In the photo you can see 2 individual whiskers curling up into this cat’s eyes but the owner says that their cat is unperturbed (but they might be mistaken). The picture is strange and a bit disturbing. The owner of the cat asks other Reddit.com users whether they should trim the two individual whiskers. Remarkably, the administrators of Reddit.com have closed down the comments because they said that they’ve confirmed with a veterinarian that “whiskers are also a sensory organ and this should be evaluated by a vet. Locked because people were giving bad advice”.
They administrators locked the comments because people were providing ‘bad’ medical advice which I presume was to trim the two whiskers. However, this is not really medical advice because it is common sense. There were just two whiskers curling up into the cat’s eyes. It is common sense that those two whiskers should be trimmed and the cat should be observed. There is no harm done when trimming one whisker from each side of the face because they are impinging upon the cornea of the cat’s eyes.
In any case the two offending whiskers were not performing their role because they were so distorted. Therefore, they needed to be trimmed and a vet seen at the next convenient appointment.
This is completely different to trimming off all the whiskers which would obviously be harmful. In the end the owner decided to go ahead and trim them because they didn’t want to take their cat to a veterinarian for this simple matter because of the stress of the situation.
This is their comment:
“Thanks everyone! I decided to trim just the two to protect her eyes, and hope they eventually start growing a different way. I’ll mention it to the vet when we’re next in, just didn’t want to put her through the stress of a visit just for that”
I think that their comment is eminently wise and their action the correct one. They can wait and watch and see what happens next. If both those whisker strands grow back in exactly the same way (which is likely I think) and impinge upon the cornea of this cat’s eyes then a veterinarian’s opinion should be sought.
I think, by the way, that it is rather strange that the cat does not object to whiskers from both sides of the face poking into her corneas. If left unattended they might damage the corneas.
Below are some more articles on whiskers.
