Six Dastardly Derm Myths

This podcast episode, and all Itchy Pet Awareness Month content, is sponsored by Apoquel.

Today is the official beginning of Itchy Pet Awareness Month. To kick it off, this special episode of The Vet Blast Podcast presented by dvm360, welcomes Lissa Capitano DVM, CCFP, to the show to discuss 6 veterinary dermatology myths. Throughout the episode, Capitano and our host Adam Christman, DVM, MBA, bust each of the 6 myths and provide insights into why they are not true, and what the science and research says, plus a deep dive into the caregiver burden that comes with an itchy pet.

Below is a partial transcript, edited lightly for clarity.

Adam Christman, DVM, MBA: Myth number 1, all itch is the same. I mean, here, I don't know, what are your thoughts on that?

Lissa Capitano DVM, CCFP: Okay, well, this is kind of an easy one, because we sort of know that it's really not the same, right? And I like starting with the easy ones. I don't know about you, I would rather fry those little fish first. I think what's important to remember is that itchiness can show up very differently in our patients. We can see a couple of things though, that help give us an idea of what's actually causing the problem. So the first thing we're going to look at is what allergens are causing the disease. So what's actually the trigger for that particular patient? The other thing we can look at that can give us some clues is when that itchiness develops. So when we start looking at what allergens cause dogs to itch, you and I could be here all night, my friend, there are so many things out there that can induce allergic itch in dogs and fleas. Of course, parasites are on the list, food allergies. We know that's out there, and then there's countless environmental allergens.

So to make it even more complicated, most dogs are not just allergic to one thing. They're usually allergic to multiple things. So that can make it a little harder to find that definitive diagnosis of what their triggers are. Now, when the itchiness appears can also help us. So you're going to have patients that come in with acute disease, like a big old hot spot. You'll start seeing these in August, [and] Itchy Pet Awareness Month is [in August] for a reason, right? So we'll start seeing those, especially in the summer. And then you can have them be seasonal, so maybe they're the patients that come in in your spring and your fall, or you see them maybe just in the summer months.

And then we have our little ones that have chronic allergies, and those are the ones that are kind of regularly on your schedule, and you see fairly frequently. And here's the even harder thing about this is sometimes you can start out maybe as a seasonal patient, but then this patient develops chronic allergies over time, so there's a whole lot of moving parts and pieces aren't there?