• DVM360_Conference_Charlotte,NC_banner
  • ACVCACVC
  • DVM 360
  • Fetch DVM 360Fetch DVM 360
DVM 360
dvm360 | Veterinary News, Veterinarian Insights, Medicine, Pet Care
dvm360 | Veterinary News, Veterinarian Insights, Medicine, Pet Care
By Role
AssociatesOwnersPractice ManagerStudentsTechnicians
Subscriptions
dvm360 Newsletterdvm360 Magazine
News
All News
Association
Breaking News
Education
Equine
FDA
Law & Ethics
Market Trends
Medical
Politics
Products
Recalls
Regulatory
Media
dvm360 LIVE!™
Expert Interviews
The Vet Blast Podcast
Medical World News
Pet Connections
The Dilemma Live
Vet Perspectives™
Weekly Newscast
dvm360 Insights™
Publications
All Publications
dvm360
Firstline
Supplements
Vetted
Clinical
All Clinical
Anesthesia
Animal Welfare
Behavior
Cardiology
CBD in Pets
Dentistry
Dermatology
Diabetes
Emergency & Critical Care
Endocrinology
Equine Medicine
Exotic Animal Medicine
Feline Medicine
Gastroenterology
Imaging
Infectious Diseases
Integrative Medicine
Nutrition
Oncology
Ophthalmology
Orthopedics
Pain Management
Parasitology
Surgery
Toxicology
Urology & Nephrology
Virtual Care
Business
All Business
Business & Personal Finance
Hospital Design
Personnel Management
Practice Finances
Practice Operations
Wellbeing & Lifestyle
Continuing Education
Conferences
Conference Listing
Conference Proceedings
Upcoming dvm360 Conferences
Resources
CBD in Pets
CE Requirements by State
Contests
Partners
Spotlight Series
Team Meeting in a Box
Toolkit
Top Recommended Veterinary Products
Vet to Vet
Veterinary Heroes
  • Contact Us
  • Fetch DVM360 Conference
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy
  • Do Not Sell My Information
  • About Us

© 2023 MJH Life Sciences and dvm360 | Veterinary News, Veterinarian Insights, Medicine, Pet Care. All rights reserved.

Advertisement
By Role
  • Associates
  • Owners
  • Practice Manager
  • Students
  • Technicians
Subscriptions
  • dvm360 Newsletter
  • dvm360 Magazine
  • Contact Us
  • Fetch DVM360 Conference
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Privacy
  • Do Not Sell My Information
  • About Us
  • MJHLS Brand Logo

© 2023 MJH Life Sciences™ and dvm360 | Veterinary News, Veterinarian Insights, Medicine, Pet Care. All rights reserved.

The Itchy Dog: A Multimodal Approach: Dermatologic & Behavioral Considerations - Episode 3

Minimum Dermatologic Database of an Itchy Dog

June 18, 2021

EP. 1: Signs and Symptoms of an Itchy Dog
EP. 2: Role of Patient History for the Workup of an Itchy Dog
Now Viewing
EP. 3: Minimum Dermatologic Database of an Itchy Dog
EP. 4: Multimodal Approach to an Itchy Dog
EP. 5: Considerations for Treating Anxiety for an Itchy Dog
EP. 6: Transitioning Allergic Dogs to Post-Pandemic Life
EP. 7: Calming Methods for Restless Itchy Dogs
EP. 8: Treatment of Itchy Dogs: General Practitioners
EP. 9: Behavioral Side Effects When Treating Itchy Dogs
EP. 10: Future of Dogs Adopted During COVID-19
Advertisement

Ashley Bourgeois, DVM, DACVD: It’s probably important for us, as we’re talking about itchy dogs, to discuss the minimum database of an itchy dog. Dermatologically, unless you want to do some psychologies, I’m going to guess that it’s probably something that I should cover. As far as minimum database, I’m always an advocate for cytology everything. The big reason is, in a majority of these cases, we’re looking for things like secondary infection. If I find something like malassezia or a pyoderma under the microscope, there is a significant portion of dogs for whom you just treat that infection and there’s going to be some portion of their pruritus that gets better. That doesn’t mean I always just treat the infection, because depending on that history and the severity of the infections, severity of the lesions, we might need to use other antipruritic just to address the allergic itch. But if I just put them on the antipruritic, and it doesn’t matter what it is, Apoquel, Cytopoint, steroids, Atopica. If you don’t address the itch that’s associated with the infection, they don’t seem to get better.

That goes for rechecks, and that goes for cases I’ve managed for years. Even my cases break with flares, and we need to identify those. We don’t want to give up on crucial antipruritic therapy if it truly would be effective for that pet, just because of a flare that happened because summer came, or twice a year they get a little infection that we can get a hold of. That’s also going to lean into why the multimodal approach is so crucial for these dogs, because things like bathing and topical therapy can really help minimize those outbreaks, so we’re not giving up on really important therapy.

But then we have to think about other diagnostics too. I love cytology, obviously. But there are other things we have to be really thoughtful of. Skin scrape, certainly we don’t want to miss a case of sarcoptic mange. There’s a form of demodex that can be itchy. Not the classic, demodex canis, that we think about. But skin scraping to find those pruritic mites can be important because even if we put them on an antipruritic and treat their infection, if we’re worried that they have scabies, they’re not going to get better. In fact, they might get worse because you’re just given more time for those mites to keep replicating. Certainly, things like dermatophyte cultures. I don’t dermatophyte culture every case that comes in the door by any means, but when I’m suspicious of a case that’s not responding, I see a lot of pyogranulomas inflammation under the microscope to see if there are other pets in the household that are affected or there’s people. I recently had a person that had a rash from their dog having dermatophyte. Going back to the history, if I’m seeing nasal lesions, and they’re digging in rodent holes, I’m worried they could have trichophyton. Then that can be important to identify.

Basic things. We always used to say, “Scrape, look, smear.” You’re doing your cytology, doing your skin scrapes. Then doing your dermatophyte culture, you feel like it’s warranted in that case, it can be important. Finally, we cannot ignore that some of these cases need to be biopsied. I have biopsied cases that end up coming back as allergies. Sometimes you get terrible erythematous scaly skin, and you don’t want to miss something like a random lymphoma case, or a pemphigus case where you can’t tell if it is crusty but there’s not that much infection under the microscope. It’s not wrong to biopsy cases, especially if they’re nonresponsive to therapy, because we don’t want to miss a diagnosis that might not truly be allergies. Then, of course, there are things like cultures and intradermal testing, which we do as specialists. Really homing in on those diagnostics are important. At a minimum, we have to cytology everything, identify the infection, and then scrape, dermatophyte biopsy, depending on where that case falls.

Transcript edited for clarity.

Related Content:

The Itchy Dog: A Multimodal Approach: Dermatologic & Behavioral Considerations
Future of Dogs Adopted During COVID-19
Future of Dogs Adopted During COVID-19
Behavioral Side Effects When Treating Itchy Dogs
Behavioral Side Effects When Treating Itchy Dogs
Treatment of Itchy Dogs: General Practitioners
Treatment of Itchy Dogs: General Practitioners
Advertisement

Latest News

The four-letter word to why you're burning out and feeling unproductive

Merck Manuals recognizes importance of One Health concept

Topical therapy and immunotherapy can save time and frustration with dermatology cases

Texas Tech appoints new faculty member with passion for animal agriculture

View More Latest News
Advertisement