*I* don't.  All I know is changing to metal or ceramic works like a
charm.  

Theresa
Stinky Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh
My Blog: http://www.humanitas.blogspot.com

Raising hand here -- I've had this happen with 3 of my kitties over the
years till I switched to ceramic bowls.  Feline acne is a skin staph
infection, I believe, someone correct me if I'm in error on this, please.  I
believe the plastic bowls are just harder to sterilize maybe because the
plastic pits and scratches easier and bacteria can hang out in these areas.
Now I just get cheap ceramic bowls from and I find they sterilize well in my
dishwasher.  Curing feline acne is no fun either involving both oral
antibiotics and topical skin cleansers so I prevention is the best medicine!
hth,
Christine

No idea as to the cause or why plastic, but TED noticed a couple spots
of chin acne during Natasha's visit last week. The first thing the
doctor wanted to know was if Natasha used plastic dishes (not
normally, but she had during a recent trip to my parents). So there
really must be a connection, or at least my vet thinks there is.

Jeanne Hedge, as directed by Natasha

============
http://www.jhedge.com

I don't really know why its linked to plastic.  But Jake's dry food bowl
gets nasty if I don't wash it every day.  He drools or slobbers or sneezes
or all three.  So he gets a fresh ceramic bowl every morning and the other
one goes in the dishwasher to go thru the sanitize cycle with everything
else.

I'm guessing that unless the bowls are kept spotlessly clean, the plastic
breeds nasties better than glass would.

Jo

My cats have stainless steel dishes and a spare set while they are "in the
wash" They've never had a problem with acne
The dishes weren't expensive to buy, either.  I found them in an Asian shop,
rather than a pet shop. Perfect size for the cats, 39 pence each!  I might
get a few more..

Tweed

Cathi <Cathi@nospamplease.seasalter0.demon.co.uk> skrev i
diskussionsgruppsmeddelandet:D03MAMK+IAdBFwU9@seasalter0.demon.co.uk...

plastic is porous, scratches easlily,  makes great breeding/hiding places
for bacteria, just more difficult to keep clean whatever nasty stuff you use
to get at it, eating cat dips chin to bowl ...

as I understand it when people/vets mention acne in cats they often include
the whole range from simple "dirty chin"/blackheads to full blown infection.
T&B has never eaten off plastic, they do stainless or glass, they still get
the dirty chin - which lots of cats do, depending on fur you might not even
think about it.
As long as there is no infection/swelling/soares you can keep the cat's chin
clean if needed with antiseptics, possibly a cream if it's persistent (as
recommended by vet) if there is an infection it will need to be treated by
vet, cleaning  and antibiotics

--
lewe
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
lewemi at yahoo dot se  |  cat pics: photos.yahoo.com/lewemi

My white cats yoused to get "blackheads" around their
mouths, when I used plastic dishes.  I hadn't made the
connection, then, but I remember that when I switched to
metal dishes (for no particular reason), the blackheads
disappeared.

I can't answer your other questions, but yes, my cat Trill had chin
acne when I was using plastic bowls.  I also read about switching, and
switched to all metal bowls for lunch and ceramic for dinner, and he
has only had one minor bout since.

Ginger-lyn

Some cats are sensitive to the plasticizers used in some plastic molding
compounds.  Plasticizers are organic liquids used to make the product
less brittle.  Plastic dishes also are a little harder to keep clean.