Cat Chin Acne?

I have a short haired, strictly indoor cat. Sometimes she gets food in her beard. she is also a very skittish cat who won't let me near her face to clean her chin. I bought some bath wipes but she won't let me near her face with them. Sometimes her chin looks normal but sometimes it looks like she has chin pimples! Should I take her to a groomer? Do groomers give cats baths? I thought you couldn't give a cat a bath. I know I couldn't do it by myself. She hates being picked up. Any suggestions?

Does she happen to eat out of plastic bowls? This is a very common cause of feline acne.

I was about to ask that too! Does your cat not bathe herself properly and remove the food while she does it?

No, she has stainless steel bowls and I usually give her wet food on a paper plate. (Easy to clean up) She doesn't scratch her chin with her paws so it must not itch. She has white fur on her beard. Some days it looks normal but other days it looks like she has pink spots like pimples.

She is dragging her chin in the food, try elevating your food bowls, and scrub the area under the chin out gently a couple of times a day with hydrogen peroxide on cotton balls.

I have had great success with Baby Magic and a washcloth. My vet also told me for flare ups that Stridex Sensitive Skin pads (there is no alcohol in the sensitive skin formula) work very well on her pets and to use those for flair ups.

My Logan is pretty skiddish too, but my husband holds him while I scrub his chin a few times with the baby soap. I would try that first, and if it doesnt get better, ask your vet what they recommend to treat it with.

Let us know how it goes

Unfortunately a single cleaning by a groomer doesn't work on acne. The advise is right - you need to clean her chin a few times a day as described above. If you start out gently with just a whipe or 2 at a time, you may build up her trust to do it more often and longer.

And I don't know what it is, but cats with white chins just seem to have acne far more than other cats.

Thanks, I'll try some of those to clean her chin. She lets me rub under her chin sometimes and there aren't any actual bumps, just some red spots I usually can only see when she's right in the sunlight. Do they have to be bumps to be cat acne? I will try and clean it for the next week or so and if it's not gone, off to the vet we go.

My cat gets acne occasionally. It often appears at first like coffee grounds on her chin. If untreated they can become large pimple like bumps that are painful and itch the cats. I had taken my cat to the vet about it and the put her on a feline face wash. After it hadn't cleaned up in a few days (her case was more advanced) she needed an antibiotic treatment. Her acne cleaned up soon after. I feed my cat from ceramic bowls. When she got her acne we were attempting to change her foods and the vet mentioned that it could have been a food allergy that caused the acne.

A quick phone call to your vet to describe the issue wouldn't hurt. He/she could advise you what to try at home first before a vet visit which is always stressful to our furry friends to be stuck in a kitty carrier.

Hmm, I just called me regular vet and they asked the doctor. Supposedly the only thing that works for chin acne is something called "Preg" a steriod in pill or injection form? That sounds a little bit much. I took her to a different vet when I adopted her (a vet by the shelter where the initial health visit was free). I'm going to call them for a second opinion. (They are a little farther away, but they have much better hours for me.)