Feline Acne Keeps Coming Back

I am going to discuss this with my vet when I take Snowball in for a routine veterinary exam sometime this month, but I also wanted to ask here.

Snowball is 10 1/2 years old and he has always been given food and water in plastic or cermic dishes which are cleaned weekly. For the past 9 or 10 months he has continual problems with feline acne and this has never happened before. I haven't made any changes in how I handle cleaning his feeding bowls. About 6 months ago the vet gave me some Panolog Cream and this works really well, but as soon as one problem area is cleared up another one appears. Does anyone know why feline acne is suddenly such a problem now and also if the vet puts Snowball on antibiotics will further outbreaks be prevented?????

Do you by chance feed Snowball that hairball remedy food or just the hairball stuff in general? Sometimes that can trigger a bad case of acne because of the oil in it. Also, you might try just scrubbing the area with full strength hydogen peroxide, just scrub gently, then dry it afterwards. If snow is going to be put on long-term antibiotics, you might ask the vet to do a sensitivity test first to make sure there will be no adverse reaction to it. There are also special scrubs your vet can give you to wash the area out with, though I can't recall the name at this time. Good luck. Also it could be stress induced and giving kitty a flower remedy might help as well.

Thanks for all the helpful information Hissy!

Plastic feeding dishes are known to harbor bacteria even if cleaned daily. My suggestion is to switch to stainless steel and wash them in hot water (as hot as you can stand) and soap after every feeding.

I had a Siamese who was very prone to acne. The Panalog cream is good, but a good thorough cleaning with soap and water first is mandatory. I used Ivory soap (any mild soap will do), and finished off with a little hydrogen peroxide on a cotton ball, then applied the Panalog cream. I also threw out all the plastic and ceramic feeding dishes, and bought a set of stainless steel ones. I never had another problem with this particular cat.

Hope this helps,

Gaye

Just wanted to add that both my kitties had acne and I ended up getting rid of all their plastic bowls and now use regular dishes/bowls and have never had a problem since.

Trust me...get rid of the plastic...it will go away...good luck

Debbi

Lorie - I would just say to clean the bowls out more often. I clean all mine (even water) every morning with anti-bacterial washing-up liquid - non-scented - and the bowls which have tinned meat in twice daily, especially now it's warmer.