Should my cat have a wet nose? The question means should my cat have a wet nose when he is healthy? And the word ‘nose’ means the nose leather, the end of a cat’s nose. The Latin terminology is ‘rhinarium’.
The answer, in my opinion, is qualified No. The picture below is of my cat taken fifteen minutes ago. Fortunately, he is in perfect health. His nose leather is dry. I have just touched it and photographed it.
Condensation
Wikipedia states that the nose is moist for healthy cats and dogs. I think I know where this concept comes from. It’s is to do with condensation which I refer to below.
Dogs will often have moist noses because they go out for walks daily or they should do. Not infrequently the warm exhaled air of the dog’s lungs condenses at the end of the nose making it moist as some of the water is deposited on the nose (‘snout’ for a dog).
For cats the same situation can occur but for full time indoor cats it won’t happen because the air inside the home is warm. There will be no condensation.
There is not a lot more to say in answering the question. Of course there will be other times when the nose of a healthy cat is moist or wet but there will be a specific reason for it such as a sneeze or if the cat has licked his nose in displacement activities. Cat colds are likely to make the nose wet. This supports the argument that typically for a healthy cat the nose leather is dry.
There is a slight internet obsession about the end of cat’s noses and whether they should be dry or wet. The discussion may be overegged. Also we can take the lead from humans. We don’t expect the end of our nose to be moist.
Humans
When humans are healthy the end of their noses are dry. When we have colds or there is condensation it might be wet. It is hard to argue that a cat’s nose should be any different to a human nose in this discussion. The same rules and anatomy apply.
I hope this helps and if you have an opinion please express it in a comment.
