December 6, 2023 • 20 mins
In this episode of ER VET, Dr. Justine Lee, DACVECC, DABT discusses what to do if your cat has acne. After all, cats DO get zits, and you can potentially treat and manage this at home! Find out all you need to know about cat acne in this episode!
SHOW NOTES: Can Cats Get Acne? What to Do About Feline Acne
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SHOW NOTES: Can Cats Get Acne? What to Do About Feline Acne
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/er-vet-stories-from-the-animal-er-pet-life-radio-original-petliferadio-com--6667836/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to er Venom pet Lake Radio. I'm your host
actor just Tine Lee, and I'm an emergency critical care
vetory specialist and a toxicologist. Thanks for joining us today.
We're going to be talking about feline action. So if
you have a cat and you've ever had ACNI before,
which all of us have had in our teenage years,
then you want to tune in. You especially want to
(00:47):
tune in if you're feeding from a stainless steel bowl.
So stay tuned. We'll be right back after these messages.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Take a bite out of your competition. Advertise your business
with an ad in Petlife Radio podcasts and radio shows.
There is no other pet related media that is as
large and reaches more pet parents and pet lovers than
pet Life Radio with over seven million monthly listeners. Pet
Life Radio podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms,
(01:18):
and our live radio stream goes out to over two
hundred and fifty million subscribers on iHeartRadio, Odyssey, tune In,
and other streaming apps. For more information on how you
can advertise on the number one pet podcast and radio network,
visit Petlifradio dot com, slash advertised today Let's.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Talk pets on petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Welcome back to earnbet on Petlife Radio. Really excited to
talk to you about feline acne. And you're probably wondering,
what can cats get zits? Yes, you've heard me right,
Cats can get acne and what can you do about it? Well,
believe it or not, feline acne can happen to any
(02:18):
age cat, and I will say most of the time
when I see it, it's usually around one year of age.
It can be totally sporadic. Sometimes it comes, sometimes it goes.
So no, your cat doesn't officially have to be a
teenager before they get acne. Now, acne is a little
bit hard to see, and I always joke that I
(02:39):
call feline acne catney. But when cats get acne, you
do actually want to treat it, and it's because it
is a medical problem. But unlike teenagers, feline acne isn't
linked to hormones. It's from having too much something called seboom,
which is almost like this oily substance, and it's actually
(03:01):
plugging the hair follicles, most commonly under the chin, and
this can result in a secondary infection. Now again this
isn't usually on the cheeks or the forehead the way
you think of with a teenager who has acne, is
not typically on the whole face. Cats typically get feline
acne just under the jaw and around the lips. And thankfully,
(03:23):
I hardly ever see feline acne in the veterinary er,
but general practitioners or family practitioners do see it more
frequently because this is something that's super mild. Again, you
do not need to go to the veterinary er just
because you notice that your cat has feline acne. However,
it does need to be treated. Now, thankfully, most cases
(03:45):
are pretty mild, but untreated it can be really uncomfortable
for your cat and it can be really painful too.
So let's step back again. Why do cats get acne? Again,
It's the fancy word for it is called follicular keratin isa,
and it's where they're producing too much of the protein
found in the outer layer of the skin. And when
(04:06):
this happens, guess what, it's basically blackheads that start to form.
Then they get these pimples, Then they get this inflammation
of the hair follicles, and again that can get a
secondary infection. Now we don't even know why cats will
get this. Sometimes it may be from stress, sometimes it's
from cats not grooming. Well, maybe it's due to allergies
(04:28):
or viral infection, or if you're cat's immunosuppressed, But there
hasn't been a really good link of what causes feline acne.
What there is is an association between feeding out of
plastic food bowls versus stainless steel versus ceramic, So there
is an association between feline acne and plastic food bowls. Now,
(04:50):
I will say I'm not a huge fan of feeding
from plastic, whether not you're a human or a two
or four legged number. And the reason why is because
plastic oftentimes, like when you wash it or scrub it,
it can develop these micro scratches in the plastic and
maybe that predisposes your cat or us to bacterial contamination.
