Chin Acne.

with open wounds i bathe them in salt water, but best get it checked out at a vet?

First of all you must make sure you are not putting his food and water on plastic, or in plastic as that is the cause of feline acne. You need to use glass or stainless steel and for a place matt, I use fabric ones.

For cleaning his chin mix together hydrogen peroxide and water, and clean it gently, dabbing, no rubbing, no more than twice a day.

The feline acne that my cat had looks like long blackheads and black soot on the chin. Bleeding and infection are results of them scratching it. IF you never saw the black sooty looking stuff, you may have something else. IF the above recommendations don't seem to make a difference, a vet visit is in order.

good luck

What are his dishes sitting on? If it is kitty acne, there is plastic somewhere. His bed? My cat got it from me using a plastic placematt. his dishes were glass as well.

You need to wash them everyday for a cat who is prone to acne, especially the food bowls. Their chins will rub against the bottom of the bowl when they eat and therefore develop acne. Its best to keep their bowls as clean as possible to avoid the acne.

Our food dishes are never used twice before being washed. I bought about 10 of the stainless steel food dishes at the $1 store so after every meal the dishes are put in the dishwasher for cleaning and sterilization.

My guys have clean dishes with every meal, (twice a day) and the water dish is rinsed with hot water and refilled twice a day. probably into the dishwasher twice a week.

Well, I am totally lazy and feed my cats on disposable picnic plates...otherwise it would be glass or ceramic, and yes they must be washed after every meal. I'm not crazy about stainless steel, because it holds an electric charge and can give your cat a static jolt. But as long as it's polished and not brushed, it won't hold bacteria.

If the acne is bad (and sounds like it is), then you may already be to the stage where the vet needs to sedate him and treat the acne (not a pleasant task for either the cat or the vet!). The area will be shaved, so it will be easier to keep clean afterwards. Antibiotics may be needed in rare cases.

I'm not convinced that all cats go through the "black speck" stage; or that on a non-white cat that the average person would ever notice it. A lot of times it isn't noticed isn't until there are abscesses that burst.

I've also seen cases where there was no plastic involved. So there aren't really any hard and fast rules about it. For instance, acne is not supposed to be contagious either, but when I was in vet school both of my cats developed it. The clinicians at the vet school were so excited about that, they insisted on biopsying the first cat!

In general, my home treatment plan would be to (1) get rid of plastic dishes (you already know that!), (2) get rid of dry food (the oil and bacteria on the surface is a big factor), (3) wash daily with a cloth dipped in warm water with Betadine (povidone iodine) diluted to the color of weak tea, and (4) try a dose of homeopathic Silicea 30C, the main remedy for abscesses.

Now that I think about it, I've almost never seen acne come back after it was beaten. So there's light at the end of that tunnel!

Hi Dr. Jean,

Where do you buy the Betadine and the Silicea 30C?

My cat Matilda has had acne since I adopted her in October. She has always had stainless steel bowls that I put in the dishwasher after each feeding. It started as black specks, so vet gave me chlorhexidine. Didn't really help so they shaved her chin and gave me cerumene and I used that with the chlorhexidine every day. Then in November it turned into full blown zits so she started Clavamox combined with the chlorhexidine & Animax ointment. The Clavamox sort of helped for a bit, and then it didn't. We've tried a few rounds of Clavamox and had used up 2 tubes of the Animax. In January most of the big cystic bumps burst and drained (ick) and now her chin is mostly just the black specks with a few residual bumps. My vet wants to biopsy her chin.

Nobody has ever mentioned the dry food possibly being the issue, but that makes sense. That stuff is greasy! Right now she eats dry in the morning and wet at night, except for maybe 1-2 days a week she'll have wet food for both feedings. Also, in mid-February I switched her to a completely grain-free diet to see if it would help. (Her dry food is the Natural Balance stuff now but I was going to switch it to the Wellness Core when she ran out because I just found a pet store near me that sells it. Her wet food is typically either Wellness grain-free flavors, Solid Gold, or the Natural Balance grain-free flavors).

I tried Rescue Remedy & Feliway incase the acne was stress related but nothing changed.


I have heard that 100% witch hazel is good for treating the inflamed bumps (the kind without any alcohol)? Any truth to this in your experience?

Here's the safety data sheet info on 86% witchhazel:
Potential Acute Health Effects:

• Hazardous in case of eye contact (irritant), of ingestion, of inhalation.
• Slightly hazardous in case of skin contact (irritant, permeator).

Since you'd be applying it directly under the cat's eyes/nose, not only would it be obnoxious, but also dangerous. I doubt the cat would give you a second chance to apply it, either!

Betadine--any grocery store or pharmacy
Silicea--any natural health store

All dry food is sprayed with fat, so IMHO every one's as bad as the other for this problem.

The fact about the link between dry food and acne was new to me, and explains why Mellie used to get acne periodically, but hasn't gotten it at all since she's gotten completely off dry food. Yet one more good reason to go wet.

You're right! I've said it all along, but I will add this to my list of dry food evils!

Interesting...

The Els (an all white cat) gets the occassional black head (still considered feline acne?) on her chin. This perpetuates my picking fetish and usually results in a wrestling match between the two of us until I'm able to pin her and give it a good squeeze. POP it goes, typically leaving a hole in her chin, followed by a much-relieved cat (and owner).

Yes indeed! For me. the task of cleaning up a chin under anesthesia does include at least a few of these satisfying events!