What’s the difference between a calico and a calitabby?
I think (though I’ll be honest, I’m not positive) that tabby markings in the black fur make a Calico a Calitabby. Or actually, maybe it’s when they have a lot of tabby markings? You’ll notice that if it weren’t for the dashes of orange on Alice’s right side, she’d look like a brown tabby and white on her right side.
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Actually the ‘technical’ term for a odd white patch on the chest is a ‘locket’. On the belly it is called a ‘button’.
I actually didn’t know that a smattering of white furs would still be considered a locket, though I guess it certainly makes sense – and I had NO idea that white on the belly is a button, how adorable is that!
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Connie had a better suggestion for a caption to this picture that make me LOL: no no, not brains.. invisible shopping cart.. There is a credit card in her pocket somewhere and nip to be purchased…
And then Andrea said: I think she could be one of those obsessive extreme couponers! “Where’s the nip? Clear the shelf! I’ve got 52 coupons and I get a free Da Bird refill!”
She does have that tense “I have coupons and it’s doubling day, OUTTA MY WAY!” look on her face, doesn’t she?
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Warning: Poop talk ahead. Skip to the next section if you’re eating or have a weak stomach!
Earlier this week we got to talking about – well, originally we were talking about Brigitte’s kitty who occasionally needs his behind washed, and then SC Amy added this interesting comment:
Some folks may worry about milk issues, but my vet has always recommended cottage cheese to firm things up. My cats don’t care for pumpkin, but will dive right into the cottage cheese! Jinx had a bit of the runs the other week, and a big tablespoon of cottage cheese had him pooping proper the next day!
So this is my question to y’all: what’s your favorite kitty-diarrhea remedy? Disclaimer here, of course, if your cat has developed diarrhea, your first step is to take him or her to the vet. But sometimes cats have diarrhea because they got into something or because they like to make your life difficult (you know it’s true!), or they have diarrhea that isn’t clearing up with treatment – or I should say, the diarrhea isn’t clearing up quickly enough. So I’m going to list my favorite remedies (I’ll say up front that if I never had to treat another cat for diarrhea, I’d be happy!) and if y’all have any to share, feel free to jump in, I know I’m not the only one who’d be interested in hearing what everyone else tries. I am not a vet, try these at your own risk, etc.
I’ve linked to Amazon on all of these (except the pumpkin) just so you can see what I’m talking about, but if you Google around, you’ll likely find it cheaper elsewhere.
1. Pumpkin – everyone knows this one, probably, and cats often like the taste of pumpkin. Make sure it’s pure pumpkin with nothing else added.
2. Slippery Elm Bark Powder. I get mine online, I’ve also gotten it at a health food store in the past. You can sprinkle it on their food, but what I prefer to try is the Slippery Elm Bark Powder Syrup at the bottom of this page.
3. Forti-Flora, which is a packet of probiotics. I mix the packets with wet food, but have also sprinkled the powder directly on a plate, and the cats like the taste enough that they’ll eat it straight. Along the same vein (and certainly less expensive!), a couple of teaspoons of plain yogurt might work as well.
4. Pectin. Yes, the stuff that’s used in making jams, find it in your grocery store canning aisle. Add 1/8 tsp to some wet food or baby food, then I always let it sit for five minutes before before giving it to my cat. It absorbs moisture, and if it’s fed dry to your cat, it’ll get into his stomach, absorb moisture there, turn into a rock, and then be thrown up. You’re already dealing with diarrhea, you want to have to clean up vomit too?
5. I have seen – though don’t use – Kaolin-Pectin antidiarrheal remedies. I don’t use it because it usually requires that you give your cat a teaspoon of it every 4 hours (I think), and while to us humans a teaspoon isn’t a lot, when you’re trying to shoot that much medicine into a kitten’s mouth, you’re both going to end up with pink stuff all over you, guaranteed.
6. Diatomaceous Earth – FOOD GRADE. Do NOT use anything other than FOOD GRADE DE, the stuff you buy to use in your pool cannot be consumed, it’s poisonous. FOOD GRADE, did I mention? FOOD GRADE ONLY. This actually should be up toward the top of the list, it’s one of my preferred methods. In a perfect world, I’d start giving Diatomaceous Earth to kittens once a day as soon as they come into the house, but… I do not. I have no excuses other than laziness and simply forgetting. I almost forgot to put it on this list! (I swear, getting old is NO FUN.) Diatomaceous Earth is safe to give to cats every day, and though the recommended dosage is 1/2 tsp – 1 tsp once a day, it’s not the sort of thing they can overdose on. I mix 1/4 – 1/2 tsp of the powder into wet food, mix it well, and feed it to the cats. (You can read more about Diatomaceous Earth here – or do a web search, there are lots of sites out there with information about it.) I use Diatomaceous Earth in the summer to help with the flies out by the chicken coop. It doesn’t eradicate them completely, but it certainly helps! I buy my Diatomaceous Earth online (that’s my theme, apparently, “I buy it online!”), but you can find it at your local Co-Op, and I’m sure there are other places to find it.
