Fur / whiskers missing from cat's face, sneezing

Hi all,

To start, I've had my cat Arland for around 9 months. He's a 2-year-old domestic short hair, and he has had no health issues whatsoever since I took him in last October.

This weekend, I went away for a day to celebrate the 4th of July with some friends. After getting back the next day, I noticed that Arland had a bit of a sneeze. Sometimes he'll sneeze once, but other times he'll sneeze two or three times in a row. I figured I'd look into it while keeping an eye on him to see if it got any worse or not.

This morning I went to feed him, and as he looked up at me I noticed there was a patch of hair missing near his whiskers. I inspected it a little more and realized that some of his whiskers were actually missing, and the area looked a little sore (redness where the whiskers should be). I've attached an image of the area I'm talking about.

Except for the redness where the whiskers should be, his skin looked and felt normal in that area, and aside from the sneezing, he's been acting like the same old goofy cat he's always been. I've already been consulting my family's vet to see what he thinks, but I was wondering if anyone else has ever seen this happen with their cat. I'm also unsure if there's any correlation between the missing fur / whiskers and sneezing—maybe it's causing his nose some irritation?

Thank you in advance for the help and input!

Welcome to TCS! 

The area looks raw. It could be some sort of local infection, a viral, bacterial or even fungal one. I would get the cat to the vet to see which one and what kind of treatment, if any, is needed. The sneezing could be unrelated or it's possible that the stimulus from the whiskers area is making him sneeze. 

Please let us know what the vet said. I'm curious.