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Your cat’s lips can become swollen for any number of reasons.
Swollen lips usually have some inflammation, or there is fluid build-up in the skin tissue.
Felines are curious creatures, poking their faces into everything as they explore.
Cat swollen lip home remedies help reduce pain and swelling and keep your feline’s nine lives intact.
There could be many causes for your cat’s swollen lip, but luckily there are some helpful home remedies.
Whether it’s an insect bite or an allergy, these remedies can provide relief from pain, worry, and expensive vet bills.
Try A Cold Compress
Swelling of the face and lips usually results from some trauma, allergic response, or an insect bite or sting.
Remember that while first-aid and home remedies start first, severe cases may require immediate medical attention from a vet.
If your cat is still breathing normally, you can breathe a sigh of relief yourself.
However, signs of pain in your feline friend can be loud meowing, hissing, and hiding away.
To immediately deal with a swollen lip, you can apply a cold compress to your pet’s lips.
True, your pet may reasonably object, but it’s worth a shot.
A cold compress is used straight after the injury to minimize swelling and inflammation.
Place just one ice block in a face cloth and hold it against the swollen lip for up to 5 minutes if your cat will allow you.
The icy cold sensation should reduce swelling and inflammation and also relieve pain.
Allergies And Natural, Soothing Remedies
Your cat can also have an allergic reaction when his body responds negatively to something he’s come into contact with.
It could be food, environmental allergies, or medicines. Cat allergies can sometimes be treated at home.
Though, sometimes, the process of managing your cat’s allergies can be very time-consuming, challenging, and frustrating.
An intradermal test from a holistic vet might be required if the approaches below don’t help you manage your cat’s allergies.
Remove Exposure To Dirty Bowls
When it’s a food allergy causing your cat’s swollen lips, before you rope in the vet for allergy tests, introduce home remedies first.
Sometimes it can be as simple as removing exposure to certain things.
This way, you can see if the allergic reaction and lip swelling improve.
Whatever food dish you use, start by making sure you wash it with hot, soapy water between each meal.
Over-the-counter Antihistamines
Depending on the severity of your cat’s swollen lip, you can treat it with over-the-counter antihistamines.
If your cat has been stung or bitten by an insect or spider, you need to identify specifically which one has bitten your cat on the lip.
If it was a bee, you might have first removed its stinger.
That’s because it continues to secrete venom. Soothe the bite site immediately.
A superb, quick home remedy for reducing swelling of a cat’s lips is to make a paste of a ¼ teaspoon of baking soda and a few drops of water.
Apply the paste to the sting area.
To avoid an allergic reaction, you can give your furry friend a dose of oral antihistamine.
Over-the-counter antihistamines can be a good option for allergy relief.
Benadryl (diphenhydramine) is an example of this.
It is a commonly used allergy medicine for both cats and dogs.
It’s available in tablet and liquid gel and can temporarily relieve symptoms of upper respiratory allergies.
A Rinse For Fresh Wounds
Other topical antibiotic ointments are available for minor cuts and stings.
Ointments like these from your vet are pretty safe and should always be in your home first aid kit.
You can also try natural, homeopathic remedies.
You can easily rinse out a fresh wound on your cat’s lip with a solution of 1 pint water, ½ teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon of Echinacea tincture.
It is wonderfully healing.
Cat wounds can often turn into an abscess, but by dabbing the lips with this solution throughout the day, you can avoid a trip to the vet and an abscess forming.
Soothing Aloe Vera Gel
Lip swelling can also be a sign of oral or gum infections. Aloe vera gel is wonderfully soothing.
If you don’t have a tube at home, you can even buy the aloe vera plant at your local grocery store.
It’s a succulent plant that stores water in its leaves in the form of a gel.
This gel is excellent for minor wounds, burns, and other skin problems.
The bioactive compounds in the gel can prove very useful in relieving lip swelling.
Tea Tree Oil
Add a drop or two of tea tree oil to add even more ‘healing powers’ to your aloe vera gel.
Every home, where possible, should try to keep a bottle of tea tree oil in their medicine chest.
It’s an essential oil that is useful for so many things. It’s inexpensive too.
Aborigines used this for centuries and came from Australia.
The oil contains compounds that kill bacteria and viruses. Be very, very careful with the amount you use.
In small concentrations of just .1% to 1%, it is safe for cats and dogs.
Since tea tree oil is so popular, there are now a lot of veterinary skin care products available that can be used at home and contain the oil.
Coconut Oil
You can treat your cat’s swollen lip at home with coconut oil.
Many of us already use coconut oil for cooking.
The oil is rich in antimicrobial lauric acid.
It means that it can prevent bacteria from forming on a cut lip and reduce swelling.
If you’re nervous about adding tea tree oil to treat your cat, avoid it.
You can safely apply coconut oil to your cat’s lips several times a day until the swelling goes away.
Coconut oil is a superfood, and it can help alleviate many irritations.
If you have an older cat with a swollen lip, he is more prone to inflammatory health issues. Always choose organic, virgin, cold-pressed coconut oil.
Not only will it help your pet’s swollen lip, but you may also discover that coconut oil gives him a boost of energy as well.
Turmeric
Some excellent natural herbal supplements can bring down the swelling of your cat’s lip.
Turmeric is one of these; it is a spice and herb used in Ayurvedic medicine.
It won’t only assist with a swollen lip but will improve your cat’s general health.
As a superfood, it is also an anti-inflammatory, antifungal, and antibacterial treatment.
It is great for use externally for cuts and wounds. Add a drop or two of cold water to a thumbnail amount of turmeric to form a paste.
Smear the paste on your cat’s swollen lips. There’s no need to wash it off once it dries on your cat’s lips.
Ingesting it ‘by mistake’ will be of immense benefit to your cat, coming with heaps of fantastic health benefits.
Once you’ve seen what it can do, you’ll want to buy the ‘turmeric for cats’ supplement.
Conclusion
With swollen lips in cats, you can be looking at allergic reactions, injuries, dental problems, or even feline acne.
Some of these things may seem out of your control, but most times some form of treatment can be started at home.
Treating a swollen lip in your cat can be as simple as making use of the several home remedies we’ve suggested.
These valuable home remedies are for treating swollen lips in cats and can avoid a trip to the vet.
That’s enough to keep your cat happy and purring.
Purrfect n’ Pawesome is the brainchild of Amanda, who has been into researching and writing about pets to help other pet parents in nurturing their adorable pets. Currently, she runs Purrfect n’ Pawesome along with her team of experienced and dedicated pet experts. Along with being an awesome writer and entrepreneur, Amanda is a cat mom to two innocently spoiled cats, Balanca and Scruffy.
She has been writing about pet care and nurturing and wants to share her readers’ experiences, learnings, and knowledge.
Over the years, she had the opportunity to work with various pet owners having multiple breeds, and that exposure gave her experience and the lessons of a lifetime.
Her family, her entire universe revolves around her two cats, who give her endless support and inspiration to move ahead with her objectives in life. Amanda is a live example of a balanced approach to all parenthood questions we all face in life.