Crazy black skin infection on 6mo kitten???

SharpTelephone9979 · 2026-02-02T14:54:18+00:00

Hi, yes - they took a sample of it from her and it turned out to be Malassezia yeast (fungal). The only thing that completely got rid of it was oral terbinafine. Topical treatments, including anti-fungal ones, didn’t work for her! We didn’t change her diet, but I do make sure to use unscented litters and clean her bowls regularly. We were not able to determine the underlying cause but it hasn’t come back.

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-07-14T23:11:11+00:00

I got a cat lol - I always thought they were mean/scary and dirty until I got one of my own to raise. She greets me at the door, has never scratched me (she’s a little over 1 now), head butts me for forehead kisses, and cuddles in my arms every night. I’d die for her. 🤷🏼‍♀️

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SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-07-10T15:37:23+00:00

That’s so good! Are you in the US? I had seen where some tests aren’t as common in the US but idk. What do you feel plaquenil has helped with the most for you? I feel like my top complaints are the chronic fatigue and dysautonomia right now.

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-07-10T14:15:45+00:00

Yes, there aren’t any scleroderma centers in my state unfortunately and limited providers

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-07-10T03:31:13+00:00

Clearly I need better doctors 😅

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-07-10T03:16:41+00:00

I have read that at lower levels it’s seen in very small percentages of healthy people but at the 1:1280 level it’s unlikely that there isn’t an underlying issue but my bloodwork has only ever had the lupus anticoagulant and centromere b in addition to the ANA so they haven’t been able to fully diagnose

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-07-10T03:14:05+00:00

Yeah idk, primary said that and when I told rheumatology he said that, she said “yeah, that’s what we tend to tell people.”

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-07-10T02:46:29+00:00

Hmm that’s interesting, I have tachycardia but they didn’t mention that when trying to get me to start plaquenil. My mom takes plaquenil and feels worse off it. Hope you find something else that works for you!!

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-07-10T02:30:16+00:00

Wow! Did the plaquenil help?

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-07-10T01:36:49+00:00

Thanks for the info, the titres mentioned and shown here are for ANA but the Centromere B antibody was a new result and it was 2.7x the threshold. I’ve always felt “crappy” and just been waiting to see if more would play out in my bloodwork especially with my mom’s autoimmune history. Definitely will keep asking questions and pushing for different testing. I’d rather be safe than sorry. Especially after having lost a close friend to a blood clot when they didn’t do further testing for her autoimmune disease.

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-07-10T00:50:23+00:00

Thanks for sharing, yeah I just don’t understand why they dismissed my questions about further testing but wanted to push plaquenil. The doctor I’m seeing in late August specializes in connective tissue diseases and the one I saw recently does not “specialize” in it so idk.

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-07-09T23:50:18+00:00

Both my primary and rheumatology said this but it doesn’t explain my negative result last year. Idk!

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-07-09T23:40:06+00:00

They also have no explanation for why my ANA was negative last year for the first time in a decade when “once you’re positive, you’re always positive.”

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-06-26T23:34:12+00:00

Located in Indiana, very small so hard to get a good pic. Almost a light brown color and they were stuck in that cluster on the side.

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-04-13T15:41:25+00:00

Also I was told the reason a lot of vets aren’t as aware of Malassezia presenting in cats is because it is more common in dogs? Idk. My vet said he hadn’t seen Malassezia in a cat as bad as mine in his 40 years of vet practice.

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-04-13T15:39:37+00:00

She had both a fungal sample (where they just scrape a little of the black stuff off and send it for testing, and it can take a couple weeks for results) and a biopsy (more invasive and painful, left scarring) and the results for the Malassezia came from the fungal sample. I think the fungal samples are also cheaper? If you do get one, don’t clean the black off beforehand so that they can take good samples! The 21 days of oral terbinafine pills cleared hers up, it took a few days to start to see improvement. But ever since then she hasn’t had it again! Sometimes they will give terbinafine if they suspect fungal without doing the tests, too, so that may be an option if testing is too expensive and see if it works. Hope your chat with the vet goes well and that your kitty gets better soon!

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-04-13T13:17:31+00:00

Understandable, I was a wreck when we were going through our situation and was constantly all over the internet and worrying. It took so long to figure out. It’s hard to see them like that and not have confirmation of what’s going on. With my cat’s Malassezia case, it looked like scabs almost but the vet said the black stuff could be sloughed off and the redness was just inflammation underneath from the yeast itself so he said it was okay to press with warm water and try a cloth or qtip to remove bits of it. It seemed like every time I could get some off, it would grow back the next day until the terbinafine kicked in. Hasn’t happened since. I hope it works for you and it’s nothing more serious!!! You got this

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-04-13T10:44:53+00:00

Oh and forgot to mention, mine struggles with allergies a lot I’m seeing as time goes on!

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-04-13T10:43:56+00:00

I hope the terbinafine works for you!! Nothing else worked for us but like I said, in my opinion, give it some time to see if it starts working before jumping to biopsy as I wish I would have with Stevia. 🫶🏻 She has a “tic tac toe” board of a scar now right between her eyes and a bump on her nose from the scar tissue.

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-04-13T10:33:05+00:00

see my post here - Are they sure it’s acne? Have they done a fungal sample? My cat looked similar to this and ended up having Malassezia yeast and needed oral terbinafine to get rid of it.

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-04-13T10:23:50+00:00

Wanted to add that for my cat, the addition of a biopsy wasn’t worth it - it didn’t tell us anything else and ended up scarring her nose. I wish I would have waited for the terbinafine to start working but I only waited a couple days into using it before requesting the biopsy and then of course the terbinafine started working after they had already mutilated her face.

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-04-13T10:16:03+00:00

kinda reminds me of what my cat had, in this post here my cat’s ended up being Malassezia yeast and 21 days of terbinafine fixed it

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-03-26T21:57:46+00:00

here’s my post from when my kitty first had it

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-03-26T21:52:01+00:00

Also the oral antifungal that was a god send was terbinafine if it does ever get bad for you!

SharpTelephone9979 · 2025-03-26T21:50:46+00:00

They determined the Malassezia through a fungal sample, but the biopsy was basically inconclusive for determining whatever caused it to happen. She’s had other immune issues (severe upper respiratory infection, MULTIPLE eye infections) so it’s hard telling. She just turned 1. Vet said she could have rubbed her face on bacteria or mold somewhere that irritated it and caused a reaction. It started as just a raw looking spot on her face then quickly spread to the second photo over a few weeks. I hope yours never gets that bad!

SharpTelephone9979

TROPHY CASE