7. Lastly, Kocci-Free is my treatment of last resort. It’s a pain in the butt because you have to give it to them four times a day, every six hours. On the up side, the doses are very small, and you can usually squirt the medicine in their mouth before they realize it’s happening. I’ve had kittens with diarrhea who had fecal test after fecal test done that came back negative for any parasites at all, who didn’t respond to anything I’ve listed above, and in those cases, the Kocci Free worked. It’s expensive, yes, but the bottle lasts a good long time. One note: use a 1 cc oral syringe to figure out how the dosages measure out (I think 3 drops translates to .05 cc? I’m not positive on that, though, I have to figure it out anew every time I use it), and dose them that way. Trying to use droppers with the kitten flailing around is ridiculous when you can use a syringe, sneak up on them, and shoot it in their mouths.
Okay, those are my solutions – what are yours?
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Fred should put out Everett, Lucy, and Sally collector editions of the No Limit cover (eyes on the top). Then their adoption bios can include “model.”
I told Fred about this comment, and he said “But their eyes don’t look evil enough!” To which I responded with this picture:
I think Lucy’s eyes look plenty evil there!
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Is it true that Everett never lands, he hovers round the house instead?
It might be true. He’s an experimental kitty. His feet have not touched the floor in 36 hours; that beats his previous record by three hours. He’s planning on trying out for Americat’s Got Talent.
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I don’t know why, must be the eyes or something because they’re not the same kind of cat, but every time I see that picture of Pepsi, all I can think of is that kitty that sings your cat’s theme songs, Out Side Momma and Alice Mo the Calico! Is it just me?? (probably..) Oh, and if those have had a million hits, half of them are me! I love them and think you should make a theme song for each of the permanents! Anyone second that??
Talking Tom! Yeah, I see the resemblance there.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who watches those over and over again. They crack me UP (which is probably in poor taste, to get such a kick out of myself, but I’m so amused by me I just don’t even CARE).
I cannot come up with permanent resident theme songs on demand, they have to happen organically. I am an ARTISTE, you know! (hee) I’m working on something for Corbie – originally it was going to be to the tune of Cherry Pie (only of course it would be Corbie Pie), but I couldn’t quite make it work, so I’m going in another direction. We’ll see, maybe in the next few weeks I’ll have something. 🙂
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OK, seriously? You have a tub for hats for cats and WE NEVER SEE HATS ON CATS!! why are you holding out on us??? are we not your friends? don’t you like us any more..
I’m going through a jumping-kitties phase at the moment. If you want to see really awesome hats-on-cats pictures, you should go visit The Miao Chronicles. I can’t link to just one post, because every one of them is so fantastic!
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My little kitty also somehow manages to put all her weight on one tiny foot, my husband and I like to call this “pin feet”.
That is the PERFECT descriptive term for it! And they never place the pin feet in a spot where it wouldn’t cause much pain like, say… Hm. Actually, I can’t think of any body part where pin feet wouldn’t hurt because somehow their body weight seems to triple when balanced upon pin feet, doesn’t it?
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I can’t tell if that is Lucy or Sally on the blue chair behind jumping Everett, but she makes me giggle!
That’s Sally on the couch, and Lucy behind the couch. When Everett really gets to jumping, the girls tend to stay out of the way so they don’t get caught in the crossfire hurricane that is Everett Peppers.
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And why, pray tell, is it called the Poltergeist tree?
Because it’s haunted! I kid, it’s not really (that I know of, anyway). Fred came up with the name for it, because it looks – especially in the Winter – like the tree in the movie Poltergeist, all outstretched limbs like it wants to pull you down into the ground. I’ll have to see if I can’t get a decent picture of the whole tree to show what it looks like. It’s a pecan tree, by the way – since we’ve lived here, we’ve only gotten a decent crop of pecans one year, and they all came off the Poltergeist tree.