(05:10):
So regardless of what the different hypotheses are for why
cats get feline acne, keep in mind we do want
to treat it. So, first of all, how do you
recognize the signs of feline acne. It's not quite as
obvious as it is in your teenager, because again, cats
have fur, So what are you going to look for.
(05:30):
First of all, you're gonna look for under your cat's chin.
There's sort of that V shaped area where your cat's
chin narrows down, and this is under the job. Whenever
I see this, I always like to put my two
fingers and feel under the chin, because we're feeling for
bumps under the skin, or even a swollen chin. Sometimes
you'll notice that your cat is rubbing their face on
(05:52):
a sofa and leaving bloody streaks. That's abnormal, okay, so
you definitely want to take a look there. So again,
a swollen chin, any kind of pain. When your cat
is being touched in the face or chin area. You
may notice some excessive head rubbing because it's uncomfortable, or
again that bloody tinged fluid that's being left behind on
furniture or bedding or the side of your sofa. You
(06:13):
may notice a really bad smell, and that usually means
there's is secondary infection. Maybe your cat is grooming a lot,
and oftentimes what you'll see is your cat's licking their
front legs and actually wiping it under their chin. That's
the best way they're going to clean their under their
chin area. Again, those classic bumps or that itchiness. So
now that you know what feline acne looks like, remember
(06:36):
you want to look at it carefully. You do not
want to pick it. Now, I will disclose I could
never be a veterinary dermatologist. Despite all the gory TV
shows out there about popping pibulls, I am not a popper.
I don't like to pop things. I don't like to
pop acne. I don't like to do it on myself.
I don't like to do it in animals either, And
(06:57):
I will say, if you see it, please don't pick
your cat's acne. Okay, we don't want to do that.
And you don't want to pop those black heads because
those follicles are probably inflamed and you're making them more
inflamed by squeezing them. And they're also super painful and
your cat doesn't understand why you're doing something painful to them.
So one in doubt. If you notice the signs of
(07:20):
chin acne or feline acne, get to a vet, do
some research, or use telemedicine or telehealth. You can even
take a picture of it and send it to your vetinarian,
but please don't pop it. All right, So how do
we diagnose feline acne. Now, there are a couple other
medical problems that can look like feline acne in older cats.
(07:41):
Sometimes we can see the rare, rare type of cancer
that can look similar. Sometimes it may be a different
type of mass or tumor Sometimes it could be an
immune problem where your cat's immune system may be attacking itself.
Sometimes it's a skin infection or even a fungal in
in really severe cases, it can even be a dental
(08:04):
problem where there's an infected tooth root and it can
actually cause similar looking lesions like a tooth root abscess.
So in really severe cases, your vet may need to
do some blood work or urine tests, or even X
rays or skin cultures or skin sitologies, or even take
a piece of tissue from it. So one in doubt,
(08:25):
if it's not going away, or you're not sure your
cat's not responding, you do want to go to a
vetn area to get it worked up, because again, most
of the time you can't actually treat feline acne at home.
So we'll talk about treatment in just a few minutes.
But what we talked about again so far, Remember cats
can get acne and it's not typically related to hormones.
