My cat is sensitive to touch with a dry, crusty nose. What can I do?

It is difficult to tell from the pictures exactly what could be going on. However, crusty skin lesions can be due to parasite (skin or mite) infections, bacterial infections or even fungal infections. Your veterinarian can perform a skin scraping to determine the cause of the crustiness and prescribe appropriate treatment.

This sign could be compatible with an upper respiratory tract inflammation/infection (affecting the eyes as well) and possibly to a chronic rhinitis (inflammatory, allergic, infective). A clinical examination at your local veterinarian is essential to confirm these clinical suspicions and treat appropriately. Antibiotics may be needed. Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further.

There could be several reasons behind Copper’s skin issues. You definitely want to rule out a parasite such as ringworm (which humans can get) or mites. Ask your veterinarian if these have been ruled out at this point. If not, look into testing for these. Crustes around the eyes can indicate a viral infection. Ask your veterinarian if they are suspicious of that. Sometimes these problems can be related to food. I recommend to feed a high-quality diet such as Royal Cann Persian kitten food. It has additives and supplements for coat health for the breed. Royal Canin food is good in general if you cannot find the specific Persian variety. It will take one month before the food takes from effect. I hope this is helpful and please feel free to post any additional questions.

The crusts are caused by the nose running just a little, then it mixes with skin cells and bacteria or yeast to turn brown. Some cats can have a low-grade chronic upper respiratory infection to cause it. In some of these cats, a supplement called lysine can help (see link below). If the skin under the crusts appears normal, then I would just continue to clean gently with a warm wet washcloth daily. https://www.amazon.com/VetriScience-Laboratories-Vetri-Lysine-Bite-Sized/dp/B002ALE9RM/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=lysine+treats&qid=1602343461&sr=8-1

This is probably caused by an allergic reaction. first of all make sure you flea Winter regularly every month with a high quality flea product (ex. Advantage Multi) as fleas are by far the most common reason for these reactions. If the fleas are not the problem, it could be an allergic reaction to food or an environmental factor. this is more complicated to treat and will sometimes require medications such as Steroids, anti histamines or cyclosporin in order to stop the allergy. In some cases a course of antibiotics is also needed in order to treat the secondary infection that has appeared.

This is common with cats that are getting over an upper respiratory infection. You can clean the nostrils with a warm, damp cloth to remove the crusties and then apply a thin film of Vaseline around the area. This will prevent discharge from sticking to the fur. Make sure you clean out the ear discharge with a cotton ball before applying more medication in the ears. It often takes several weeks for all of the discharge to come out and for the ears to become clean. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for James.

I would recommend having Sharon examined by your vet and have your vet do some simple skin tests to determine what might be going on with Sharon. We do sometimes see some different types of mites (I have attached a link to a handout below with more information on one type of mite) that can cause skin problems in cats as well as bacterial or fungal infections. so your vet will need to determine the cause of the crusting in order to determine the best treatment option. https://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=512 Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using PetCoach.