1. Perianal pruritus beyond anal sac disease

Pet owners can get pretty embarrassed and sensitive when their dog relentlessly focuses on scooting and licking its rear.  We automatically expect to find anal sac disease, but sometimes they are normal. This study confirmed that atopic dermatitis (AD) and adverse food reaction (AFR) are the two dermatological conditions that are most frequently associated with perianal pruritus not associated with anal sac disease, occurring in about 50% of both AD and AFR dogs (Maina, Galzerano et al. 2014).

2. Susceptibility differences among Malassezia pachydermatits isolates

This study compared the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of ketoconazole and itraconazole for M. pachydermatis isolates from normal dogs or those with atopic dermatitis. The authors found a significant difference, with isolates from dogs with AD having significantly higher MICs (Watanabe, Koike et al. 2014).

3. File this in the "natural does not equal safe" file

Over an 11-year period, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center recorded 443 cases (337 dogs, 106 cats) of toxicity to intentionally or accidentally applied 100% tea trea oil (Khan, McLean et al. 2014). Common signs were salivation, drooling, depression, paresis, ataxia and tremors. Well-intentioned people make poor choices and need your guidance.  We need to make an extra effort to educate them about potential dangers.

4. A link between second-hand smoke and atopic dermatitis in dogs

Passive smoking has been associated with the development of atopic dermatitis in children. This study found that a high level of passive smoking is a risk factor for dogs being diagnosed with atopic dermatitis (odds ratio 4.38). Will that give somebody the extra incentive they might need to quit smoking? Who knows? (Ka, Marignac et al. 2014)

5. What is the value of a serum allergy test?

If you were to take four samples from a pustule and send each to different laboratories for bacterial culture and susceptibility testing, you would expect to get similar, if not identical results from the labs, right?  If no two labs agreed with each other, there was no gold-standard reference available, and empirical antibiotic therapy was just as effective as when chosen based on these variable results, how would you justify routinely submitting a culture? Could you recommend it to a client with a straight face? Of course not!  Yet, that is the situation we now find ourselves in with canine "allergen-specific" IgE assays.

In our study, we showed that the agreement between four major veterinary allergy testing labs was only slightly better than one would expect by chance alone (Plant, Neradelik et al. 2014).  This was also true of the treatment recommendations from the labs. Altogether, 85% of allergenic extract treatment recommendations for 10 dogs were unique to just one laboratory or another! This didn't come as a surprise to many who have done a lot of allergy testing over the years, but was still recognized as the top clinical research presentation at the ECVD/ESVD meeting in 2013.  It was a wake-up call to see just how poor the agreement was, and supported the concept behind prescribing regionally-specific immunotherapy (RESPIT®) without allergy testing.

References

Ka, D., G. Marignac, L. Desquilbet, L. Freyburger, B. Hubert, D. Garelik and S. Perrot (2014). "Association between passive smoking and atopic dermatitis in dogs." Food Chem Toxicol 66: 329-333.

Khan, S. A., M. K. McLean and M. R. Slater (2014). "Concentrated tea tree oil toxicosis in dogs and cats: 443 cases (2002-2012)." J Am Vet Med Assoc 244(1): 95-99.

Maina, E., M. Galzerano and C. Noli (2014). "Perianal pruritus in dogs with skin disease." Vet Dermatol 25(3): 204-209, e251-202.

Plant, J. D., M. B. Neradelik, N. L. Polissar, V. A. Fadok and B. A. Scott (2014). "Agreement between allergen-specific IgE assays and ensuing immunotherapy recommendations from four commercial laboratories in the USA." Vet Dermatol 25(1): 15-e16.

Watanabe, S., A. Koike, R. Kano, M. Nagata, C. Chen, C. Y. Hwang, A. Hasegawa and H. Kamata (2014). "In vitro susceptibility of Malassezia pachydermatis isolates from canine skin with atopic dermatitis to ketoconazole and itraconazole in East Asia." J Vet Med Sci 76(4): 579-581.