Said It Here

Why does my cat have mysterious scratches on its head?

Cats frequently develop head wounds from outdoor altercations or self-inflicted scratching that worsens existing marks. These injuries make it difficult to determine whether the damage stems from rough outdoor play or the cat persistently reopening a healing sore.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    taking the cat to the vet
  2. 2
    keeping an eye on the cats' interactions
  3. 3
    treating it as an allergy or infection

In their words

Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.

Yesterday my car had some scrapes on her head and today she opened them up, I can’t tell if they’re getting worse or if she’s scratching them open.source ↗

Zealousideal_Toe_578 · r/cats · 8 upvotes

My cat has the same marks. He got them from playing outside and I saw them when he came back in the evening. I’m not sure where he got his either.source ↗

milnerq · r/cats · 2 upvotes

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised