Feline Acne

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Did you know that Kitties can get feline acne?

Cats can get acne just like teenagers.

Unlike teens, feline acne can be a life-long problem.

Daily soaks with Epson salts or applying antibacterial and/or antifungal creams on the chin help disinfect the area.

Some cats require long-term antibiotics and some even benefit from human acne medications. (Don't apply any medication without your veterinarian's recommendation.)

The cause of feline acne has not been determined and without proper veterinary care, can progress to serious skin infections.

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Feline acne is a common problem seen in cats. In most cases symptoms are are mild and pass unnoticed. More severe cases, however, may respond slowly to treatment and seriously detract from the appearance of the cat.

Like humans acne can affect cats of any age, sex or breed.
The sebaceous glands are mostly found in chin, base of the tail, eyelids, lips, prepuce and scrotum. They are connected to the hair follicles.

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Feline acne is usually treatable by topical treatment only. There are a number of things that people use for it, with benzoyl peroxide shampoos, vitamin A ointment (Retin-A, Rx), metronidazole gel and mupirocin ointment being the most common recommendations. When topical treatment alone is not sufficient, the use of systemic antibiotics or corticosteroids is sometimes necessary.

Most cats will respond to corticosteroid treatment within a
couple of weeks. Some vets have tried isotretinoin (Accutane Rx) in cats but according to "Muller and Kirk's Small Animal Dermatology, 6th ed" the success rate is only about 33% to this medication and it is pretty expensive.

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There are only two contagious diseases that mimic feline acne that I know of.

They are Ringworm (dermatophytosis) and Demodecosis.

Both of these are sometimes itchy conditions. Ringworm is found through culture of hairs (sometimes takes more than one attempt) around the affected area and demodecosis shows up in biopsy samples but it sometimes takes more than one sample to find it.

Some cats have eosinophilic granuloma complex that resembles feline acne but these are supposed to be distinguishable by examination of biopsy samples. Eosinophilic granuloma complex can be caused by allergies and flea bite hypersensitivity. If the new cat brought fleas with it, this might be a consideration.