One day in 2017, I noticed the stray black cat had a watery eye. And, he was missing some fur by his ears. Since he is friendly with me, I decided to take him to my vet. We named the cat Midnight.
Midnight may have been the same black cat that we occasionally saw this summer in the neighborhood.
At first, we only saw him at night on the trail camera. Now, he is waiting most mornings for breakfast and spends most of the time in the yard (as far as we know). And, eventually, we set up a cat shed for him and a couple of other community cats.
Midnight on the scale. He weighs 12.5 pounds!
And he is very friendly. I do wonder what his backstory his! Where did he come from? Who took him for his ear tip? Is it an ear tip or an ear injury from a fight?
Upon examination, the vet discovered that all 4 of Midnight’s canine teeth are missing. He would not speculate on the cause of this. I hope Midnight was not abused!
PetMed says a possible reason is chewing on hard objects. It’s also possible that his teeth have been removed by a vet or was born without them.
My Buster, who came from my yard, had two broken canine teeth when he moved in and my vet at the time thought he was probably kicked in the face. And Buster did flinch around feet for a couple of years after moving in.
The good news was the watery eye is okay. Due to a previous injury, Midnight’s third eyelid is now deformed. He has a scar on his eye similar to Taco’s. The vet said his eye is not currently causing him any pain.
And to bring him back for another eye check, only if he is unable to open it or it looks super crusty. And, the missing (or thin) fur by his ears, is from Midnight itching his ears.
The vet put drops in his ears to help with whatever might be causing the itching (he told me, but I forgot that detail). And he was given a dose of Revolution just in case he has ear mites.
The vet also confirmed that Midnight is neutered. He has an ear tip, but the ear tip isn’t a clean of a tip as some cats, so I wanted to make sure. He also does not have a microchip.
Midnight has been waiting in the cat house for food each morning. I’m giving him wet food every day now. The vet did say he can chew dry cat food, but it seems like the wet food would be more comfortable for him! Other Buster 2 isn’t so sure about eating next to him!
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Heidi Bender is the writer and founder of the Joy of Cats. She enjoys sharing cat information and providing helpful cat tips. She considers herself a cat lady and currently cares for eight cats.
A little black male kitten climbed up inside my undercarriage of my car at the bank but not come out for a day or so. Finally I pulled in my garage and he stayed in the garage for two days now he’s in my bathroom and he’s making friends with my dog just noticed his cat fang is missing his tooth and his ears are like all bitten up in the back he’s like missing hair and he’s eating a lot. He didn’t have any M worms that I notice he doesn’t have fleas. I gave him a bath he purrs he seems happy. Do I need to spend money at the vet or can I just enjoy him for now and keep feeding him and get him acclimated to humans?
It doesn’t sound urgent. However, I would probably take him to the vet for the hair loss. He could have ear mites or other issues that cause hair loss that could be easily treated. Although it sounds like maybe he was attacked. We took in a cat once (Buster) that was missing a fang tooth. It was broken off, and the left over part eventually had to be removed. Your kitten might be too little for surgery. As long as the area doesn’t look infected and he’s eating, I would suspect he will be fine for awhile.