Vet Times

Tag: lesions

  • Immunotherapy in cats

    Immunotherapy in cats

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    Although “off-licence”, immunotherapy is well worth considering in our pruritic feline friends. Of course we need to rule out all other causes of pruritus first: Ectoparasites: As well as all the usual suspects, don’t forget Demodex can occasionally cause ventral alopecia and pruritus (that’s the funny flat form, not the cigar shaped one). Food allergies:…

  • Treatment of cat ringworm carriers

    Treatment of cat ringworm carriers

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    Cats, particularly long-haired varieties, can be carriers of ringworm but show no clinical signs at all. Diagnosis in the absence of skin lesions is made by either Wood’s lamp over the entire body (only 50-60% of positives will fluoresce), or by taking coat brushings and incubating the hairs, follicles and debris in a dermatophyte test…

  • Role of bacterial colonisation in allergic skin disease

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    As spring warms up, my own nose and sinuses have detected increasing pollen levels, and there’s been a corresponding increase in pruritic patients coming across the threshold. I think the role of pyoderma in allergic skin disease is well established and accepted. However, it is not uncommon to see dogs with no obvious skin lesions that are…

  • Don’t remove a mass without knowing what it is

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    I came across a paper that advised we should know exactly what a mass is before surgery. The rationale being as follows (Ettinger, 2015): “Do something: aspirate or biopsy, and treat appropriately. “Why diagnose early? Obtaining a definitive diagnosis with cytology or biopsy early and before excision will lead to improved patient outcomes for superficial…

  • Buy a dental x-ray machine

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    If I am being perfectly honest, dentistry has never filled me with excitement. That said, attending a number of sessions on dentistry at the North American Veterinary Conference this year was fascinating and convinced me of the value of buying a dental x-ray machine. Goldstein (2015), to name but one speaker, evaluated the use of…

  • Sterile pyogranulomatous cysts are worth bearing in mind

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    I recently saw a very large, and very friendly bull mastiff that presented with what appeared to be typical interdigital cysts. These had been chronically recurrent and previous histopathology indicated a pyogranulomatous reaction. However his lesions responded poorly to three weeks’ of cephalexin antibiotic therapy and, in fact, he developed several lesions on his other feet. Cytology revealed mild bacterial colonisation, and it…

  • FMD and confidence

    FMD and confidence

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    I have been qualified for 16 years now, and all bar five months of that has been spent in small animal practice. Back in my day, Glasgow was one of the few vet schools to give its students hands-on surgical experience on real live patients. We all left with a checklist of things we had…