(08:47):
We'll talk about what we can do to prevent it. Hintint,
in case you don't tune in, it's not feeding out
of plastic water bowls. Okay, you want to make sure
you check your cat and make sure they don't have
any of those bumps or weird smell or discharge coming
from the bottom of their chin. All right, So what
can we do about it? Well, first of all, when
(09:07):
it comes to feline acne, there are a few things
you can do to treat feline acne at home. The
first few that I'll talk about are feeding from a
ceramic food bowl or stainless steel bowl instead of a
plastic water bowl or a plastic food bowl. Why is
this going to help? Again, there is an association with
cats developing feline acne from plastic bowls. As soon as
(09:31):
you remove that plastic water bowl or food bowl, it
can help resolve that feline acne immediately. So again, I'm
always a huge advocate of getting a big enough bowl
where it's not going to let your cat's whiskers touch
both sides of the circumference of the bowl. Okay, pick
a nice ceramic one or nice stainless steel one and
Please make sure to watch this out at least once
(09:53):
a day or every other day, and that includes your
water bowls. I'm a big believer in making sure that
pets oh always have fresh water, So I always wash
the water bowl at least once or twice a week,
and I fill it up with filtered water. We always
want to do whatever we can to enhance your pet
drinking appropriately clean water. All right, what's the next thing
(10:14):
you can do? Well, you can gently wash your cats
chin to remove some of the scabs. Now, this will
also help remove some of that seboom or that oil
that forms on the skin. I generally try to do
this two or three times a day for a couple
of days. Again, please don't physically pick at the scabs. Okay,
you can gently wipe it away. There are a lot
(10:36):
of different types of almost like cotton pads that you
can use. You can use them to like exfoliate your
own skin. These are usually found by cotton balls. I
don't usually use cotton balls. I use these pads, and again,
this will help the scabs naturally fall off. So I
like to gently clean the area. Now, when it comes
to cleaning, you don't want to use anything with alcohol.
(11:00):
Remember during COVID when you were hand sanitizing hopefully and
you have a micro cut on your hand and you
realize how painful it is. Please do not use anything
that contains alcohol when cleaning that area. There's a lot
of inflammation and it's gonna hurt. So what I like
to do is I like to use witch hazel. I
will use witch hazel to gently blot away and wash
(11:21):
that chin area to remove the scabs. So I'll gently
wipe it. I'll blot the acne gently once or twice
a day. Try to do this for five to seven
days in a row. If it does not improve, then
you need to get to a veterinarian. Okay. The second
thing is you can actually use topical STRIDEX. Remember those
(11:41):
old STRIDEX pads that you used to use when you
had teenager acne. Well, guess what they worked on feline
acne also, So when using STRIDEX pads, you can actually
do the same thing. So again, don't pick, don't rip
off those scabs. Don't pick those scabs. Just gently, once
to two to three times a day use a STRIDEX
pad or a pad that you use with witch hazel
(12:04):
to gently block that area. We'll continue with this really
important topic right after these messages from our sponsors. Mollie,
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(12:56):
C A T t R E E t R A Y.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Let's talk past pet Life Radio Headline Radio.
Speaker 5 (13:08):
Pet live Radio dot com.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Welcome back to Ervet on pet Life Radio. We've been
talking about feline acne. I know, I know, it's not
the prettiest, sexiest topic, but cats get them and so
do our teenagers. What we've been talking about is how
cats can occasionally get feline acne, and if you're not
petting your cat or examining your cat, you may miss
the clinical signs. So what are some of the clinical signs. Again,
(13:49):
You're gonna notice any kind of bumps or swelling underneath
your cat's chin. You may notice some blackheads, some brown
or black discharge, or even blood tinge fluid in that area.
You may notice a terrible smell that's usually because there's
a secondary fungal or bacterial infection. Your cat may be
excessively grooming that area. And again, most of the time,
(14:12):
I don't want to see you in the vetnary er
for feline acne. Okay, this is one of the problems
that you can actually treat at home. And we talked
about some of the treatment that's going to include, stop
using plastic water bowls, stop using plastic food bowls, and
again use ceramic food bowls or stainless steel bowls. We
talked about getting those circular they're usually about one and
(14:33):
a half to two inch circular pads that you can
use to take off makeup at a grocery store. You
can use that and just wet it down with either
warm water or even witch hazel. Remember please do not
use alcohol. Don't use anything else except for the one
that I like, which are stridex acne pads. You can
gently block that area once or twice a day. Do
(14:55):
that consistently for a week. If it doesn't improve, you
need to get to a VAT. So what is your
veterinarian going to do? First of all, your veterinarian is
going to make sure it's not something more serious going on,
like a tooth root abcess or a rare cancer or
something else going on. If they examine your cat and
your cat isn't responding to a lot of the things
(15:16):
that you can try at home, then they may actually
prescribe you an anti fungal. Now, keep in mind, you
do not want to start antifungals unless your cat actually
has a fungal infection, because it can cause other problems. Okay,
so one in doubt, you may get a prescription from
your vetfro an antifungal. Now, if you've ever had jock
itch or ringworm, or any kind of fungal infection, you'll
(15:40):
notice that most anti fungal medications end with a zol
zl E. So drugs like my cot is all okay,
And that's because in the infected moist area underneath the
chin where the feline acne is, your cat can develop
a secondary yeast or fungal infection. Okay, so one in
(16:00):
doubt you may need a prescription for an antifungal. Now,
if you look at some websites, they'll say, oh, you
can do Epsen salt soaks. No, you can't do that.
