Newton has a black spot stretching up his philtrum, the vertical groove in his nose. You may have noticed that it looks like he’s always a little dirty there, but he’s a very clean cat. He has lentigo.
Lentigo simplex a genetic condition in orange, calico, and tortoiseshell cats resulting in dark spots found which can begin appearing as early as when the cat is a year old. The lentigines (the fancy plural word for lentigo) begin appearing first on a cat’s lips, small and having no symptoms. Unless your cat spends time checking out his lips in the mirror, he won’t know they are there because he can’t feel them any more than a human feels freckles.
Unlike freckles, lentigines don’t change appearance by time of year or by the amount of sun exposure your cat gets. Once your cat has lentigines, it may get larger, or others may follow. Spreading along his lips, gums, nose, and even appearing on his eyelids and/or the inside of his ears. They can even appear on your cat’s footpads.
Newton has a pretty mild case of lentigo. Other cats have much more distinctive lentigines.
The good news is that lentigo is just cosmetic, and it doesn’t develop into melanoma. The only bad news is that there’s no way to at a glance for you at home to tell lentigines apart from melanomas. If you’re ever concerned about a spot on your cat, especially if it changes in size or becomes raised or tender, see your vet to be on the safe side.
Reference and Further Reading
Muller and Kirk’s Small Animal Dermatology7: Muller and Kirk’s Small Animal Dermatology, Hyperpigmentation: Genetic, Lentigo Simplex in Orange Cats
Problem-based Feline Medicine, Hyperpigmentation (Lentigo Simplex)
University of Sydney Centre for Veterinary Education, Lentigines
Photo Credit
flickr/ilovebutter
Sparkle developed one freckle on her nose – ruddy, the color she and I both are, is sort of a brownish-orange color, so that does not surprise me.
How interesting! We never knew that is what it is called. I’ve developed freckles on my nose and stuff in my mouth and the mom has asked the vet about it who told her it wasn’t anything to worry about. ~Wally
Newton you’re gorgeous and thank you for that creative pose so we could see the spot on your nose. Being calicos and therefore potential “spot recipients” this is very useful info for us in case we see any. Thank you for posting this.
I WONDER IF GRAY AND WHITE CATS CAN HAVE LENTIGO?
I HAVE TWO BLACK FRECKLES ON MY NOSE AND MY PADS ARE ALTERNATELY BLACK AND PINK
Hugs madi your bfff
Angel Tamir had that! We never knew what the “official” name was….thanks for the info!
The Florida Furkids
OMC I have lived with cats for almost 40 years now and this is the first I’ve ever heard of lentigo!!! And that’s after living with 3 torties now too! Thank you so much for the amazing information.
That’s very interesting, we didn’t know that ! Purrs
our previous orange tabby had freckles like that….how interesting
So interesting! Carmine seems to have a black freckle on his nose….now I’m wondering if it may not be a freckle at all.
Dang, I sure didn’t know that one!
Buster has a few freckles on his nose. We didn’t know when this developed.
My Sammy is orange and white and has freckles on his nose. I didn’t adopt him until he was almost 5 so I don’t know when they developed.
Look at you with all of the fancy terms, i absolutely love it!! and I do say I am a huge fan of Lintigo
dood….yur nose haz characturr !!!! 🙂 cuzin perk o lator had a few freckles in her day
tho we never new de troo term for them ….thanx for sharin thiz post !! ♥♥♥
This is very interesting! I hadn’t heard of these before. I’m glad to know that there is no danger in a cat having these. I think that Newton is adorable just the way he is. 🙂
Eric had five nose freckles and one on his lip. I only have one on my lip. Mum knew they were lentigos but told Eric they were his beauty spots.
Well, you know the little pest Izzy has an orange freckle on his nose. My old bro Russell didn’t, though. His nose was perfectly pink!
Wow! This was an interesting post! We always thought they were called freckles!
Whoa! I hope it’s not contagious. Fur facts I didn’t know.
Waffles seems to get more freckles as he gets older.
Katie, though a tuxie, has an unusually striped pattern on her lips. They are half pink and half black!
I have a nose freckle! Didn’t know it was something lots of us marmies have. purrs
Purrs,
Seville
I didn’t know those spots had a name. None of us have any spots but I guess I could get some. I am sort of a little calico.
Awesome post! I never knew there was a name for the freckles, but I watch Lowenstein very closely for new ones. Harvey only has them in his mouth for now.
I understand the freckle marks/dots on noses, but my long haired Calico, Maggie, doesn’t have freckles. Her entire nose is outlined in a dark color. I rescued her from the shelter so she is about 2 yrs old.
Completely outlined tho?? No spots inside the outline as if yet.
My orange tabby developed a couple of lentigo… at first I thought it was dirt, when I realized it wasn’t – I started to freak out!!! The next stop was the vet!! Thankfully I came across this article!!! I will keep an eye on his nose and continue deep breathing!!! 😻😻😻