Shaved area grown back a funny colour!

We had our female cat spayed recently, and her hair has grown back a funny colour - her coat colour is cream/tawny, and she has spots in that area, but the shaved area from her spay has grown back a grey, dirty colour. Shes fairly good at self grooming so I don't think its collected dirt. Will the colour return to normal in time? Has anyone else had this after a spay or any other operation?

thanks!

We had Magnum shaved down this Summer because of bad matting and his fur grew back kind of greyish too, it is darkening back to his usual colour now though, so my guess is yes but it will take a while

hi
my all deep black kittens is growing back in a grey/brown it looks like a downy fluff as well now , not worried as long as shes fine

My mum's siamese were spayed and their fur came back a darker colour. After a while it turned the original colour. I can't see where they were shaved at all now.

With my tortie, anytime she's shaved, her hair comes back a different color/pattern than before! She lost a patch of hair on her tail several years ago (incident with a rolling chair) and it grew back a tan color. The rest of her tail is totally black!

Hannah (brown/gray tabby)was spayed just last week and it'll be interesting to see how her hair grows back. She's got a huge freckle patch where they shaved and I can see the freckle on her tummy!! Too cute! The rest of her belly is white.

Stephanie

Lucky has a pure white belly with a black dot right in the middle (and the skin of the black patch is black too). Everything grew back exactly the same! I can see with multi-coloured cats like a tortie that there would be the battle as to which colour gene was expressed in any new hair growth....

Perhaps you're seeing the undercoat coming in first before the guard hairs have had a chance to grow over? Part her fur on other parts of her body, if she's got fine fuzzy grey fur underneat her guard hair, then that's what you're seeing now and her normal color should return once the longer guard hairs have time to grow out fully.

~Julia

It is very normal for very closely shaved hair to grow back in an odd color. It is often the birth color, and will revert in time.
This will also happen when skin is injured i.e. burns etc.
It is as if the damaged follicles need to go through their entire growth cycle again.