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I think “Pretty Rooster with no name” could be called “Drum”. He’s got some massive drumsticks, but drumsticks sounds so…not nice…like you might eat him any second. Also – I heart Steel Magnolias. 🙂
Well, to be fair – we are getting rather a lot of roosters out in the back forty, and some of them will be going off to freezer camp in the next month or so. I don’t know that he’ll be one of them (I leave those decisions up to Fred), so he may be around for a while. I also love Steel Magnolias, so Drum it is!
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Then she gives her the Alice Mo Glare of Death, like “I am NOT kidding you!” and Sally isn’t. even. looking!
No kidding, Sally’s like “What’s an Alice Mo?” Alice Mo totally thinks she runs this household, and the kittens are completely unbothered by her bossy ways. It cracks me UP!
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Do the chickens drink out of the pond?
I’ve never actually seen them doing it, but I’m sure they do. I’m sure that, like the dogs, the chickens probably see the pond as a big water bowl.
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Has any of your cats ever had allergic reactions? Our Snickers gets lumps on his chin that fester and then he rubs the area raw with his paws. Every few months our vet gives him a couple of shots, it heals up, but always comes back. This time it was also in his mouth. The vet changed his food, (of course he won’t eat it) If you or other readers have had this problem can you give us any advice.
Miz Poo is allergic to something, we’re not exactly sure what, but her lip swells up with a rodent ulcer and then she has to have a steroid shot. The vet thought it was a flea allergy (we had an allergy test done, and the results were that she was slightly allergic to fleas), and we’re careful to use flea preventative on all the cats, but Advantage and Frontline don’t immediately kill fleas, so she may still get bitten before the flea on her dies – this is all supposition on our part, really, we don’t know that it’s a flea allergy, but the test indicated no allergies to anything else.
Anyway, my point here is that we have never found anything that works for her. In the last few years her allergy issue seems to have slowed down, and I think she only needed a steroid shot once in the last year, thankfully.
Readers? Any experience or suggestions to share? Please leave a comment and share with the class. 🙂
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So, today marks four weeks since the black Peppers came home with me for a break from the cage at Petsmart. I checked with the shelter manager and early next week (probably Monday evening), Sally and Lucy will be going back to Petsmart. Lucy is going to go into the cage with the one black cat who’s left there (remember I told you about the two black cats, Bear Cub 1 and Bear Cub 2? Well, the male was adopted, and the female is there by herself now), and Sally will go into a cage by herself. Sally’s a bit more prone to acting wild (not in a good way) if she has her siblings to rely on, and I think that if she’s in a cage by herself, she’ll be more willing to interact with people than she was when the three Peppers were in one cage. Once one or the other of the girls is adopted, then Everett will go down to take their place. If they sit there for two weeks without being adopted, I’ll take Everett to Petsmart and bring the girls home for a break. Then if he sits there for two weeks without being adopted, I’ll do the reverse. Hopefully no one will need to come back here – fingers crossed!
It’s amazing how high that boy can fly, isn’t it?
Poor Alice. Everyone just ignores her when she gets all glare-y at them.
Eyes on the prize.
He’s FLYYYYYINGGGG!
“How does he stay up there?!”
Alice is all “Nice form, doofus.”
“Better you land on your sister than on me.”
Alice lifts the Paw o’ Doom. Everett’s not impressed.
Everyone else is watching the birdie – Corbie’s looking at me like “Where do all these kittens COME from?!”
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Hello, Gorgeous.
Beautiful boy.
Maniacal laughter, because that boy KNOWS he’s gorgeous.
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Previously
2011: No entry.
2010: So, yeah, no great cleaning tips from me.
2009: And they’re such sweet girls, they deserve to find their forever homes fast!
2008: Poor girlies.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.
Apart from a stressed out new kitten, I’ve only ever had cats with diarrhea when their food was changed over too quickly. I’ve done the pumpkin thing, and they were fine after that.
Thanks again for the bum-cleaning tips. The big ol’ mean vet shaved his behind a bit yesterday while he was in for his checkup. He thanked me by crapping in the carrier on the way home.
Everett could give those show-jumping dogs a run for their money!
Re: Allergies – in my past, I was caring for an Abyssinian who was allergic to life (IIRC, he was allergic to grass, all sorts of pollen, all grains, dust, dust mites, all molds and more!). The things which helped him were homemade food (I think it helped because it was preservative free), keeping the place incredibly clean and making sure I took him in for his shots before he broke out — at first, he would break out if he didn’t have a shot for three months, so he got it every two months for a year. Then, we found he could go four months without a breakout, so the shots were every three months for a year. His owner and I parted ways after that, so I never knew if his tolerance increased again, but everyone was happier without him breaking out. Keeping him happy kept his stress low and helped him, so I played with him for hours each day because that’s what Abyssinians love.
