Feline acne may affect both male and female cats of all ages. The specific causes of the disease are not known. Cats with weakened immune systems are more susceptible.

There are a number of factors that may contribute to the development of the disease, including poor grooming habits, abnormal sebum production, and stress.

Lesions usually initially present at about 1 year of age, and remain cyclic for the life of the cat. Lesions are typically mild, but secondary bacterial skin infections may cause pain or itching.

Depending upon the severity of the symptoms, and whether or not any secondary conditions exist, treatment may or may not be required. Your veterinarian will have to make this determination.

Feline acne signs and symptoms — The clinical signs of acne in cats may include lesions on the lower lip and chin. Your cat may have dark brown comedones or crusted reddish papules. In addition, there may be swelling of the chin and around the lips.

Secondary bacterial infections may be present, involving swelling of the chin area, or drainage of the lesions. In these cases, both systemic and topical antibiotics may be prescribed.

It’s possible to mistake bacterial skin infections for acne, but appearances may be deceiving. Sometimes ringworm or yeast infections may be mistaken for acne as well.

Treatment of feline acne — Treatment is often not necessary, except in more severe cases. In fact, skin lesions can be made worse by overtreatment.

Topical therapy of some kind may be prescribed to help treat the comedones (blackheads). Depending upon the severity, more aggressive treatment may be recommended.

Your vet may remove excess skin from the lesion area. This facilitates cleaning of the area, as well as the application of topical medications. You should never do this yourself as you can hurt your cat or cause an infection.

Treatment may include the use of antiseptics, such as Listerine or alcohol. Antiseborrheic shampoos may help as well. Some of these contain salicylic acid, which is a common component of human acne treatment formulas.

It may be effective to use topical benzoyl peroxide solutions in gel or shampoo form. Benzoyl peroxide preparations made for small animals are half the strength of those made for humans.

Never use preparations designed for humans on your cat unless instructed to do so by your veterinarian. Even the animal formula benzoyl peroxide treatments may be irritating to your cat’s skin when used repeatedly.

Immune compromised cats, such as those suffering from feline AIDS may receive steroid therapy treatment for feline acne. Additional supplements may be used as well, including off-label drugs.

Making any kind of lifestyle change requires motivation but weight loss motivation, in particular, can be very challenging. There are a number of rules, however, that can simplify this process and help guarantee success. Let’s look at four of them now.

Know the numbers — The first rule for weight loss is to know your numbers. Step on the scale, but not constantly, and not even daily; once a week is sufficient.

Take your measurements. Measure your chest, waist, hips, thighs, and upper arms and be precise when reading the tape measure. Do this every two weeks and compare your results. A decrease of even a quarter of an inch can make a huge difference in your ability to gauge your success.

Keeping a log — The next rule we’re going to discuss may be the most important one of all. Keep a journal! Recording your personal numbers as well as the food you eat and the activity your perform will have a huge payoff.

Use the journal to record interesting weight loss facts that you come across. Record your emotions during the weight loss process. The journal enables you to discover patterns in your behavior and offers encouragement when your motivation wanes.

Knowledge is power — The third rule we’re going to discuss is to be a good student! What does that mean? Do your research! In order to lose pounds and maintain that weight loss, you must have an understanding of the USDA Food Pyramid Guidelines. You must also be able to judge recommended portion sizes. So, explore the Internet for suitable websites and read diet-related literature.

Your journal is an excellent spot for you to record the information that you learn. To experience continued motivation, you’ll want to review this data often, until it becomes second nature.

The power of the mind — The fourth and final rule that we’re going to discuss is that you must spend some time each day meditating. Call it what you choose, but to maintain weight loss motivation, you must have a vision of what you want to be.

Each day, spend time reflecting on exactly what it will take for you to reach your goal. How will you have to behave? What will you have to eat? How will you deal with temptation? It’s all in the details.

If you follow these four simple rules your motivation will remain high throughout your journey. You will have a system in place to fall back on when you feel weak. You will notice and celebrate your small successes and understand that they accumulate into a huge payoff!

Making any kind of lifestyle change requires motivation but weight loss motivation, in particular, can be very challenging. There are a number of rules, however, that can simplify this process and help guarantee success. Let’s look at four of them now.

Know the numbers — The first rule for weight loss is to know your numbers. Step on the scale, but not constantly, and not even daily; once a week is sufficient.

It is also important that you know your measurements. Be as precise as possible and record the measurements for your upper arms, hips, chest, waist, and thighs. Repeat this process every 2-4 weeks and compare your results. A loss of even a fraction of an inch is something to celebrate!

Log it — Keeping a journal is the second rule for weight loss motivation. This is the place where you will keep an accurate record of the numbers we mentioned above. In addition, you will record your daily food intake along with your daily exercise.

Your journal serves another very important purpose. It is the perfect spot for you to record your thoughts and feelings throughout your weight loss journey. It will also help keep you on track by helping you see patterns in your behavior and in your choices.

Researching — The third most important rule for losing weight involves research. You must educate yourself so that you have the tools you need to maintain your results. Learn what foods the USDA Food Pyramid recommends. Train yourself to recognize proper portion sizes. Read articles on weight-related topics.

Start recording interesting weight loss, exercise, and dieting facts in your journal to keep them accessible. Reading a new twist on something you already know can be very motivating.

Know your outcome — Finally, weight loss motivation requires you to have a vision. You must be able to “see” yourself the way you’d like to be. Spend a little time each day meditating or reflecting on how you would like to reinvent yourself.

This meditation or reflection must be about the details. Your ultimate weight loss goal of losing 50 pounds isn’t a part of this. This is about visualizing the process! What will you need to do on a daily basis to reach your goal?

If you follow these four simple rules your motivation will remain high throughout your journey. You will have a system in place to fall back on when you feel weak. You will notice and celebrate your small successes and understand that they accumulate into a huge payoff!

The feline leukemia virus (FeLV) has no known cure, and it has not been clinically proven that any antiviral or other agent will extend the life of an infected cat. This disease affects the immune system of cats, and is often fatal.

This disease comes with a diverse symptom list. FeLV is a retrovirus, which means that it is able to insert copies of its own genetic material into the cells it has infected. This illness shares many symptoms in common with other diseases and conditions.

Fungi, viruses, and bacteria attack felines and humans alike on a regular basis. Most of the time, a healthy cat or person will fight them off. With a compromised immune system, however, bacteria, parasites, viral and other organisms are more likely to do your cat harm.

Secondary infections and diseases will cause problems with FeLV infected cats. These secondary infections and diseases make the symptom list for this illness quite varied. FeLV infected cats have a difficult time fighting off invaders, even common bacteria.

Initial symptoms may include fever, blood disease, swollen lymph nodes, and general malaise. Some cats will experience no symptoms during the beginning stages of the disease.

Some FeLV infected cats may exhibit excessive urination and thirst, which is also common to a number of other conditions. They often will develop anemia, and some will develop tumors, leukemia, and other forms of cancer.

Additional feline leukemia virus symptoms may also include depression, diarrhea, and weight loss to the point of emaciation. Some cats may maintain a persistent low grade fever. Other symptoms include chronic recurring infections, jaundice, blood in the stool, and constipation.

There are two stages of feline leukemia virus. It’s possible that an infected cat may halt the progression of the disease at the first stage, but others are not so lucky.

Ultimately, for cats who reach the second stage of this disease, it is usually fatal. If your cat has FeLV, the only thing you can do is to treat the secondary diseases and infections, and attempt to strengthen the immune system of your cat.

In fact, it’s estimated that only about 2 to 3 percent of all cats are infected with FeLV. Infection rates are higher in high risk groups. The disease is transmitted through direct contact with an infected cat. Keeping your cat indoors and away from infected cats is a good precaution. Fortunately, if your cat is not in a high risk group, chances are limited that she will contract the disease.

The most common infectious skin disease in domestic felines, cat ringworm is a fungal infection, and not a worm at all. It is easily spread by contact.

It’s a self-limiting disease, meaning that it will clear up on its own. In many cases the disease resolves within 6 to 8 weeks. Stubborn cases, however, may persist for weeks or months even with treatment. Cats with compromised immune systems may take longer. In any case, your veterinarian may prescribe treatment no matter what, since it is very common for animals to pass this disease to humans and other animals.

Ringworm is also referred to as dermatophytosis. It’s a fungus which feeds on the keratin protein found in nails, skin, and hair.

The disease gets its name from the round ring-like appearance seen on the skin. The classic ringworm symptom presents as patches of hair loss which appear as circular scaly areas with raised edges. These symptoms are fairly easy to spot.

The initial symptoms include dry, flaky skin. The most common locations for infection are the head, face, ears, tail, and paws. In addition, you may see bald areas on the legs, ears, and around the eyes.

Cats with compromised immune systems may experience more severe symptoms, including crusty lesions that may become infected, red and sore.

Cat ringworm symptoms include broken hair and hair loss, either in irregular or circular patterns throughout the body, although some cats may lose no hair. You may also notice bumpy, scaly, red, or inflamed skin, and deformed claws. The affected areas may or may not itch.

Only your veterinarian can diagnose cat ringworm. You should call your veterinarian if you suspect your cat has this illness.

Neuro-linguistic programming, or NLP, was developed by John Grinder and Richard Bandler during the 1970s. Bandler and Grinder originally set out to study what set highly effective psychotherapists apart from the others in their field. What they ended up with was a methodology for self-improvement all its own.

NLP is different from traditional self-growth methods, positive thinking, and psychotherapies in that it focuses on what work, and relies on a method called modeling to copy and teach success. It sometimes disregards what we might believe to be true or false, and works off of certain presuppositions.

For example, it presupposes that if you want to make a change in your life, that you have all the resources that you need. Other presuppositions include things like there is no such thing as failure. As Tony Robbins tells us, you’re either getting the results you want or you’re not, but failure doesn’t really exist.

It doesn’t matter whether or not the presupposition is true as long as it is useful. For example, is a drill true? What, you never asked that question about a drill? I never have neither, but I’ve used one many times and it works just fine whether or not it’s true.

Another presupposition in NLP is that people work perfectly. In other words, even a drug addict who is on the way to killing himself is working perfectly (at killing themselves).

Some therapies seem to operate on the premise that there is something wrong with people and they need to be repaired in some way. This can be disempowering and tends to turn people into victims by reinforcing a belief that they’re in some way damaged or broken. This, in turn, gives people an excuse to repeat negative behavior in the future.

For example, let’s say you believe the following… I’m a poor learner, so I have trouble learning. Until I fix my problem with learning, I won’t be able to learn. You’re now a victim of your self proclaimed limitation. So you spend all your time on trying to fix your learning problems and not on actually learning anything. Often, people who have these self-imposed limitations absorbed them from other people, and they are not at all real.

Since another presupposition of neuro-linguistic programming is that you have all the resources at your disposal to make a change, you would focus on modeling the behaviors and beliefs of people who are better learners.

Life coaches, even those who don’t rely on NLP, use a similar approach wherein there is a belief that the present is perfect. Instead of being a victim, you accept that things are as they should be, and empower yourself to make the necessary changes in your life.

Another premise of success used in NLP is the fact that if someone can achieve success at something, then it can be modeled and achieved by someone else as well. Since NLP is based on what works, and not just a theory, it also uses the idea that if what you’re doing isn’t working, then adapt and change what you’re doing.

One of the most famous students of neuro-linguistic programming is Tony Robbins. Tony became very well known for showing people how to achieve quick turn-arounds in their lives, and developed his own brand of self-improvement in part, based on NLP techniques.

A fair amount of information on NLP is available online if you want to learn the basic techniques. There are also many practitioners you can work with to enhance your skills and understanding. If you’re looking for an effective and practical approach to life change, then this may do the trick.