Q Why do cats have rough tongues?
— Arianna Taylor, Waukesha, Wis.
A Sandra Sawchuk, clinical instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine:
On their tongues cats have functional barbs or papillae made of keratin, the same material found in our nails and our hair. They’re rigid little barbs that face backward.
There are a couple of theories for why cats have these barbs, and the first says they’re for grooming. The barbs act like a hairbrush and collect any loose hair.
Some cats can actually over-groom with their tongue and will cause hair loss if they’re overdoing it. For cats with very long hair, humans may need to help them with the grooming because their tongue is not enough to keep themselves clean.
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Barbs also play a role in helping the cat to eat. Cats are predators, and in their natural environment they would be catching prey. That barbed tongue helps to hold the prey and helps with removing muscle and loosening tissues from the bone through licking it.
Cats can have significant issues in their mouths, causing inflammation to the tongue and loss of those papillae. Sometimes the change that happens during an illness can be permanent, meaning that cats may have an area of the tongue that is no longer rough.
When that happens, cat owners may need to step up their grooming because the cats won’t be able to groom themselves effectively. If your cat has had any health issues like oral herpes or some inflammatory changes on its tongue, be on the lookout for a loss of papillae, and you can help them out with grooming.
Blue Sky Science is a collaboration of the Wisconsin State Journal and the Morgridge Institute for Research.
