HELP! What's happening to my cat?

My cat's name is Molly and she is about 2 years old. She has what looks like a rash on her chin/ lower jaw line, it's red, swelling, has miniscule black spots that could be scabs, she has hair loss in that area, and as I just looked, it's bleeding slightly. We've tried cleaning her chin at first with baby wipes because we thought she had just picked off a scab, but the "rash" returned and I'm really worried. I would take her to the vet but I can't afford a visit right now because we don't have insurance and we haven't gotten paid yet. She's my family's pride and joy and i want her as healthy as possible. Can anybody help please?

Hmm, not sure. Do you have a picture? It could be chin acne. What kind of bowl do you use to feed her? If it's plastic, that could be the cause if not washed really well after use.

Your cat has kitty acne, make sure you are not using plastics bowls for water or food. You can just scratch your kitty under the chin and that will take the scabs off. You will also need to get a warm wash rag with a little soap and wash your cats chin several times a day. If this keeps getting bad your vet will give you a cream to put on, but you still need to do the above. Most cats just do not clean that area well and get bacteria and it looks like blackheads or if they are real bad red and/or with pus.

Thank you everybody, that sounds exactly like what is going on. I washed her chin with the warm rag last night and it's already starting to look a bit better. I use ceramic bowls because I heard about the allergy cat's have towards plastic. But I will make sure to still regularly clean out her bowls, thanks again to everybody who helped!

My calico, Mattie, had that. The vet told me buy Stridex cleansing pads at the drugstore and use them to clean her chin. In just a day or two, it was all gone.

My roommate's cat (that I take care of) had that for a few weeks, it was hard to get under control because I didn't have the liberty of washing her dishes out daily, plus she would always drink out of her dog's dirty plastic water bowl. She never had the bumps, just the black specks all over her chin, really badly though, like if you scratched at it black specks would come off on your finger and have hair attached. And she would scratch at it daily so obviously it irritated her. I started cleaning her chin last week with apple cider vinegar and it appears to be gone already! I don't like using chemicals and things (on myself or pets) so the apple cider vinegar is a good option if you're hesitant to use another product. (it works on people acne too