Dirty looking spots on chin

i just discovered that my 5month old kitty has a lot of dark scabby looking bumps on his chin, after searching the web, I think it is Feline Acne. Apparently this is quite common . I ran my finger over his chin and little dark flakes like dirt came off. Anybody have experience with this? I already use china feeding bowls, and stainless steel water bowls and wash them out daily.

Three cat night said:

 I ran my finger over his chin and little dark flakes like dirt came off.

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 I sounds almost as parasite poo...  If you wet down these flakes, do the water gets red-colored?

Is your kitten pure inside?

I'd put them in water - if they turn red, as Stefan pointed out, it's flea dirt. If not, it's most likely acne.

Are the china bowls actually china, or ceramic? Ceramics can develop minute cracks in the glaze that can harbor bacteria. I use glass bowls for everything.

To treat acne, buy 500ppm colloidal silver. Wet a cotton ball with the CS and dab it on the acne 4-5x a day. This should clear it up in a day or two.

If it comes back after switching to glass dishes, the problem could be the food kitty's eating.

This is the colloidal silver I use:
I think some people have cleared up acne on their cats by using a wash with Hibiclens twice a day? That's available at most pharmacies in the U.S., if that's where you're located.

My kitties are indoor only. I checked the flakes out and it isn't flea dirt. I think it's acne. Going to get some glass bowls for the food and I had already bought a bag of buffalo Blue grain free to change the food , they were eating EVO & simply nourish, but one is sooo expensive , the other I was not happy with because the ingredients were not great and they did not love it anyway. I am going to try the hibiclens and if it's not clearing up will move to the c silver. I saw some recommended treatments were hydrogen peroxide and alcohol as a cleaning agent. This seems too strong and I would imagine it. Might burn. I hope these bumps don't hurt, he is not acting like it does but you know kitties and their ability to hide pain. Will keep you posted

Alcohol hurts, I use Phisoderm twice daily on kitty acne breakouts.

Luckily no breakouts in years since switching to stainless steel dishes.
 

My cat use to have acne when we used plastic bowls so we switched to ceramic and applied hydrogen peroxide with a cotton ball, which worked pretty well. He would still occasionally get it, but it completely went away when we moved from San Diego to Northern Nevada. Not sure if the climate is why it went away or if it was just age.
 

I noticed this on my kitties too when I was scratching my one cat's chin and ended up digging out what looked like a black head. I thought, "Wait, wha? Do cats get acne?" Apparently they do, and I've noticed it in two of my kitties. Mostly on the chin, but also once in a while on the upper lip near the whiskers. I only notice it on my female cat because she, for some reason, has almost no fur on her chin. Take this with a big grain of salt, but if I recall correctly, some folks here discussed feline acne before and I do believe Stridex pads can help eliminate acne along with switching to metal bowls. My cats must be confused as heck about it. "I'm 56 years old (in cat years), never went through puberty and NOW I get acne? What's this all about?"

RuneKeeper said:

I noticed this on my kitties too when I was scratching my one cat's chin and ended up digging out what looked like a black head. I thought, "Wait, wha? Do cats get acne?" Apparently they do, and I've noticed it in two of my kitties. Mostly on the chin, but also once in a while on the upper lip near the whiskers. I only notice it on my female cat because she, for some reason, has almost no fur on her chin. Take this with a big grain of salt, but if I recall correctly, some folks here discussed feline acne before and I do believe Stridex pads can help eliminate acne along with switching to metal bowls. My cats must be confused as heck about it. "I'm 56 years old (in cat years), never went through puberty and NOW I get acne? What's this all about?"

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Stridex pads hurt, and they are super drying to the skin. Acne cleansers are much better, less pain and not terribly drying.

It really doesn't sound like flea dirt - that tends to fall easily out of the coat and is a very distinctive shape.  If was a betting type my money would be on acne.

Three cat night said:

My kitties are indoor only. I checked the flakes out and it isn't flea dirt. I think it's acne. Going to get some glass bowls for the food and I had already bought a bag of buffalo Blue grain free to change the food , they were eating EVO & simply nourish, but one is sooo expensive , the other I was not happy with because the ingredients were not great and they did not love it anyway. I am going to try the hibiclens and if it's not clearing up will move to the c silver. I saw some recommended treatments were hydrogen peroxide and alcohol as a cleaning agent. This seems too strong and I would imagine it. Might burn. I hope these bumps don't hurt, he is not acting like it does but you know kitties and their ability to hide pain. Will keep you posted

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I've read the entire thread so far. Sounds like acne to me. Swiffer had it several years ago when I used plastic feeding bowls. I switched to stainless bowls, cleaned the acne with Phisoderm (It was that or Hibicleanse. The vet gave it to me and I don't remember which one it was) and voile'. No acne in any of the kitties since.

Feline acne can be very painful for the cats. There are a few sources for getting it. I think the most popular ones are bacteria in / around the food bowl. I normally use the ceramic food bowls and not the plastic ones. Another source would be too much oil in the food. Seyah never had any issues with acne until I switched is food to a duck based food. The food had a lot of oil or fat in it or on it. Seyah started to get Acne and his chin got somewhat swollen from it. After a trip to the vet, the vet confirmed it was kitten acne and sent me home with some soap. The soap was a liquid called Mal-a-ket. It has Chlorhexidene in it which is a anti bacterial substance. The soap is mainly used for animals with skin issues for both fungal or bacteria issues. In any case I took a wet wash cloth and a few drops of soap and proceeded to clean his chin then rinse with clean water. I also tried to scrape as much of the superficial  stuff off. He really did not like that experience very much. On the next bag of food I changed back to the old stuff based on chicken and the problem went away. 

Leonard D.

spotted love savannahs

I have tried the cotton ball dipped in hydrogen peroxide , he is ok with this . Switching to stainless for everything they consume . Also clipped his nails so he won't scratch it. Still going to try the hibiclens soap. I noticed today when he drinks water his chin dips into the water with each lick, he is a real water lover( he just hears a faucet turn on and he is there) but I thought the immersed chin into the water was odd. My other cats don't do that.

My Charlie used to have acne on his white chin, very visible.  I switched to corning ware plates and ceramic bowls for the cats, and that seemed to clear it up.  I did notice that if I served him certain dry foods that appeared "greasy", it would reappear, but not as bad as the first time.  I used chlorhexaderm shampoo, a little on a wet cotton ball, rinsed with another cotton ball, dried with a third, got them all ready at once!  It worked really well, I could see the scabs come off and it didn't seem to bother him.  They also have a rinse in case your kitty won't stand still long enough, just apply.