Conference misery::feline

    Marnie (a shorthair) had acne.  It can be caused by eating out of
    plastic bowls.  We changed all our bowls to ceramic or glass and the
    acne hadn't reoccurred.  We took Marnie to the vet's and got an cream
    to put on it.  I don't remember the name.  My late cat, Boomie had acne
    also.  It doesn't seem to be contagious since the other 3 never got it
    from Marnie.
    
    Good luck,
    Steffi

    Amelia had acne at one time too.  It was the plastic bowls that
    cause her's to.  We use glass/ceramic now and haven't had any
    problems.  I believe I used her Panalog ointment to help clear
    up her chin but I'd go with whatever your vet recommends.
    
    Jan

    Sandy,
    
    In order to get ride of the acne, do the following:
    
    Take a cotton swab (those make up pads work the best) and soak it in
    alcohol.
    
    Then take the cat and hold it firmly.  Take the alcohol soaked swab and
    hold it against their chin.  Kind of soaking it for a few minutes.
    
    Then take a flea comb and comb the area with the acne.  The black heads
    should come out with the flea comb.  
    
    Make sure that you wash the area afterward with water.  That way the
    cat doesn't ingest the alcohol.
    
    And be sure that Lightning and Dejavu eat out of GLASS or CERAMIC bowls
    from now on.  It should stop the acne.
    
    Holly 
    

    Holly,
    
    Are you actually suggesting that any cat is going to allow you close
    enough to put alcohol on his chin?  Not in my house at least!!
    
    If I only take the alcohol bottle out from the cabinet Holly will stand
    even a few feet a way an do this squint the eyes routine.  Get near
    her? Not in this lifetime!!  You just had to be there a couple weeks
    ago when I had to do the SubQ fluids, which required alcohol, she just
    about flipped out each time I opened the alcohol bottle!
    
    Lyn

Glass bowls are not a cure-all.  One of my three, Jeremiah, has had a pretty
serious case of acne for several months now, in spite of the fact that I
changed to glass bowls as soon as I detected the problem.  I've been to the
vets twice for it, and it just isn't going away.  My foot is in a cast, so
it's nearly  impossible for me to grab him sometimes.  The current treatment
is to wash his chin with Dial anitbacterial liquid soap, then some antibiotic
ointment   followed by some noxious liquid medicine.  The acne has caused
"deforestation" of his chin and a lot of his upper lip.  This has been a
pretty frustrating experience.  BTW, my vet says it isn't contagious.  This
is probably true since my other two guys show no sign of any problems.  The
total bill so far for vet treatments: $100.

-Patrick

    re .4
    
         Gee, Loki *loves* the smell of alcohol - he reacts to it like
    catnip, getting "drunk" on the smell.  As he's diabetic with twice
    daily shots, he gets twice daily "drunk"'s too.  A happy tabby indeed
    8*) .
    
    					- Andrea

    Ok, here's my two cents worth. I've never had one of my own cats get
    acne, but I've had to treat a few at the shelter. We put Hydrogen
    Peroxide on it with a cotton ball. It seems to have cleared up all the
    cases we've had. This is what the vet told us to do by the way. ;-)
    
    Jan, I can't believe there isn't another note in here dedicated to
    this! ;-) I did look by the way. 8-) Might I be thinking o fthe old
    file?
    
    Love,
    
    Yonee

    RE: Yonne
    
    Uh, see my reply??  Alcohol or Hydrogen Peroxide.  Whatever you have
    works great! (-:
    
    Holly
    

    Holly,
    
     It's Monday. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ignore you. I just must have
    been braindead as usual. ;-) 
    
     I was thinking of the difference in the smells between the peroxide
    and the alcohol, and I must have just become brain locked yet again!
    8-}
    
     Now, get out of my head! ;-)
    
    Love,
    
     Yonee

    I looked too Yonee, must be the old file.  My how you do keep me on
    my toes, girl.
    
    Jan

	Squeeky has been suffering from acne as well. All the kids bowls
	are ceramic, I think she's just too lazy to clean her chin! I have
	been using betadine on it, then if I can still hang onto her long
	enough, panalog. I don't think this is ever going to go completely 
	away, it seems like an ongoing problem. Betadine must be rinsed off,
	by the way, it can be an irritant. Plus her pretty tuxedo gets a 
	little, uh, yellow...

I'm still having trouble with Jermiah.  This acne is like a forest fire,  it
just keeps spreading in a continually enlarging  circle.  I've decided to try
just hydrogen peroxide for a while, since putting ointments on (veterinarian
supplied) just make his face all the more greasy.  It's spread to his upper
lip now pretty badly.  He hates anything I do to him such that he now runs
whenever I even want to just pet him.  Frustrating....

-Patrick

On the several occassions that Mosa has had feline acne, I've cut off a little
piece of an ALOE plant, and rubbed the sticky substance under her chin.
It always worked fine.  I must have read that in some book somewhere, I'm
sure it's not something I just "thought" up.

Anyway, it always worked.

Diana

    Have any of you changed the cat's food?  One of my cats got what
    appeared to be acne on his chin when I switched to a different brand of
    food.  When I went back to the old standby, it cleared up
    (clarification, it took a couple of weeks to appear, and a couple of
    weeks to disappear once the food was switched).  In the meantine, I
    washed their bowls with hot, sudsy water before each feeding, just so a
    greasy bowl wouldn't aggravate the condition.  I use glass bowls also.
    I used peroxide to clean it.  When I had acne, my dermatologist said to
    NEVER use alcohol, since it dries the skin too much, irritates it, and
    causes it to produce excess oil to try to repair itself.  I figure,
    acne is acne, so whatever worked for me would be OK for the kids. Good
    luck.
    Sarah

Jeremiah is improving greatly on just the peroxide treatment.  Almost all of
the "sores" are gone, and we're left with only the scaly acne now, and that's
getting less and less.  He still hates the treatment, but it seems to be
working.


-Patrick

    Here's my two cents worth, from experience.
    
    I use OxyDex shampoo which is created especially for dogs and cats.
    The bowl switching and washing was also done.  The OxyDex does the
    trick very well but for a hard core case, the cat should be placed on
    antibiotics combined with the shampoo.  All you need to do is to put 
    a small amount of it on a wet wash cloth and gently scrub/wash the
    chin.  Then rinse the cloth and wipe clean several times.  Once or
    twice a day for however long should do it! 
    Karen

I second the recommendation for Oxydex.  The stuff is absolutely wonderful!  I
tried using alcohol as well as human acne medication and although my kitty's
blackhead looked better at times, it never completely went away.  The vet
gave me the Oxydex ointment (not the shampoo as in .16) on her last vet visit 
and explained that using it would bring everything to the surface and boy, it
sure did.  One day I looked at her blackhead and it looked HUGE, and I thought,
"this stuff isn't working at all, the blackhead has doubled in size!"  Well,
upon closer examination, I realized that the blackhead had broken.  One wipe
with a tissue and the whole thing disappeared, and there was Laverne's little 
white chin which I hadn't seen in a long, long time!