4

I have a 10 year old slightly obese indoor cat. Recently, I was petting his stomach and thought I found what may have been a scab. I scrapped it gently with my finger nail before I had the hair completely clear from the space (to get a better look) and it fell right off. When I was able to clear the hair aside completely I realized, to my horror, that it was actually one of his nipples. It did not bleed and he was not even remotely phased by this at all (so I'm assuming it did not hurt him). I made an appointment with the vet but am not able to see them until later this week. I was wondering if anyone else has every heard of this or may know what caused it.

I tried to do some research and found everything from the obesity not allowing him to groom himself properly, to parasites, to nothing wrong at all. There were not clear answers as to what this could potentially be caused from. If anyone has any ideas they could suggest it would be greatly appreciated.

Improve this question
2
  • This just happened to me! My cat's not obese but he is 19 1/2 and cant' clean himself well so I'm guessing it's the same thing. It was a crusty waxy substance and it freaked me out, but I was glad to have found this thread. Thanks for posting your response from the vet!
    – user20850
    Jul 1, 2021 at 1:30
  • Thank you for sharing this! This literally just happened to my boy cat who’s indoor only. He’s not obese, he’s just a big cat, which is common for the males in his breed. It just looked like a dry crusty nipple & I pulled at it with my fingernail and the whole thing just pulled right out!!! He wasn’t phased by it at all, but it left a little hole, which I cleaned. I will keep an eye on it, thank you so much for sharing!!
    – Kittyowner
    Oct 16, 2022 at 18:55

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
5

The vet said that what fell off of his stomach was actually not his nipples. It turned out to be a build up from the nipple area, which looked incredibly similar to his nipple.

His nipples appeared to have fallen off because they have become inverted. This is apparently something that can happen in male cats. When this happens, the space where the nipple used to be, becomes very vulnerable to infections. The vet, honestly, compared this to getting a pimple in a human. She said it is nothing to be alarmed about but did give me cleansing pads to rub down his stomach with on a daily basis. She said this will avoid the build up from happening again. She also gave him a shot that contained two weeks of antibiotics (also available in pill form for cheaper) to clean up the slight infection that is there currently.

The main reason this happened was because of his obesity. He was not able to groom this area as well as he should have been, which caused a slight build up to form over the nipple area. Needless to say, this big guy, is also going on a diet.

Improve this answer
1
  • Good to hear it was something minor ad easily treated.
    – keshlam
    Sep 3, 2015 at 15:55

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.