Your cat is not going to tolerate having his chins
stuck in an ebsin salt soak. So again, I really
prefer the Stridex pads or using witch hazel. Those work
really well. Now, the one thing I did want you
to avoid please do not put essential oils in this area. Yes,
(16:25):
you heard me correctly, No T tree oil, No central
oils in this area. The main reason why is because
as a toxicologist I can rarely see severe even fatalities
or poisonings from t tree oil. There's actually a report
in the veterinary literature of a pet that died after
getting as little as seven to nine drops of a
(16:48):
concentrated tea tree oil. Now, please keep in mind I
said concentrated. That means like almost one hundred percent tea tree. Okay,
that's super concentrated. Now, if you guys have listened to
my episodes of Arvet before, you probably have heard me
talk about how cats are different. Of course they're different.
We love them because they're different. But their liver is different.
(17:09):
So cats cannot metabolize certain drugs well because they have
something fancy called altered glucoronidation in their liver. That just
means they're liver can't metabolize certain chemicals or drugs well.
Now keep in mind, because of that altered glucoronidation where
their liver can't metabolize things, cats are super super sensitive
(17:30):
to certain products, especially essential oils. So please do not
use any essential oils on your cat's feline acne. Yes
you can use stridex, Yes you can use witch hazel,
totally safe. Please do not use alcohol. Please do not
use essential oils in that area either, because that can
really cause other problems. So again, something like benzyl peroxide
(17:56):
facial preparation sometimes can be used. Sometimes anti seboreic shampoos
can be used to sort of flush out those hair follicles.
But if it's really severe, your veterinarian may prescribe an
anti fungal or even an antibiotic ointment. One of the
most common antibiotic ointments that are often prescribed for feline
(18:18):
acne is something called mupuricin. It often goes by the
brand name Muricin. This is usually highly effective, but you
don't want to do it without talking to your vetinarian first.
Another thing that you can request that your vet does
if you bring your cat into the vet clinic for
an exam is to help clip that area. By using
clippers in the veterinary clinic, they can help keep that
(18:39):
hair clip short and that let's more air exposure, preventing
that secondary moisture accumulation and that secondary bacterial or fungal infection.
In severe cases, sometimes we'll give oral antibiotics or rarely
even oral steroids. The good thing about feline acne is
it's totally treatable. Okay, rarely will there be a really
(19:01):
stubborn case that requires more aggressive care. But thankfully, this
is one disease where I'm totally fine with you cat
owners treating it at home. There's a great video that
you can find that I created on YouTube under doctor
Justinelee on feline Acme, so you can check that out too.
But one in doubt, something as simple at changing your
cat's bowls from plastics to ceramic or stainless steal to
(19:24):
keeping a close eye on it, to wiping it gently
with witch hazel and not picking at any of those scams,
or using stridex pads as a way of helping break
up those scams can really really help. One in doubt.
If your cat has feline athlete, don't stress out about it.
Super easy to treat, but if it's not responding, check
with your veterinarian.
