From Loving Furball To Maniac & Back Again

My cats and I lived at my mother's house for about two weeks while my apartment was being made ready. During that time I noticed that my girl Angel became increasingly hostile towards me. She would growl ferociously every time I picked her up, and was extremely irritable towards everybody. She would also hide more than usual. My mother and brother grew concerned about this and asked me if I shouldn't just take her to the Humane Society. One night I picked her up, ignoring the growling (yeah, I know, dumb me) and I started examining her. It didn't take long to find out that she had a nasty looking cluster of acne under her chin. Angel, Ruby and Rocky eat out of ceramic dishes that I wash twice a day. I've had Angel for seven years, and this had never happened before, so it was probably stress related, because of the sudden move.

I started applying very warm wet towels to her chin and and I wiped her chin down with Clearsil acne pads, which didn't seem to help. I read somewhere that aloe vera gel is very good for feline acne, so I started using that once or twice a day and I saw immediate improvement. I also dosed everybody up with a vitamin C tablet, a fish oil capsule, and a vitamin E capsule once a day. Angel's acne and her disposition improved in a couple of days, and she stopped growling. My mother and brother were still trying to convince me to get rid of her, and they didn't believe me even after I told them she growled because she was in pain. Now they think she's the devil incarnate--my folks are obviously not cat people.

Anyway, my point is--if your normally loving furball suddenly turns into a raving maniac there's usually a physical reason for it. If the reason is not readily apparent, like acne, then a vet visit is certainly in order. I love my family, but I'm glad I didn't listen to them.

I am glad you were able to find the problem and fix it!

I'm glad it was so obvious, too. She's usually the first one out of the cat carrier, investigating everything. She's so set in her ways now I think that the Humane Society would have been a death sentence for her. I can see her now, backed into a corner of a cage, hissing at EVERYBODY!

Angel had the double whammy - a health problem and a change in her household. Moving also stresses out a cat and hopefully with her acne under control and once settled into your new apartment, things should go better for you.

Don't underestimate what a change in location can do to your cat's stress levels. You sometimes need to do reintroductions in a multi-cat household while they become accustomed to the new digs and find their territory once again.

OH, NOOOOOO!

I kind of figured that! I'm headed out to Petsmart this weekend anyway, and I might just pick up a can of that Feliway spray. I've never tried it, but I've heard so many good things about it.

Instead of the spray see if you can get the room mister. It's called Comfort Zone by Farnum Pet and it works great! A steady release of pheremones into the room.

Wow, I've never even heard of feline acne. What does it look like?

Oh, it's some nasty looking stuff! Angel had black scaly bumps at first. It's usually underneath on the chin area. The more you treat it, the better it looks. Now the skin looks halfway normal, but it's still bumpy.

Dar hissy:

thanks for the tip about the Comfort Zone mister!