Hairless Cat with Red Lines:

Hi Dr. Moffat: I saw your web site and thought you might be able to help with this.  My friends in Russia have a Donskoy (hairless cat) that has these red lines.  They are not ring worm. The vets do not know what it is.  It is also seen on hairless cats in Canada & France.  The vets don’t seem to know what to do about it.  I’ll attach pictures. It appears on the underside of the cats and sometimes up the sides.  Some vets think it is hormonal….Thank you for your time, Virginia   Insert picture here.

Dear Virginia: I’m testing it is normal (that according to my Guides when I ask them). So …maybe it is supposed to be a “classic tabby” marking? I wonder if the mutated hair follicles are influenced by temperature or hormones? Is the cat always looking like that? Or under only certain circumstances? This seems appropriate.  

One situation that comes to mind is that if you shave a Siamese the hair grows back brown on the place that has been shaven. Then, when that brown hair falls out (and the temperature in that specific area is back to normal) the hair comes back in normal color. Hope that helps.  

Dr. Moffat’s note: Virginia didn’t like that answer but hey, I didn’t know what else to tell her. I can only relay the answers my Guides give me for these strange kinds of things. I did email the picture to several of my vet friends and they had never seen anything like it either. I wonder if her cat was the offspring of a domestic classic tabby though as in this particular breed the hairless gene is dominant. Who knows.

Other hairless cat breeds: Sphynx, devon rex,