Poor Baby Has Acne

Hello Everyone,

We took Whitey to th Vet yesterday because his chin was startinting to look dirty and when we wiped him it did not get any better. Found out he has feline acne. I would appreciate any tips from others in treating this. Our Vet told us to get Stridex Pads and wipe his chin with them every day. She also gave us fish oil to put in his food. Since I have 3 other cats I've decided to put the fish oil on the treats instead. The other 3 don't care for the fish oil food.

Thanks for any extra infor you may be able to pass along.
Donna

One of my cats has acne and I just use peroxide once a day.

Get rid of the plastic food/water bowls if you use them.
If you use ceramic, make sure there are no cracks in the glaze.
Bacteric thrives in dishes like that, even washed daily.

Best is glass or stainless steel, washed daily.

Stridex pad hurts, I know, I use them
Peroxide hurts too, plus it can burn tender kitty skin.

What I did for my boys was wash their chins twice daily with pHisoderm and warm water.
1 sterile cotton ball with warm water in a circular motion to wet the chin and break loose some of the blackheads.
1 sterile cotton ball with the cleanser, scrubbing in a circular motion.
1 sterile cotton ball to rinse as thoroughly as possible.
and I then blotted them dry with a paper towel.

Originally Posted by Arlyn

Get rid of the plastic food/water bowls if you use them.
If you use ceramic, make sure there are no cracks in the glaze.
Bacteric thrives in dishes like that, even washed daily.

Best is glass or stainless steel, washed daily.

Stridex pad hurts, I know, I use them

Peroxide hurts too, plus it can burn tender kitty skin.

Click to expand...

Originally Posted by kitytize

One of my cats has acne and I just use peroxide once a day.

Click to expand...

If you do use peroxide, be sure to dilute it because as Arlyn wrote, the peroxide actually burns the tissue (even human tissue if you use it directly on broken skin).

And yes, get rid of plastic dishes and even if you have a plastic placemat under the dishes, get rid of that too. Ceramic is OK, but over time the glaze gets cracks and that harbours bacteria which can cause the acne. I bought about 8 stainless steel bowls at our local pet store. They were very inexpensive and I'm going to get a couple more the next time I'm there. I never use the bowl more than once before putting it in the dishwasher (that's why I need so many).

Saki gets a bit of acne occasionally. It was a lot worse when I had neglected to wash his bowls as often as I do now

I do as others posted, usually just scrub his chin lightly with a warm wet washcloth and a dab of antibacterial soap. Then use a very mild formula stridex pad.

i had no idea about kitty acne.
awesome so many of you have great info!

One of my girls has acne and she'll get a breakout on her chin every now and then. The vet suggested a soap to use on her chin. When she gets a pimple we change her bowls and wash her chin.

As others have said, pitch the plastic bowls and go to ceramic or stainless. Even with those, keep an extra set of bowls to rotate in and sterilize the bowls regularly in your dishwasher. If you don't do this, the acne will reappear over and over again.

I've had three cats with chin acne. Spooky had it so bad that it would turn into pus filled abcesses. I tried everything...changing from plastic to glass bowls, topical washes and antibiotics, systemic antibiotics, even a punch biopsy. Cleo's and Lola's were treated with topical washes and systemic antibiotics. All three cat's acne disappeared and never returned after a change in diet. Spooky was sensitive to red dyes in food. Cleo and Lola's both disappeared after switching them away from Purina One dry food. Food allergies can often present themselves as skin irritation, so if all of the other treatments don't work, you should consider switching foods to see if that could be the culprit.