As we just mentioned, you're normally going to see a lump or a bump. Sometimes they can get oozy and inflamed, scalier, crusty, or loose hair. Just a change in your cat's normal texture of their skin is a sign.

Skin cancer is fairly unusual, but any lump or bump in your cat needs to be checked. Cats and dogs both get different types of skin cancers, but cat skin cancer is substantially more aggressive than dogs. So any lump or bump in a cat I want to take a look at. We're going to aspirate it, try to get some cells from it, try to determine what it may be, and if it concerns us, because with skin cancer, the sooner we deal with it, the better.

With some of these, honestly, very little, but sun exposure in cats and people can lead to types of skin cancer. So keep your cat out of the sun as best you can. During the hours of 10 to four, keep them out of a window where the sun's beating in. For outdoor kitties, there's not a whole lot you can do. Just make sure they have some shade to be able to hide in if they like and protect the coats. Believe it or not, they make cat sunscreens. They are non-zinc oxide sunscreens. You have to be careful with what you put on a cat because they're going to groom it off anyway. And the zinc side can cause problems if they lick it down over any period of time. So if you want to use sunscreen on your cat, maybe on the ears where the hair is thin on the nose, you can do that.

Cats get very similar skin cancers to what you and I can get. They can get melanomas, squamous cell carcinomas, mast cell tumors, and multiple different types of skin cancers.

The big thing is trying to keep the cat groomed, keeping them combed out, keeping them from getting matted, and then looking for lumps and bumps. It's the perfect opportunity to look for lumps and bumps as you're keeping your cat groomed. If you can bathe your cat, good for you. That's great. I have an almost 18-year-old cat. I've never bathed him and probably never will at this point. Cats tend to groom so well that they really don't need bathing nearly as much as dogs.