Bizarre Skin Condition Leaves Hairless Cats Covered in Swirling Patterns

Veterinary researchers are shining a light on an oddly mesmerizing skin condition found in hairless sphynx cats. The condition, called figurate erythema, causes the cats to develop intricate, swirling rashes all over their body. There is no clear explanation yet for why figurate erythema happens, though it seems to be rare, relatively harmless, and often temporary.

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Erythema is a broad medical term for skin redness (one example would be erythema migrans, the bull’s eye rash seen with lyme disease). Figurate erythema, or FE, is a known condition in humans, characterized by ring- or arc-shaped rashes. In people, it’s often a symptom of underlying health problems, such as infection or autoimmune issue, rather than a disease itself.

For some time now, cat owners, breeders, and veterinarians have occasionally reported similar rashes on sphynx cats. But according to study author Ekaterina Mendoza-Kuznetsova, there’s been little research conducted on feline FE. So she and her coauthors decided to do it themselves.

“While I worked in Moscow, Russia, I and my colleagues saw them regularly. Their clinical presentation is so unique and fascinating, that it was very interesting to try to investigate this condition a little bit deeper,” Mendoza-Kuznetsova, now a clinical veterinarian and professor at Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, told Gizmodo in an email. “Also, there are many theories about this disorder among breeders and owners, as well as veterinarians, so we wanted to try to answer at least a few of the questions about what it is.”

Figurate erythema documented in several sphynx cats. Image: Mendoza- Kuznetsova, et al/Veterinary Dermatology

They sent a call out through local, national, and international veterinary listservs, primarily around the Baltic Sea region of Europe, asking surgeons to report potential cases of FE in sphynx breeds. They ultimately identified 11 such cases, finding a few common threads between the reports.

All but one of the cases occurred in male cats, for instance, and most began to show symptoms before the age of one. As alarming as the rashes may have been to the pet owners, the cats generally didn’t show any other signs of a systemic illness or co-occurring disease (one cat was reported to vomit occasionally around the time its rashes began), nor did any of the cats test positive for a common fungal culprit of skin infections. The most hassle that FE seemed to cause the cats was itchiness in some. Potential treatments like antibiotics or lifestyle changes like a new diet didn’t appear to affect the course of symptoms. Though the rashes sometimes left and returned, they typically improved or even completely went away on their own eventually.

The findings, published last month in the journal Veterinary Dermatology, are reportedly the first to formally document FE in Eastern European sphynx cats. Given the lack of underlying illness, the authors argue that FE in sphynx cats doesn’t share much in common with the FE found in humans and should be considered its own distinct version. In these cats, it’s likely just a cosmetic condition, Mendoza-Kuznetsova said, and usually not a sign of bigger health problems. Since FE seems to show up most often in very young males, there might be a genetic predisposition to developing it. It’s also possible that FE can appear in other breeds, but since it only shows up rarely in sphynx cats, it might be even less likely in “haired” cats.

For now, though, Mendoza-Kuznetsova notes that the research is just the first step in understanding the condition.

“I think that the next logical step will be to investigate a possible genetic background of this condition,” she said. “During our study, we collected some additional material from the affected cats when it was possible, so we or my colleagues may conduct a next study focusing on genetic analysis.”

Meanwhile, sphynx owners can rest easy if they suspect that their cat has FE, though some precaution and documentation of the problem might be warranted.

“Since this condition seems to be more cosmetic, I believe the owners of affected cats should not have much concern if their cats develop the lesions. But I would still recommend visiting a veterinarian, and preferably a dermatologist, to make sure the cat doesn’t suffer from any other more serious condition which may look clinically similar,” said Mendoza-Kuznetsova. “Also, the more reports we get about this condition from different countries, the better understanding about the distribution and progress of the disorder we will have.”