I recommend allergy testing so you know what you are up against and can find ways to reduce exposure to his allergens in any way possible. For example, an air filter will help with many air-borne allergens. Keeping Snickers as happy and stress-free as possible will also help him be less reactive as will regular exercise.
My experience with that Abyssinian made me adamant about never having another purebred cat since his allergies were just one of his many health problems. Hybrid vigor is such a wonderful thing by comparison (I’m looking at my cast-iron mutt cat as I proof-read this – almost 17 years old and going strong)!
LOL…it sounds like your Abyssinian and I are cousins. His allergy list is as long as mine. The only thing I am not allergic to is dogs (and I have 3 cats! ha).
Doodle Bean is right! All of my cats are mutts! Sure, they may be Maine Coone mix or Ragdoll mix…but they all have MIX in them and they are all rescues! The only way! Don’t shop…ADOPT!!! 🙂
kitties aren’t mutt, they are moggy
Ok…so now I have a question I’m hoping that you and your readers can help me with. I’m feeding 5 semi-feral cats. Semi-feral cuz they will let me pet them but move too fast and they’re GONE. Anyway…my question is…these kitties have worms. I’ve seen tapeworms around the butt of Mocha (a beautiful Persian who is terribly matted), Skittles and Bipper have thrown up what I believe to be round worms, ewwwwwy. I bought food grade Diatomaceous earth but they won’t eat the $%@#ing food when I use it. Maybe I should start with smaller amounts? Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I feel so bad for them but I need a treatment I can afford and something that can be given to them now and then as you know they’ll just pick them up again with being outside kitties. Thanks!
OMG…the pics today crack me UP. They are awesome flying shots, lol. I love Alice Mo’s shopping cart pic, hee hee!
Mary, what are you feeding them with the DE? Is it just regular canned food? I find that I have to mix the DE with canned food *and* some chicken baby food to get them interested in eating it. I think the consistency of the DE makes the food taste weird to them. The chicken baby food (I use Gerber) usually convinces the kittens to give it a try, and as they get accustomed to the taste/feel of the DE, I reduce the baby food.
I know there are deworming pills you could try, but they are pills. Do you suppose any of your semi-ferals would take a pill if you used a pill pocket or wrapped it in cheese or something? I’ll post your question next week, and we can see if anyone else has a better suggestion for you!
I watch Alice Mo the Calico and Outside Mama at least 10 times every time you post the link. Perhaps I should have warned Norman before playing this time though… he jumped up from his nap and gave me his best Alice Mo glare.
Is there a phase of the moon that is affecting everyone’s cats right now? My two big cats (my Simba and my foster Tommy) have been chasing each other around the house like their tails are on fire for at least 3 days. No contact, no butt-kicking, no real aggressor… just very loud and fast. Additionally, 8 pound Norman has made beating up our 80 pound dog his mission during the same period of time. He has perfected the double-fisted paw of doom to the sides of Charlie’s muzzle… he kind of looks like a mini-Bruce Lee (or perhaps more accurately, a fourth Stooge). I would never declaw a cat, but Charlie is grateful that Norman came from the shelter that way. My friend says her cats are acting strangely this week, too.
Of course, it may well be that Stormin’ Norman is doing that precisely because he IS declawed. Many declawed kitties can be aggressively self-protective. Of course, he could just be a feistykins when it comes to dogs. I love hearing about this personality-filled guy!
I have had 5 declawed cats and none of them have ever been aggressive. Nothing but love-bugs, they are!
You are lucky. I worked at a vet clinic for a while, and every one of our “caution” cats were declawed. The scariest cat we had was declawed and was missing it’s teeth. Generally the agression comes out when they feel threatened and they know they don’t have their primary defenses. So at home with their owners where they feel safe I’m sure even are most fractious cats are love-bugs
Luckily, I’ve got the world’s most patient, cat-loving chocolate lab. Charlie loves everyone and expects everyone else to love him back… which is part of the problem because Norm doesn’t love Charlie yet. He isn’t being aggressive and most of the time would prefer to avoid the dog entirely. Yesterday’s pummeling session began my tennis ball freak (who tries to get everyone to toss a ball whether they have thumbs or not) made the mistake of dropping the ball in front of Norman to play. Dog apparently needed to be taught a lesson 😉
We’re making great progress on animal integration. Norm has cuddled with both of the other cats (and he is easily the gentlest, most easy-going cat in the bunch). When he first moved in, Norman wouldn’t even stay in the same room with Charlie. So standing his ground to smack him one is a step forward.
