Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Skin problems in a 10-year-old Catahoula Leopard dog
By Jaffey, Jared A et al.·Published in Topics in companion animal medicine·2025·Department of Specialty Medicine, United States·View original on PubMed →
PetCaseFinder translated the abstract of this peer-reviewed paper into plain English so pet owners can read it. We do not publish original research — every detail traces back to the citation above. How we work →
Original publication title: Dermal pathology in a Catahoula Leopard dog with Dermasparaxis Ehlers Danlos syndrome caused by a homozygous ADAMTS2 missense variant.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A nearly 10-year-old Catahoula Leopard dog was diagnosed with a rare condition called dermatosparaxis Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which causes extreme skin fragility. This dog showed milder symptoms compared to others with the same genetic issue, as a skin biopsy revealed fewer and irregularly shaped collagen fibers. While dogs with severe forms of this condition often face serious complications early in life, this dog managed to live for nearly a decade. The findings suggest that some dogs can have a less severe form of this syndrome, allowing for a longer life despite the skin issues.
People also search for: Catahoula Leopard dog skin problems · Ehlers-Danlos syndrome in dogs · dog skin fragility treatment
Abstract
Dermatosparaxis is a subtype of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (dEDS) that typically results in euthanasia of dogs in the first several months of life because of complications mostly related to extreme skin fragility. The goal of this report was to describe ultrastructural features of collagen fibrils from a dog with a milder form of dEDS. A skin biopsy sample was procured from a nearly 10-year-old Catahoula Leopard dog with dEDS associated with a previously published homozygous missense variant in ADAMTS2. Light and electron microscopic examinations were performed. Light microscopic examination of the skin sample revealed a substantially reduced density of collagen fibers that were randomly oriented and appeared to have a decreased length. Electron microscopic examination revealed diameters of the fibrils were variable, and scattered fibrils had irregular cross-sectional profiles, but lacked the "hieroglyphic" appearance identified in dogs with the frameshift variant in ADAMTS2. Like other species with dEDS, dogs can have variable disease severities that includes dermal collagen abnormalities.
Find similar cases for your pet
PetCaseFinder finds other peer-reviewed reports of pets with the same symptoms, plus a plain-English summary of what was tried across them.
Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40086505/