Porphyrin around Derek’s nose
Yesterday evening, Derek had a dried, browny-red substance around his nose. It looked like dried blood at first, but was actually porphyrin which is a mucus-like substance. It can be a sign of excessive stress or a respiratory infection, but Derek had no other symptoms.
I cleaned his nose and, this morning, it was still clean. The internet assures me the porphyrin release was likely just a one-off, due to temporary irritation in Derek’s eye caused by something such as a piece of bedding or an eyelash getting in his eye, or maybe he scratched it while self-grooming.
As always with this sort of thing, I’ll keep an eye on Derek and make sure it was just a one-off.
This info about porphyrin has been added to the Care page.
