ACNE It's Not Just for Teenagers!

It looked for all the world as though Billy (GC, BWR, RW Slava Billy Flynn of Folie a Deux) had been dipping his furry white chin in ground black pepper.

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Little black specks were visible throughout and underneath his chin hair, and they did not want to come off with waterless shampoo! It was a totally new experience for this writer, who was both clueless and quite upset. . . especially since Billy was being regularly shown at the time!

This turned out to be the first of several encounters I was to have with an unpleasant phenomenon known as feline acne. Since it doesn’t look at all like the zits and spots that tormented many of us during our teenage years, it may very well be the last thing you think of when trying to get Fluffy’s chin presentable for the show ring. While feline acne is not serious (unless totally neglected) it is quite definitely a royal PITA for the exhibitor and can also be quite worrisome for the average pet cat owner.

What, Exactly, Is Feline Acne?

According to Clinician’s Brief.com, a resource used by many veterinarians, feline acne is “a disorder of follicular keratinization.”1 While the exact cause is unknown, we do know it occurs when overactive sebaceous glands produce too much keratin, a protein found in skin. Excess keratin can block hair follicles and cause come dones (blackheads) to form2 —and that is what was taking place on Billy’s chin.