Whisker growing out of back?!

[kittiekitten]

So my adorable Thao is 7 yrs old, male, fixed at 6 months. So i noticed he had a long white hair growing from his back, he is part maine coon and i get him shaved, last time was about 5 months ago. Anyways, i hadnt paid much attention to it bc i thought it was a strand of fur w/ no color and my mom watched all 5 of my babies for a little over a week. Well it has gotten super long, quite a bit longer then the rest of his fur, and looks like a whisker so i paid attention to it and it is thick like his whiskers and super sensitive. Ive noticed his back twitching for a little while now but thought it was dander or something.... Nope it is that "whisker". I started looking through his fur and he has a few of them... The other two are way shorter and blend in w his fur a lot better.... Any ideas?!? Is it possible it is a whisker? poor thao... Ps on my phone cant type too well on it yet

 

[emilymaywilcha]

If it is a whisker, it is definitely more sensitive than all the fur around it but not bothering him too much. The worst thing you can do is pull it out or cut it.

 

[ibiscribe]

Cats have special "sensor hairs" that are slightly longer than the rest of their coat, and more sensitive to touch. It's possible that this is just a "freak hair" that didn't stop growing when it was supposed to, and now looks like a whisker. (If it's a sensor hair, that would also explain why it's especially sensitive--and you definitely wouldn't want to pull it out, any more than a whisker.)

This kind of hair "malfunction" can happen to humans too, a hair might randomly grow 2-3 times as long as it should be... we just tend not to notice most of the time, since humans have little body hair to start with.

If it's really a face-type whisker (which would be absolutely bizarre), it should be noticeably stiffer than regular hairs. My longhair Keef had really thick white whiskers, and I've known bird feather veins that were less rigid. If it isn't stiff, that doesn't mean it definitely isn't a whisker, but it is less likely to be one; if it is rigid, then yes, it would seem that somehow he does have a whisker on his back. :S

 

[AngelaBinVA]

Our 2 YO Merry Bell Fluffmas also has what seem to be whiskers growing on her back, near but not immediately adjacent to her tail. They are white (the surrounding hair is black), thicker than the rest of her fur, and quite stiff, exactly like whiskers. So it's a thing, apparently.