Other causes of chin acne? Litter?

To make a long story short, my one cat seems to have problems with corn, which the WBCL would set off. I noticed it leaves dust on the paws which they then lick off. It would be a simple test for you to try out a non-corn-based litter for a few months.

I hate clay liter myself, and there's many litter alternative threads on this site. The hardwood based stove pellets (check for chemical free) work good and are a lot cheaper than the ones marketed officially as cat litter.

It doesn't seem to be your foods, although some cats can have reactions to certain species.

I've had a chin acne prone cat react to the plastic place mats that I had under the ceramic food bowls. Cats with white chins seem to be more prone to acne than other cats. Even with constant cleaning, my cat has outbreaks from time to time.

Best thing is to change things up one item at a time until you find what is causing this. All you can do is clean in the meantime.

Plastic and some glazes on ceramic here...

I was happy to see this thread, not that your cat is battling chin acne, but because I am having an issue with three cats as well. All with white chins, BTW. Pipsqueak's got so bad it turned into Folliculitis and he has been on Baytril for four weeks now. Perkins and Perla are fine for a few days then the black dirt shows up again. .... It has been really, really frustrating.

I have changed diets, went from ceramic to stainless, got rid of the Platinum water fountain, wash place mats, changed detergents that I wash their dishes in. Their chins are cleaned with Hibiclens (from Walgreens and recommended by another member) and I even apply Mupirocen ointment. Now their chins ARE much improved and Perla is pretty much over it. But after a few days, she has some dirt again and I just wash her chin. Perkins still gets washed each day and ointment every other day. Pipsqueak is a daily wash with ointment. All the cats are very good for the washing's and I am very lucky about that.

You bring up a very, very interesting point. The cat litter....... I used to use
WBCL and changed to Dr. Elsey's Precious cat litter/Cat Attract litter when I added the two new rescue boys back in June. The chin acne did start after the addition of the new litter. I wonder if the clay is a problem for these cats. the problem is that they all love this litter much better than the "corn-based" litter. I am thinking of trying another brand of clay litter to see if the chins completely clear up.

thanks for bringing up this point. I have been racking my brain trying to find the cause for weeks now.

My cat was suffering from some chin acne problems before and I discovered that allergies did play a role in it, so I wouldn't be surprised if WBCL might be the culprit. Cat litter is definitely something to look into.

Also, our holistic vet had told us during the time we were going through this, that some cats she has seen can react even to stainless steel - she recommended glass and that's what we always use now.

Often stubborn chin acne is a result of dental problems. Once the cat has a dental cleaning the acne goes away.

I, too use glass for food and water for cats. Make sure the glass is marked "Made in USA". Other glass may contain high levels of lead.

Another thing to consider is where/how they sleep. My Twitch (white) has had problems w/ chin acne, as has Lola (tortie). They both drool in their sleep & both sleep on hard surfaces. It was theorized the drool was contributing, so we put out more blankets in their favorite places to sleep (window sills) & the acne has greatly decreased. Just another thought.

All that "scrubbing" some posters mention could possibly be doing more harm than good, causing irritation and making the acne worse and more painful to the cat.

For those of you using soap to wash dishes, stop using soap. It's not needed. Just scrub the (made in USA) glass dishes in scalding hot water and air dry. Soap residue is difficult to get rid of and the tiniest bit of soap could be the cause of chin acne in cats.

Keep two sets of dishes so you always have a clean set at meal time. Never leave dirty dishes to sit out, pick them up and clean them as mentioned above, as soon as the cat walks away from the dish. Never leave food sitting out.

Free fed kibble is covered in bacteria after the first time the cat eats from the dish. Saliva gets all over the remaining kibble. Touch kibble after the cat eats, if you need proof.

Never put fresh food in a dirty dish, never put fresh food over old food.