Speaker 6 (19:44):
Well.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
That brings me to the end of today's show. Find
me at doctor Justinelee dot com, on Facebook or Instagram
at doctor Justine Lee, or email me your pet questions
at doctor Justine at Peplife radio dot com. With that,
we're at a time and we want to thank Mark Winter,
our producer, for making this show possible. See you at
the next episode.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on Petlike
Radio dot com.
This is pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to er Venom pet Lake Radio. I'm your host
actor just Tine Lee, and I'm an emergency critical care
vetory specialist and a toxicologist. Thanks for joining us today.
We're going to be talking about feline action. So if
you have a cat and you've ever had ACNI before,
which all of us have had in our teenage years,
then you want to tune in. You especially want to
(00:47):
tune in if you're feeding from a stainless steel bowl.
So stay tuned. We'll be right back after these messages.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Take a bite out of your competition. Advertise your business
with an ad in Petlife Radio podcasts and radio shows.
There is no other pet related media that is as
large and reaches more pet parents and pet lovers than
pet Life Radio with over seven million monthly listeners. Pet
Life Radio podcasts are available on all major podcast platforms,
(01:18):
and our live radio stream goes out to over two
hundred and fifty million subscribers on iHeartRadio, Odyssey, tune In,
and other streaming apps. For more information on how you
can advertise on the number one pet podcast and radio network,
visit Petlifradio dot com, slash advertised today Let's.
Speaker 4 (01:39):
Talk pets on petlifradio dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
Welcome back to earnbet on Petlife Radio. Really excited to
talk to you about feline acne. And you're probably wondering,
what can cats get zits? Yes, you've heard me right,
Cats can get acne and what can you do about it? Well,
believe it or not, feline acne can happen to any
(02:18):
age cat, and I will say most of the time
when I see it, it's usually around one year of age.
It can be totally sporadic. Sometimes it comes, sometimes it goes.
So no, your cat doesn't officially have to be a
teenager before they get acne. Now, acne is a little
bit hard to see, and I always joke that I
(02:39):
call feline acne catney. But when cats get acne, you
do actually want to treat it, and it's because it
is a medical problem. But unlike teenagers, feline acne isn't
linked to hormones. It's from having too much something called seboom,
which is almost like this oily substance, and it's actually
(03:01):
plugging the hair follicles, most commonly under the chin, and
this can result in a secondary infection. Now again this
isn't usually on the cheeks or the forehead the way
you think of with a teenager who has acne, is
not typically on the whole face. Cats typically get feline
acne just under the jaw and around the lips. And thankfully,
(03:23):
I hardly ever see feline acne in the veterinary er,
but general practitioners or family practitioners do see it more
frequently because this is something that's super mild. Again, you
do not need to go to the veterinary er just
because you notice that your cat has feline acne. However,
it does need to be treated. Now, thankfully, most cases
(03:45):
are pretty mild, but untreated it can be really uncomfortable
for your cat and it can be really painful too.
So let's step back again. Why do cats get acne? Again,
It's the fancy word for it is called follicular keratin isa,
and it's where they're producing too much of the protein
found in the outer layer of the skin. And when
(04:06):
this happens, guess what, it's basically blackheads that start to form.
Then they get these pimples, Then they get this inflammation
of the hair follicles, and again that can get a
secondary infection. Now we don't even know why cats will
get this. Sometimes it may be from stress, sometimes it's
from cats not grooming. Well, maybe it's due to allergies
(04:28):
or viral infection, or if you're cat's immunosuppressed, But there
hasn't been a really good link of what causes feline acne.
What there is is an association between feeding out of
plastic food bowls versus stainless steel versus ceramic, So there
is an association between feline acne and plastic food bowls. Now,
(04:50):
I will say I'm not a huge fan of feeding
from plastic, whether not you're a human or a two
or four legged number. And the reason why is because
plastic oftentimes, like when you wash it or scrub it,
it can develop these micro scratches in the plastic and
maybe that predisposes your cat or us to bacterial contamination.
(05:10):
So regardless of what the different hypotheses are for why
cats get feline acne, keep in mind we do want
to treat it. So, first of all, how do you
recognize the signs of feline acne. It's not quite as
obvious as it is in your teenager, because again, cats
have fur, So what are you going to look for.
