Horrible kitty acne

With our recent move into our new house and the 7 week long blizzard season that we have had I have neglected to clean the kitties bowls as often as I used to and should. I recently noticed that 3-4 of our 8 kitties has bad chin acne, which I know is caused by my laziness. I took Gracie in first with me to work and sedated her and cleaned up her chin-which was really bad . After a few days her chin is looking much better and she seems to feel better too! On Monday I took in Melody to treat her as well, her chin was pretty bad and after sedating her, shaving her chin and completly cleaning up all the blackheads and acne I thought she too would heal in a few days. But the next day when I went to take a look and clean it with some warm water I not only came out with a bloody stump of a finger but her chin is jet black and all crusty. I have tried now for several days to help her clean it up and get all the crusties off, but all I end up with is another bite wound to the hand. I have not seen this before and she is not typically a "biter" with me, so I know it must bother her. Any suggestions on what I can do to treat her without sedation again-which I may have to do if she is not willing to cooperate. I would try my old tried and true method of Stridex pads but since her chin looks soo raw I hate to do that since they sting a little. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated! Thanks!

I don't have any suggestions. I've never had to deal with this. But maybe you could let it calm down for a day or so and they try the stridex pads?

Aww, the poor things! What kind of bowls are they using? Plastic, ceramic?

I used to use plastic till I read about how bad they are, so I switched to ceramic and that has helped tremendously when I remember to clean them, which I try to do every other day or so. Stainless steel seem to frighten my kitties so I stick with the ceramic, and usually no problem. It seems to be the older kitties who have the problem, not the younger ones, and when I mean older we are only talking 4 yrs old, not like they are geezers or anything. Just a wierd little thing I noticed, why not the kittens???

I've not had any experience with this personally, but I used to work at a dept store with a Clinique counter. We had a customer come in for Clinique's antibacterial face soap and said she had the best luck with using it on her cat's acne. I've used it myself and it is very gentle and mild so I don't think it would sting.

Stupid question.... but how often are you meant to wash their dishes?

I don't know how often you're supposed to wash them, but I wash our cats dishes everyday.

Saki had a bit of chin acne before when I was using plastic and not cleaning them enough. His wasnt too bad so I would use a warm wet washcloth and a mild soap to clean his chin every day. It cleared up on its own and I now use glass or ceramic bowls and I wash them every other day.

Maybe some cats put their chins against the sides of the bowls and some dont. That might be why some will have the problem and others dont.

I'm sorry that you and your kitties are going through such a rough time. The acne sound extremely painful if your kitty is actually biting you when you clean it. My vet recommends Chlorhex-hexasol. You just mix it with water and apply with a cotton ball. It is soothing unlike Stridex. Stridex is harsh and I'm know it really stings. Maybe you could get Chlorhex-hexasol from your local vet.

Originally Posted by SiberianLuv

I'm sorry that you and your kitties are going through such a rough time. The acne sound extremely painful if your kitty is actually biting you when you clean it. My vet recommends Chlorhex-hexasol. You just mix it with water and apply with a cotton ball. It is soothing unlike Stridex. Stridex is harsh and I'm know it really stings. Maybe you could get Chlorhex-hexasol from your local vet.

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I agree that using a non-stinging solution would be better and maybe kitty won't bite. Can you hold her in your lap with her bum next to your tummy and stroke her chin with the solution? Pet her a bit first and talk softly to her to help keep her calm. It's worth a try. But you'll have to have the pad with the solution on it handy.

As for cleaning the bowls, I bought 8 or 9 of them so I never use the same dish twice. The dirty ones go through the dishwasher each day. Even if I feed half their dinner at 6 pm and give them a bit more before bedtime, I use a clean bowl. If you went to a dollar store you could probably get a bunch of glass or ceramic bowls for next to nothing and keep them in a separate area just for the cats. That's what I do. I would also suggest glass over ceramic as over time ceramic can get hairline cracks in the finish and hold bacteria.

Thanks for the suggestions-I will try the Chlorhex rinse instead. Unfortunatly-Melody also has the nickname of "Monster" in this household as she turns into one whenever she does not want to be messed with. I have just let her go for the last few days and it seems as though things are starting to clear up and she is less sensitive to the touch. I was able to take a good look at her yesterday and she even let me scratch her chin-so I may try today to see if a warm washcloth with a mild Chlorhexidine soap will take care of the problem.

As for the bowls, I was in the habit of washing them atleat once a week in the dishwasher and by hand every other day or so, but with our recent move and a baby on the way, life has become a little more difficult. I would go and get more bowls but there is just not enough cupboard space to keep spare bowls for 8 kitties. I am hoping that now that we are back into the routine of things, and getting their chins cleaned up this won't be a problem anymore. I also try to replace their bowls once a year, but that can get expensive as well-Each kitty gets 2 bowls of their own-one for wet and one for dry food-only because all 8 of mine are special needs kitties and require daily medications that are placed in the food for convienence. But I will look and see if there are some glass bowls that may work for the next time I need to replace them.