My daughter sends me a nice email from Zambia today: Is there anything we can do to control Spud's shedding. He seems to shed year round and an awful lot. My husband thinks it's more than any other dog he's ever known. I've asked him to describe it: "Extravagant quantities, insane quantities, how is he […]
Category Archives: Dermatology
One of our readers writes: I have 2 Chihuahuas, one weighs 10 pounds and the other weighs 15 pounds. They both have the same symptoms: scratching, biting and pulling out hair. My vet gave them both a long-acting cortisone injection June 1st, and the symptoms stopped. On July 2 they started again. I waited until […]
A client writes in, "What is Pyoderma?" Pyoderma means "pus in the skin". That is, infections in the hair follicles. Probably not fatal, but certainly very uncomfortable: sore and itchy. Most are secondary to some other condition: An allergy or mite infestation or contact irritation or fleas can cause excess scratching. This damages the skin […]
This little guy has localized demodecosis. He doesn't look bad at all, not like generalized demodecosis (aka, "red mange"). This is the "spot case" type of demodectic mange that almost always is self-limiting, i.e. the dog recovers whether you treat him or not. Since I've already talked about this at length in previous posts, why […]
Well, the treatment seems to be working, whether or not fiberglass is the actual cause of the problem. If you saw the original post, this picture will be familiar. After three days, things are looking a lot better. The kitty isn't chewing or scratching herself anymore. So, I have my hopes up.
This is "Patches", a 3-years old kitty who is a total house-cat, unless she escapes (which happens rarely). Three weeks ago, the owners had some kitchen vent-hood problems. An opening was created, allowing the cat access (via a series of jumps) to the attic crawlspace. The space is unfinished, with exposed joists and fiberglass bat […]
The June issue of Veterinary Forum magazine came, and was sitting on my desk (on top of the pile of journals and stuff). The cover illustration is the teaser for an article about treating pyoderma (Translation: Pus in the skin, or skin infections). It was really weird to have Star come in looking like she'd […]
Here's Ellie Mae again, back for another check-up, two weeks later. I had to shave a spot in order to do my follow-up skin scrapings. She has no areas of hair loss, no scabs, no scale, no nothing except healthy-looking hair and skin. Two skin scrapings yielded the shriveled carcass of one dead mange […]
At our four weeks follow-up, Ellie Mae was a lot better. This picture is a re-run from that last visit. Today, at 7 weeks of treatment, she looks almost normal from a distance. Her skin isn't lumpy-bumpy anymore. It's obvious that her new hair is shorter than her old hair, but that's not a problem. […]
So here's a follow-up to the case of Ellie Mae. I promised pictures and follow-up, and here we are. The treatment of choice for dogs with demodectic mange is daily dosing with 400 to 600 mcg/kg of ivermectin. The problem for Ellie Mae is that many Collies carry the MDR1 gene mutation, and these dogs […]
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