the moving thing in the water. so when he took it out and it stopped moving, he didn't care. he is also a useless mouser (love him though!!). I have 2 emergency vets w.in 10 minutes of our home and i've been to each one twice. all for whiskers, and I have 5 cats. lol.

1) he was playing in water w. bleach that my dish rack was soaking in. bad mom moment. should've soaked it in the tub. i was a newbie 
2) abcess from another cat and his ears were burning so they told me to bring him in. which was actually the most legit trip i've taken.
3) cough x2 hours - sounded like he was choking. 3 hrs and 200 dollars later....he just had a sore throat
4) sliced his ear open, and i dont even know how. they just glued it.


he's a busy one.


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## Heidi n Q (Nov 22, 2006)

Wow. I think Whiskers needs to be wrapped in bubble-wrap and kept in a padded room! 8O _Crazy kitteh!_


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