Last night and the night before were pretty quiet here, but the few days before that, it was absolutely nuts here, the cats were racing around like wild things. I had to employ the can of compressed air to get them to go elsewhere and act like wild things so I could sleep!
THANK YOU for the diarrhea treatment info. It comes as my 20 yr old has added diarrhea to her repertoire of constipation-vomiting (a prob w old cats). I hope she likes the pumpkin.
The difference between a Calico and a Calitabby is the ‘Agouti’ gene – a calico will have the aa genes which ‘supress’ tabby stripes in solid cats and the Calitabby will have one A gene that shows the tabby pattern.
The aa ‘tabby suppression’ doesn’t work on orange, so all cats will have stripes in the orange bits. So the way to tell the difference is to look at the black regions, as you correctly said.
I knew you’d know the answer, thanks!! 🙂
allergies – lumps on chin that fester – could be a rodent ulcer aka Eosinophilic Granulomas (which I can never pronounce even after it is said to me) like this? http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_UPy3-7G2GN0/TLpYdxaj0nI/AAAAAAAAAvw/AtTTOd2Rl20/s1600/CIMG0439a.jpg Or it could be feline acne. is the lump black and debris looking, almost like flea dirt?
I’ve got both in one cat. That is Muffin’s chin in the picture. When she eats out of plastic bowls she gets acne, which then progresses to EG. Fortunately I learned that getting rid of the plastic bowls helped her acne and for the most part we broke the cycle. But she also can’t eat out of any bowl. So now the crew eats off flat plates. Sometimes just the rubbing while eating is enough, even if it is stainless steel. Now randomly her chin will inflame. fortunately it goes away rather quickly and we haven’t had to treat it since she was a kit.
As for diarrhea. Pumpkin is my first weapon of choice. I’ve used SLB as well but I generally gravitate towards probiotics and full fat plain yogurt and raw food once there has been a good check up and fecal test to make sure nothing else is going on. Once I had a kitten with horrid diarrhea, once it squirted out of her when I picked her up like a bad squeeze toy. Turns out she was impacted and some of the stool would liquify to get around it. Wouldn’t want to firm up that kind of diarrhea. Raw food generally produces small dry stools in cats because there aren’t as many fillers and indigestible bits that need to be passed by the colon – aka more of it is utilized by the cat. http://www.catinfo.org Don’t want to invest in raw food, some raw meat for a few meals – while nutritionally imbalanced – will help.
Kocci Free sounds very interesting, I will have to look into that!! Thanks for mentioning it.
Yup, plastic bowls caused my kitty to have chin acne too! Flat glass or stainless steel seems to do the trick now. And WASH THE CHIN AFTER FEEDING WET FOOD! 🙂 Getting that gunk off the sensitive skin there *really* helps. One friend uses an antiseptic wash on her kitty’s chin, and then rinses off with a sopping wet wash cloth, the dries it with a clean fluffy washcloth. Never re-use cloths, wash them in hot water. Keep that chin clean and dry! 🙂
and as for the cats / hats thing. yes, there are wonderful places I can go to see cats and hats.. but it just seems mean of you to have a bucket of hats for cats and we’ve never seen any of them!
Heheh, you’re so DEMANDING!
RE: Snickers & Miss Poo ideas
Miss Poo could have rodent ulcers from plastic bowls if you use them. Our vet didn’t want to give my Himmie a steroid because she was a pedigree. He told me to get rid of their plastic food and water bowls…problem disappeared. I haven’t used plastic bowls since.
Will mention I had a butterscotch tabby who developed feline acne on her chin. That stuff can get nasty. The vet said keep her chin clean of food and wipe hydrogen peroxide on it. (Be careful–it will bleach carpet, upholstery, clothes, etc.) I’m not sure what to think about that in the mouth (?)
Thanks for the diarrhea tips. I’ll try out some of them on my cow cat. We already know she’s intolerant of fowl. (You realize most animal food has chicken in it.) She has shown some signs of not tolerating beef, too. She doesn’t particularly care for venison, bison, or other exotics. Buying food for her and feeding her are challenges. I have learned tough love, though. Tap on the surface and say, “Eat your dinner!” She’ll go back and start on it again.