(05:30):
First of all, you're gonna look for under your cat's chin.
There's sort of that V shaped area where your cat's
chin narrows down, and this is under the job. Whenever
I see this, I always like to put my two
fingers and feel under the chin, because we're feeling for
bumps under the skin, or even a swollen chin. Sometimes
you'll notice that your cat is rubbing their face on
(05:52):
a sofa and leaving bloody streaks. That's abnormal, okay, so
you definitely want to take a look there. So again,
a swollen chin, any kind of pain. When your cat
is being touched in the face or chin area. You
may notice some excessive head rubbing because it's uncomfortable, or
again that bloody tinged fluid that's being left behind on
furniture or bedding or the side of your sofa. You
(06:13):
may notice a really bad smell, and that usually means
there's is secondary infection. Maybe your cat is grooming a lot,
and oftentimes what you'll see is your cat's licking their
front legs and actually wiping it under their chin. That's
the best way they're going to clean their under their
chin area. Again, those classic bumps or that itchiness. So
now that you know what feline acne looks like, remember
(06:36):
you want to look at it carefully. You do not
want to pick it. Now, I will disclose I could
never be a veterinary dermatologist. Despite all the gory TV
shows out there about popping pibulls, I am not a popper.
I don't like to pop things. I don't like to
pop acne. I don't like to do it on myself.
I don't like to do it in animals either, And
(06:57):
I will say, if you see it, please don't pick
your cat's acne. Okay, we don't want to do that.
And you don't want to pop those black heads because
those follicles are probably inflamed and you're making them more
inflamed by squeezing them. And they're also super painful and
your cat doesn't understand why you're doing something painful to them.
So one in doubt. If you notice the signs of
(07:20):
chin acne or feline acne, get to a vet, do
some research, or use telemedicine or telehealth. You can even
take a picture of it and send it to your vetinarian,
but please don't pop it. All right, So how do
we diagnose feline acne. Now, there are a couple other
medical problems that can look like feline acne in older cats.
(07:41):
Sometimes we can see the rare, rare type of cancer
that can look similar. Sometimes it may be a different
type of mass or tumor Sometimes it could be an
immune problem where your cat's immune system may be attacking itself.
Sometimes it's a skin infection or even a fungal in
in really severe cases, it can even be a dental
(08:04):
problem where there's an infected tooth root and it can
actually cause similar looking lesions like a tooth root abscess.
So in really severe cases, your vet may need to
do some blood work or urine tests, or even X
rays or skin cultures or skin sitologies, or even take
a piece of tissue from it. So one in doubt,
(08:25):
if it's not going away, or you're not sure your
cat's not responding, you do want to go to a
vetn area to get it worked up, because again, most
of the time you can't actually treat feline acne at home.
So we'll talk about treatment in just a few minutes.
But what we talked about again so far, Remember cats
can get acne and it's not typically related to hormones.
(08:47):
We'll talk about what we can do to prevent it. Hintint,
in case you don't tune in, it's not feeding out
of plastic water bowls. Okay, you want to make sure
you check your cat and make sure they don't have
any of those bumps or weird smell or discharge coming
from the bottom of their chin. All right, So what
can we do about it? Well, first of all, when
(09:07):
it comes to feline acne, there are a few things
you can do to treat feline acne at home. The
first few that I'll talk about are feeding from a
ceramic food bowl or stainless steel bowl instead of a
plastic water bowl or a plastic food bowl. Why is
this going to help? Again, there is an association with
cats developing feline acne from plastic bowls. As soon as
(09:31):
you remove that plastic water bowl or food bowl, it
can help resolve that feline acne immediately. So again, I'm
always a huge advocate of getting a big enough bowl
where it's not going to let your cat's whiskers touch
both sides of the circumference of the bowl. Okay, pick
a nice ceramic one or nice stainless steel one and
Please make sure to watch this out at least once
(09:53):
a day or every other day, and that includes your
water bowls. I'm a big believer in making sure that
pets oh always have fresh water, So I always wash
the water bowl at least once or twice a week,
and I fill it up with filtered water. We always
want to do whatever we can to enhance your pet
drinking appropriately clean water. All right, what's the next thing
(10:14):
you can do? Well, you can gently wash your cats
chin to remove some of the scabs. Now, this will
also help remove some of that seboom or that oil
that forms on the skin. I generally try to do
this two or three times a day for a couple
of days. Again, please don't physically pick at the scabs. Okay,
you can gently wipe it away. There are a lot
(10:36):
of different types of almost like cotton pads that you
can use. You can use them to like exfoliate your
own skin. These are usually found by cotton balls. I
don't usually use cotton balls. I use these pads, and again,
this will help the scabs naturally fall off. So I
like to gently clean the area. Now, when it comes
to cleaning, you don't want to use anything with alcohol.
