What happens if you cut one side of a cat whiskers?

You should never allow a groomer or any other person to cut off the whiskers on one side of your cat’s face. Cat whiskers are tactile hairs that cats use to detect movement, sense air movement, and navigate their surroundings. Cats without whiskers are prone to disorientation and dizziness. It’s normal for cats to lose whiskers from time to time the same way they shed fur. However, if your cat experiences non-natural whisker loss, it is time to keep a close eye on your cat and keep it well protected until the whiskers grow back.

Why Are Your Cat’s Whiskers Short On One Side?

There are many potential reasons for potential whisker loss in cats. Grooming accidents tend to be the most common reason, so be extra careful around the whiskers when you’re trimming. However, some cats do lose and regrow their whiskers in natural cycles.

• Grooming accidents
• Natural whisker shedding
• Brittle whisker syndrome
• Cat chewing off whiskers
• Cat fights

Usually, the whisker loss will be consistent on both sides of the face in these situations and won’t hurt your cat. If you have a kitten and a mother cat, be aware that mothers have been known to chew off their kitten’s whiskers. This helps prevent kittens from wandering out of the mother’s line of sight. Sometimes cats experience brittle whiskers which break and get lost more easily. Broken whiskers could be a sign that your cat is stressed, injured, or infected. Keep in mind that sometimes whiskers are lost in fights. Consult a vet if your cat’s whisker loss seems extreme or uneven.

5 Ways to Care For Your Cat if its Whiskers Have Been Cut

Regardless of how your cat lost its whiskers, now it needs to recuperate. Although there aren’t nerves in whiskers, cats need a lot of love and attention while their whiskers grow back. Be diligent in ensuring your pet’s safety during this time.

Make Your Cat Comfortable

The function of whiskers is primarily to help your cat get around and sense danger or prey. Without this whisker sense, your cat’s senses will be impaired. If your cat is missing whiskers on one side, keep it inside of your home. If your cat typically spends a lot of time outside, make sure it stays in an enclosed backyard. Without whiskers, your cat could easily get lost and not find its way home.

• A cat without whiskers is at risk of becoming disoriented or lost.
• Until your cat’s whiskers grow back, keep them indoors. If your cat must go outside, supervise them to make sure they do not get lost.
• Reduce your cat’s disorientation by providing a comfortable bed as well as easy access to food, water, and a litter box.

While inside, set up an easy-to-find and well-lit rest area for your cat. Make sure your cat’s food, water, and litter are easy to find. This will help reduce your cat’s anxiety and make sure it won’t feel as lost. Additionally, keep nightlights in commonly used areas of the house so your cat can better navigate at night. Use this night light to help enhance your cat’s vision at night.

Prevent Your Cat From Getting Stuck

It is a common misconception that cats use their whiskers to gauge the size of openings to fit through. However, because cats are clumsier without their whiskers, they may still get stuck in unexpected places. Try to widen or narrow any openings in your home so that your cat can either get through easily or cannot attempt to get in.

Keep Your Cat From Climbing and Jumping

Cats have great trouble maintaining balance without whiskers. As a result, pet owners should try to prevent any climbing and jumping. Such behavior is an accident waiting to happen for your whiskerless companion. Here are some things you can do to discourage your cat from jumping up on things around your house:

• Make your counters uncomfortable with crumpled tin foil or sticky tape.
• Make your counters safely slippery with towels or blankets.
• Keep “stepping stones” like chairs and coffee tables away from counters.
• Reinforce “no climbing” behavior with treats and clicker training.

Another way to prevent your cat from jumping on things is to make sure they have a safe climbing toy. Use this carpeted cat tower to allow your cat to safely indulge its climbing instinct.

Check Your Cat For Injury

Since cats without their whiskers can misjudge jumps, make sure your cat isn’t harmed while whiskers are growing back. Be sure to keep extra padding around anything you know your cat likes to jump on. Check your cat at least twice a day for injuries. Consult your vet at once if your cat is injured.

Be Patient

It can take anywhere from 6 weeks to 3 months for cat whiskers to fully regrow. As frustrating as it may be to watch your cat struggle with basic navigation, remember it’s even more frustrating for your cat. An adult cat uses whiskers to help convey body language, so your cat may also be less expressive without whiskers.

Can You Trim a Cat’s Whiskers?