I apologize for being so long-winded…
Oh, I know about the danger of plastic bowls – the only ones who eat out of plastic bowls around here are Fred and I. I don’t even put plastic bowls on the porch. The cats eat off more expensive dishware than the humans do, they all have Fiesta Ware bowls. 🙂
I hadn’t even considered acne for some reason – Spanky was having an acne issue at one point, and we used a couple of drops of Calendula in warm water, which we washed his chin with, and it did a great job of taking care of the problem.
Miz Poo (and by association the rest of the cats, of course) was on a non-chicken food for a while. Oh, what the heck was it called? Duck and Green Pea! It didn’t help her rodent ulcer issue, but doesn’t that sound like a great name for a cartoon? 🙂
…something akin to Rabbit and Potato maybe 🙂
You know – I hear “Sweet Corbie-pie” in my head (to the tune of Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond)but I have no idea of the next line as I ::small voice:: don’t obsess over tabbies like you ::end small voice::. 🙂
Awww, man, how did I not think of that?!? The best part of Sweet Caroline is the “doot doot doooooo!” everyone chimes in on. I’ll have to think further about Corbie’s theme song! 🙂
Next question… My floor is littered with litter! Until the third cat moved in, I’ve always been able to keep the litter scatter relatively under control. But I swear that Norman rolls in it, hides it in his fur, or packs it between his toes to be dropped off in a trail around the house. Every time I think the floor has been cleaned, I turn around to find more. I looked at litter mats at Petsmart but the cost seemed outrageous, especially when I’d have to buy several to supply every box in the house. Any suggestions for something more cost-friendly (or a brand that works and is worth spending the money on)?
Kelly, I buy the cheap black doormats at IKEA. Here in Canada they’re $1.50 apiece, and those seem to work fairly well.
Maybe you’ve tried this, no biggy, but I keep a couple of really cheap throw rugs in the utility, one in front of the cat pans and one in the path to the door, they’re easily shook and washed (and a target for one cat to barf on!), and do catch a lot of the litter. I think trails of litter are just something that goes with cats, and the more, the merrier!! We had one cat who would get litter stuck between his toes (don’t want to think HOW) and then would move to the living room preferably the couch and carefully pick the litter out from between toes and spit it right there…ew!
What you call calico in the UK is a tortoishell .
If you post pictures of The Amazing Flying Everett on his cage, Everett will be adopted so fast even his high flying little head will spin! MOL
Love Talking Tom! excuse me, I need to watch those another dozen times….
So here’s a question, how do cats change their overall mass?! When my Phoebe doesn’t want to be moved off of my lap, she goes limp and suddenly weighs about 50 pounds and if I’m slouching and have no leverage, sometimes it’s actually truly difficult to get her OFF ME. LMAO
Corbie Corbie go-Gorgie
Gorgie Gorgie so-Gorgie
Me-my SO Gorgie
Corbie!
(with apologies to everyone for the “Name Game” earworm I may have set loose.)
Thanks so much for the diarrhea suggestions! I already have a huge container of food-grade DE and some slippery elm capsules, but I’m going to have to keep the rest of this stuff in mind for my next brood of fosters. They ALWAYS seem to end up with diarrhea, especially if they’re being treated with antibiotics for a URI.
Just chiming in on the feline acne suggestion – and to comment that it can result from stress (just like how mine reacts to stress! :-P). When we got our third cat, he liked to pick on our second cat and she totally developed acne for a time. As they came to a semi-accommodation (and with treatment) it went away.
One of my kitties – Bob – is allergic to wheat. If he eats anything with wheat in it he gets big itchy patches and just scratches the fur right off of himself. It’s thanks to him I can’t get the cheaper cat food, because it all has wheat gluten in it.
So, I know I’m late but my anti diarrhea suggestions but i would like to add activated charcoal and foodgrade clay to the list. both draw toxins to themselves and bind them and then they can be passes from the system. and it made a big difference to my senior cat when i wormed him, which i hadn’t done in ages. maybe they can cause intestinal upsets, too? Chin pimples – give them a wash in apple cider vinegar (1 dropper full to 1/2 cup a water) or try dabbing on manuka honey or even wash the area in colloidal silver a few times a day. oh, and an alternative to yoghurt for re-seeding intestinal flora is kefir – i make my own from grains i got about 6 months ago and i’m sure you could find some in the us of a. My cats have lapped it up happily enough.