(11:00):
Remember during COVID when you were hand sanitizing hopefully and
you have a micro cut on your hand and you
realize how painful it is. Please do not use anything
that contains alcohol when cleaning that area. There's a lot
of inflammation and it's gonna hurt. So what I like
to do is I like to use witch hazel. I
will use witch hazel to gently blot away and wash
(11:21):
that chin area to remove the scabs. So I'll gently
wipe it. I'll blot the acne gently once or twice
a day. Try to do this for five to seven
days in a row. If it does not improve, then
you need to get to a veterinarian. Okay. The second
thing is you can actually use topical STRIDEX. Remember those
(11:41):
old STRIDEX pads that you used to use when you
had teenager acne. Well, guess what they worked on feline
acne also, So when using STRIDEX pads, you can actually
do the same thing. So again, don't pick, don't rip
off those scabs. Don't pick those scabs. Just gently, once
to two to three times a day use a STRIDEX
pad or a pad that you use with witch hazel
(12:04):
to gently block that area. We'll continue with this really
important topic right after these messages from our sponsors. Mollie,
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(12:56):
C A T t R E E t R A Y.
Speaker 4 (13:03):
Let's talk past pet Life Radio Headline Radio.
Speaker 5 (13:08):
Pet live Radio dot com.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
Welcome back to Ervet on pet Life Radio. We've been
talking about feline acne. I know, I know, it's not
the prettiest, sexiest topic, but cats get them and so
do our teenagers. What we've been talking about is how
cats can occasionally get feline acne, and if you're not
petting your cat or examining your cat, you may miss
the clinical signs. So what are some of the clinical signs. Again,
(13:49):
You're gonna notice any kind of bumps or swelling underneath
your cat's chin. You may notice some blackheads, some brown
or black discharge, or even blood tinge fluid in that area.
You may notice a terrible smell that's usually because there's
a secondary fungal or bacterial infection. Your cat may be
excessively grooming that area. And again, most of the time,
(14:12):
I don't want to see you in the vetnary er
for feline acne. Okay, this is one of the problems
that you can actually treat at home. And we talked
about some of the treatment that's going to include, stop
using plastic water bowls, stop using plastic food bowls, and
again use ceramic food bowls or stainless steel bowls. We
talked about getting those circular they're usually about one and
(14:33):
a half to two inch circular pads that you can
use to take off makeup at a grocery store. You
can use that and just wet it down with either
warm water or even witch hazel. Remember please do not
use alcohol. Don't use anything else except for the one
that I like, which are stridex acne pads. You can
gently block that area once or twice a day. Do
(14:55):
that consistently for a week. If it doesn't improve, you
need to get to a VAT. So what is your
veterinarian going to do? First of all, your veterinarian is
going to make sure it's not something more serious going on,
like a tooth root abcess or a rare cancer or
something else going on. If they examine your cat and
your cat isn't responding to a lot of the things
(15:16):
that you can try at home, then they may actually
prescribe you an anti fungal. Now, keep in mind, you
do not want to start antifungals unless your cat actually
has a fungal infection, because it can cause other problems. Okay,
so one in doubt, you may get a prescription from
your vetfro an antifungal. Now, if you've ever had jock
itch or ringworm, or any kind of fungal infection, you'll
(15:40):
notice that most anti fungal medications end with a zol
zl E. So drugs like my cot is all okay,
And that's because in the infected moist area underneath the
chin where the feline acne is, your cat can develop
a secondary yeast or fungal infection. Okay, so one in
(16:00):
doubt you may need a prescription for an antifungal. Now,
if you look at some websites, they'll say, oh, you
can do Epsen salt soaks. No, you can't do that.
