Woman Accidentally Dyes Her Cat Yellow with Turmeric Treatment, Sends Internet Into a Frenzy
Getty; Inset: Getty
This is one way to give your pet a makeover.
Thammapa Supamas, a woman living in Thailand, accidentally dyed her cat yellow while treating a fungal infection on the pet's limbs.
Supamas applied a turmeric scrub to heal a red, irritated patch of skin on the white cat's leg, she shared on Facebook.
The plant extract has anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties and is widely considered to be an effective antifungal treatment. Turmeric powder, however, is a strong natural dye yielding a vibrant gold color.
It’s no surprise, then, that Supamas’s white cat became a ball of bright yellow fur after getting coated in turmeric.
Supamas said on Sunday that the yellow hue had not faded quite yet but her cat’s infection was noticeably healing. "Thank you for your kindness and concern," she added.
Her daily updates have racked up thousands of likes from people all over the world, who are comparing the cat to the yellow Pokemon character Pikachu and who are sending their well wishes for a speedy recovery to the feline.
There’s still little research on the benefits of turmeric for pets.
"Turmeric has been used on the human side for years and many healing, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties have been attributed to it, however, it hasn’t been studied extensively in pets,” Dr. Kurt Venator, DVM, PhD, and Purina’s Chief Veterinary Officer, tells PEOPLE. "I would recommend consulting your veterinarian about safe and effective treatments for your pet before using turmeric as a medical remedy on your own."
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Chad Dodd, a veterinarian and member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, tells PEOPLE he’d caution against applying turmeric powder on cats less so for safety reasons but more for concern over staining the feline’s fur.
"I've seen pictures from colleagues who had clients try it and the light-colored pet turns neon yellow ... and the crazy thing is it can take months to fade away," he says. "If they want to use it topically they should try one of the commercially available extract forms vs. the powder."
This "yellow cat" isn’t the first pet to become famous for changing colors, either. Last summer, French bulldogs Dam-nam and Sai-Aua in northern Thailand became famous for accidentally dying themselves bright green.
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Owner Yada Ornsomjit explained to the Daily Mail that the mischievous pups had raided her kitchen the night before and got into a bag of green food coloring.
"My husband and I spent half a day washing them about three times but some parts of their bodies were still green," she said. "We were really tired but they seemed not to know what they had done wrong."
