Felis ISSN 2398-2950

Congenital hypotrichosis

Introduction

• Cause: rare congenital disorder of hair follicles.
• Signs: decreased or absent hair coat from birth.
• Diagnosis: clinical signs +/- skin biopsy Biopsy: skin.
• Treatment: none.
• Prognosis: cosmetic only.
• Pili tortiis a separate, rare, congenital disorder with rotation of the secondary hairs.
• Diffuse thinning of hair coat by 10 days  →  generated alopecia, pedal dermatitis and paronychia.

Pathogenesis

Etiology

• Autosomal recessive in Birman and Siamese cats.
• Mode of inheritance not elucidated in other breeds.

Pathophysiology

• Congenital non-color-linked hair loss +/- additional ectodermal defects.

• Genetic coding for hypotrichosis (Birman and Siamese)   →   hair follicles and adnexa (sebaceous glands, sweat glands and arrector pili muscles) absent or hypoplastic and decreased in number   →   hairless or thin coat from birth.
• May be associated with thymic aplasia in Burmese Hypotrichosis with thymic aplasia.
• Failure of ectodermal (hypotrichosis) and entodermal (thymic aplasia) development.

Timecourse

• Lifelong.

Diagnosis

Treatment

Prevention

Outcomes