Never trim a cat’s whiskers. While it is physically possible to trim them, it will confuse and disorient your cat. Cutting off a cat’s whiskers is roughly the same as blindfolding a person. These stiff hairs act as an intermediary between the sense of touch and vision. Without these vital touch receptors, your cat is significantly more prone to injury and getting lost.

Do Cat Whiskers Grow Back After Being Cut?

Fortunately, whiskers do grow back. Whiskers are made of keratin (like human hair and fingernails) so whisker loss is rarely permanent. They may take anywhere from 6 weeks to 3 months to fully regrow though. If your cat’s whiskers have not grown back after 3 months, consult with your vet about the next steps. It’s possible your cat may have a condition that is impairing its natural regrowth abilities.

Why Does it Look Like Your Cat’s Whiskers Have Been Cut Off on One Side?

The most likely reason your cat’s whiskers have been cut off is a grooming accident. However, there are other potential sources of whisker loss. Sometimes whiskers fall out naturally and they will grow back in cycles. Certain breeds of cats have natural whisker shedding patterns. It is also possible that your cat has brittle whiskers that are more prone to damage and loss.

• Your cat’s whiskers were accidentally cut during grooming.
• The cat broke or lost its whiskers while playing or fighting.
• Your cat may have brittle whisker syndrome, which causes the hairs to break.

If you’re caring for a whiskerless or whisker-impaired cat, keep in mind that it needs protection and security. Take steps to prevent it from jumping, climbing, and going outdoors until it recovers.

Hopefully, your furry friend will be back to its fully whiskered state soon. Remember to consult with your vet if whiskers seem to be regrowing too slowly.

It turns out, cat’s whiskers are an essential sensory mechanism. Damage a cat’s whiskers and it will cause them not only discomfort, but also to become confused and disorientated, among other negative side effects.

Whiskers themselves are nothing more than a type of thick/long hair.  The importance of whiskers lies in the fact that they are deeply rooted in follicles which are surrounded by a muscle tissue that is very rich in nerves and sensory cells. These nerve cells in the roots are then connected to a special area of the cat’s brain.

While whiskers serve many functions, the main function of whiskers is to work as a type of environmental scanning system. Interestingly enough, cats don’t actually need to touch the objects with their whiskers to detect the object.  The nerves at the base of the whiskers are actually sensitive enough to be able to pick up even small air movements which vibrate the whiskers.  They are so sensitive, in fact, that cats can even pick up air movements indoors, such as air flowing around furniture, which lets the cat know there is an object there, even when it is pitch dark.  This is essential for cats because they are far sighted and have trouble seeing things clearly close up.  Being nocturnal in nature, this also helps them “see” more clearly at night while they hunt.

Understanding the basic function of cat’s whiskers, it’s not surprising how distressing it would be for a cat to lose their whiskers or have them damaged. Research has shown that cats without whiskers have trouble estimate the size of openings and can easily get stuck. Also, due to the fact that whiskers are important to a cat’s equilibrium, without them, they have trouble walking straight and have difficulty running.  They also tend to get disoriented and fall. Interestingly, experiments done with cats with whiskers cut short also show that they struggle to judge distances accurately and so will often misjudge jumping distances as well as occasionally run into things.

Luckily for cats, even should someone be so cruel as to clip their whiskers or if their whiskers are otherwise damaged in a fight or the like, as with other types of hair, whiskers will ultimately re-grow as long as the follicle itself isn’t damaged beyond the body’s ability to repair.

Bonus Facts:

• Interestingly, there is also some evidence to suggest that whiskers aid somehow in helping cats detecting odors.
• Like human finger prints, every cat’s whisker pattern is unique.
• In addition to the obvious whiskers in horizontal rows on the ‘whisker pad’ of their cheeks, there are also whiskers between the corner of a cat’s mouth and the outer corner of the nose, on the chin, and the eyebrows, and on the back of the front legs.
• The scientific name for a cat’s whiskers is ‘vibrissae’ which hints at their sensitivity to vibrations in air currents.
• The breed of cat called the ‘Sphinx’ often has little to no whiskers.
• As you might have guessed, blind cats rely almost solely on their whiskers to navigate.
• When a cat is angry or defensive, the whiskers will be pulled back. When the cat is happy, curious or content, the whiskers will be more relaxed and pushed forward.
• Cats don’t have a true collar bone, which allows them to twist their way through very narrow openings.
• ‘To be the cat’s whiskers’ is a British idiom meaning ‘to be better than everyone else’.