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Case Reports
. 2025 Jun 15;12(6):589.
doi: 10.3390/vetsci12060589.

Oclacitinib Treatment and Surgical Management in a Case of Periocular Eosinophilic Furunculosis and Vasculitis with Secondary Eyelid Fusion in a Diabetic Cat

Sarah Ehling  1 , Anne Helene Marx  1 , Claudia Busse  1 , Andreas Beineke  2 , Andrea Vanessa Volk  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Oclacitinib Treatment and Surgical Management in a Case of Periocular Eosinophilic Furunculosis and Vasculitis with Secondary Eyelid Fusion in a Diabetic Cat

Sarah Ehling et al. Vet Sci. .

Abstract

A 10-year-old male neutered British Shorthair cat with diabetes mellitus presented with an acute onset of unilateral swelling, erythema, alopecia and coalescing ulcerations of the face and periocular skin. Initial clinical differential diagnoses were trauma, infections (including feline respiratory viruses), arthropod bites, and eosinophilic dermatoses such as eosinophilic granuloma complex, mosquito-bite hypersensitivity and cutaneous adverse drug reaction. Histopathology revealed fulminant furunculosis with abundant eosinophils and vasculitis. Initial topical glucocorticoid treatment partially improved the clinical signs but severely raised serum glucose levels. As a result, systemic glucocorticoids and ciclosporin were not considered optimal treatments, and the off-label and short-term use of oclacitinib was chosen with the owner's informed consent. This treatment induced fast remission of clinical signs with no recurrence for 17 months. Secondary fusion of the eyelids caused by cicatrization was surgically reconstructed to restore full function.

Keywords: diabetes mellitus; eosinophilic furunculosis of the face; oclacitinib.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Timeline of progression of a ten-year old cat with suspected eosinophilic furunculosis. (a). Initial presentation three weeks post disease onset. (b). Four weeks. (c). Five weeks. (d). Three months. (e). Five days post ocular surgery. (f). Seventeen months post ocular surgery.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Histopathology H&E staining: eosinophilic furunculosis with secondary vasculitis. (a). Furunculosis with lymphohistiocytic inflammation and abundant eosinophils; (b,c). lymphohistiocytic inflammation with abundant eosinophils and vasculitis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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