Your cat is not going to tolerate having his chins
stuck in an ebsin salt soak. So again, I really
prefer the Stridex pads or using witch hazel. Those work
really well. Now, the one thing I did want you
to avoid please do not put essential oils in this area. Yes,
(16:25):
you heard me correctly, No T tree oil, No central
oils in this area. The main reason why is because
as a toxicologist I can rarely see severe even fatalities
or poisonings from t tree oil. There's actually a report
in the veterinary literature of a pet that died after
getting as little as seven to nine drops of a
(16:48):
concentrated tea tree oil. Now, please keep in mind I
said concentrated. That means like almost one hundred percent tea tree. Okay,
that's super concentrated. Now, if you guys have listened to
my episodes of Arvet before, you probably have heard me
talk about how cats are different. Of course they're different.
We love them because they're different. But their liver is different.
(17:09):
So cats cannot metabolize certain drugs well because they have
something fancy called altered glucoronidation in their liver. That just
means they're liver can't metabolize certain chemicals or drugs well.
Now keep in mind, because of that altered glucoronidation where
their liver can't metabolize things, cats are super super sensitive
(17:30):
to certain products, especially essential oils. So please do not
use any essential oils on your cat's feline acne. Yes
you can use stridex, Yes you can use witch hazel,
totally safe. Please do not use alcohol. Please do not
use essential oils in that area either, because that can
really cause other problems. So again, something like benzyl peroxide
(17:56):
facial preparation sometimes can be used. Sometimes anti seboreic shampoos
can be used to sort of flush out those hair follicles.
But if it's really severe, your veterinarian may prescribe an
anti fungal or even an antibiotic ointment. One of the
most common antibiotic ointments that are often prescribed for feline
(18:18):
acne is something called mupuricin. It often goes by the
brand name Muricin. This is usually highly effective, but you
don't want to do it without talking to your vetinarian first.
Another thing that you can request that your vet does
if you bring your cat into the vet clinic for
an exam is to help clip that area. By using
clippers in the veterinary clinic, they can help keep that
(18:39):
hair clip short and that let's more air exposure, preventing
that secondary moisture accumulation and that secondary bacterial or fungal infection.
In severe cases, sometimes we'll give oral antibiotics or rarely
even oral steroids. The good thing about feline acne is
it's totally treatable. Okay, rarely will there be a really
(19:01):
stubborn case that requires more aggressive care. But thankfully, this
is one disease where I'm totally fine with you cat
owners treating it at home. There's a great video that
you can find that I created on YouTube under doctor
Justinelee on feline Acme, so you can check that out too.
But one in doubt, something as simple at changing your
cat's bowls from plastics to ceramic or stainless steal to
(19:24):
keeping a close eye on it, to wiping it gently
with witch hazel and not picking at any of those scams,
or using stridex pads as a way of helping break
up those scams can really really help. One in doubt.
If your cat has feline athlete, don't stress out about it.
Super easy to treat, but if it's not responding, check
with your veterinarian.
Speaker 6 (19:44):
Well.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
That brings me to the end of today's show. Find
me at doctor Justinelee dot com, on Facebook or Instagram
at doctor Justine Lee, or email me your pet questions
at doctor Justine at Peplife radio dot com. With that,
we're at a time and we want to thank Mark Winter,
our producer, for making this show possible. See you at
the next episode.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on Petlike
Radio dot com.
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