Feline Acne Issues

My poor Bronco is dealing with a bad case of feline acne. One vet suggested using plain Listerine on it. Another vet suggested Stridex pads that have a main ingredient of benzoyl peroxide. They no longer make those however and all of them have a main ingredient of salicylic acid. Nothing seems to be working. He eats out of clean stainless steel bowls every day. I give him limited ingredient diet food as well because he already has food allergies. I'm at such a loss at this point. I think it may be time for yet another vet visit and inquirie about antibiotics. You can see it in the picture where he's looking up Vader. It's hard to get a closer picture because he's such a wiggle butt!

Link had feline acne when he was younger but his cleared up after we switched to stainless steel and glass bowls. That said, my vet at the time said if switching bowls alone didn't work to clean the area with a warm salt water solution and give him an omega 3 or 6 supplement because fatty acids help promote healthy skin. Good luck!

There are other acne treatments that contain benzoyl peroxide. If you go to a drug store the products are in the skin care area in cosmetics. The active ingredients are listed on the packaging. If I was not off work on medical rest until Thursday I would be able to help you find products. I am sure someone has pads with that main ingredient but I do not remember which ones off the top of my head. I know for sure that Walgreens has these products if there is one near you.

catlover73 said:

There are other acne treatments that contain benzoyl peroxide. If you go to a drug store the products are in the skin care area in cosmetics. The active ingredients are listed on the packaging. If I was not off work on medical rest until Thursday I would be able to help you find products. I am sure someone has pads with that main ingredient but I do not remember which ones off the top of my head. I know for sure that Walgreens has these products if there is one near you.

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Thank you so much for your help. I will check Walgreens! I just feel so bad for the little guy!

I would call your vet and make sure the amount of benzoyl peroxide in the products is the correct dosage before using them on your cat.

Make sure his WATER bowl isn't plastic as well, and that it gets thoroughly washed on a daily basis too. 

And, yes, sometimes this issues does require antibiotics.  Here's an article on it:  http://www.thecatsite.com/a/feline-acne

My cat has a bad case of feline acne right now too, and I still don't know what the cause is. My vet prescribed 4 different topical medications to put on her twice a day, as well as a shot of antibiotics that's supposed to last for 2 weeks. The vet instructed me to massage a benzoyl peroxide cream into her chin, followed by a warm compress for 10 mins (extremely difficult to accomplish with a wiggly cat), followed by antimicrobial/antifungal wipes, and then lastly massaging a 2% mupirocin ointment into her chin to leave on. I think doing all of these things have helped somewhat, but I wish I could see more improvement after a week. My vet wants to do a biopsy if it isn't significantly better by the 2 week marker and that makes me feel really uncomfortable.  

Since your kitty's acne doesn't seem quite as bad, you can try natural remedies like dabbing apple cider vinegar onto the chin. I have also read about colloidal silver working for feline acne too. I haven't tried either of these yet, but I think I will pretty soon if the prescription strength stuff doesn't work. I would recommend reading up on those!