Hot pink ears

nolia

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Sometimes I notice my cat will have hot pink ears. No discharge or anything. But then it's gone in a few hours. What does it mean?
 

farleyv

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Is your cat white or light colored?

I took my cat, Jane, to the vet about a month ago for a well visit. While there her ears turned very pink and warm. The vet thought she may have a temperature. But she did not. They cleared up shortly after we got home. I think it was she was so nervous being at the doctor.

I posted the same question here as you did. Other posters said they had the same thing happen to them with light colored cats. Has your cat been nervous or scared of anything? Can you get a temp on her? Is she eating and drinking and playing normally?

Hopefully, someone will come along with another suggestion.
 

97guns

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my cat is white and when i picked him up from nuetering he was pale. he lost the pinkness on his nose, ears ond toes, it eventually came back 2 days later
 

strange_wings

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Which kitty is it? If Pico, it's just another sign that she's ill...

But there are a few things that can make cat get warm flushed ears that are harmless. If they've been out in the heat, that's how the cat's body will help cool itself. If they've been sleeping somewhere warm - under blankets, clumped together with half a dozen other cats..., on/next to you. Cats that have been racing around a bunch can sometimes get flushed ears - just like a human gets flushed from rigorous exercise. And as mentioned, during stressful events.
 

alpine'smom

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Something else to consider is an allergic reaction.

Our cat had pinkish/reddish ears that didn't go away for a week. The vet couldn't come up with a reason--temp normal, hadn't changed diet, etc. We racked our brain to figure out what had changed in our home that could have caused irritation. Finally we figured out the cat had been hanging out in a basement room where there had been a bit of flooding and we had pulled back the carpet to let it dry. The cat had been constantly investigating the carpet/tack strips. We put the carpet back and in a couple days she was back to normal. The only thing we can come up with was she was allergic to the carpet backing or was irritating her face by rubbing on the sharp tacking strips.
 
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nolia

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Yea it was Pico last night (the calico). She has black ears, but I can see through the inside when I went to pet her last night just before bed. It was warm and pink.

But about a minute later, she came down off her tree to crawl under the blankets and slept with me the entire night. I pet her, she was purring and relaxed as usual. By morning, the pinkness was gone. I've only seen this on her ONCE before many months ago. But again it was only for a little while and then it was gone.

Pico is a calm kitty, so she doesn't go randomly running, but she will play if we play with her.
 
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