Black Ring around my cat's eye

[Allison1ga]

My cat is a 8 year old Calico.  I just noticed that she has a black ring around the inside of her right eyelid (her 3rd eyelid looks fine-hers have always been partly visible). It goes almost the whole way around.  To better describe it- it almost looks as if she though someone put black eyeliner on her. 75% of the fur around her eye is black- so I thought maybe its always been there and I just never noticed- but I really don't think so.  Could this be anything serious or is it a warning sign of a specific health problem?

Thank you!!!

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

I have found that I have had to repeat the Frontline application before the month is up.  Although it is off label use I have used the product every 3 weeks in high tick season.  Manually removing ticks daily may still be necessary.  Don't use anything stronger, it could cause more risk to your cat's health than ticks.

[jackray1011]

Hi- You just described what I've been seeing on my cat, seed ticks around his eyes and in his muzzle whiskers. If Frontline won't stop them (he has been treated) then how can you get rid of them? Thank you!

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

I think that you should have her looked at by your veterinarian.  Diagnosis of this area will probably require sedation and possibly anesthesia.  A skin scraping, and biopsy would be very valuable. Without actually seeing the problem I would believe that it could be anything from ectoparasites (mange or mites, or ticks),  a fungal infection, or bacterial infection,  melanoma or other skin neoplasm, or even some  unusual autoimmune problem.  Only diagnostics will tell us for sure.  

This is also the time of year when seed ticks are prevalent.   Seed ticks are one stage in a tick's life cycle.  The ticks are very small and black and the size of a poppy seed.   They like to attach around cats eyes, and, if there were enough of them they could appear as a line.  I have seen them on cats who have been treated with Frontline.  

Please feel free to elaborate or send photos, if possible.  If you do see your veterinarian let me know how it goes!