Occurrence and Cytopathology of Cutaneous Affection of Dogs in Meerut, U.P

Abstract

Cutaneous affections are very common in dogs and sometimes, they are very hard to get rid of even when started treatment as early. The causative agents of several cutaneous affections of dogs thrive in their close vicinity and are tough to eliminate, so, it requires an utmost care to completely eliminate these agents and also, there are several factors that affect the progression of disease that includes the ambient temperature, diet, breed of dog (as some breeds have abounding hairs that can harbour many etiological agents like fleas, tick, mites etc.) and any underlying ailment. Cytology is the commonest and rapid informative diagnostic tool in practice of dermatology. It is simple to perform and requires few equipment's usually already present in most practices. With little practice the practitioner can easily become familiar with the sample interpretation from inflammatory lesions, including recognition of bacteria, yeast, dermatophyte spores and hyphae, deeper fungal elements and parasites. Additionally, the practitioner can easily become familiar with sample interpretation from inflammatory cells seen with these conditions as well as keratinocytes morphology. During the study period disease investigations were conducted on cutaneous affections in dogs and all the relevant data pertaining to general health animals, clinical records, diet followed, and environmental factors were recorded. Samples that were collected from the clinically ill 75 dogs are direct impression smears from wet skin lesions, acetate tape method of impression in case of dry skin lesions, fine needle aspiration of nodules and tumors. Tissue samples from surgically excised tumors/masses, swabs from lesions suspected for any bacterial infection and skin scrapings for studying cytopathological changes. After processing and studying many different cases and their occurrence was recorded. In the present study, out of 75 cases of skin diseases noticed, 60% were in males and 40% were in males. And age-based classification revealed 21% occurrence in dogs below 6 months of age and 79% were above 6 months. While Pitbull, Pug, Labrador, GSD and American bully were the frequently affected breeds. Pyoderma as the most prevalent condition (33%) and followed by fungal dermatitis (24%), yeast dermatitis (17.33%), demodicosis (7%), pemphigus complex (4%) and other affections like flea dermatitis, acral lick dermatitis, pododermatitis, allergic dermatitis make up the rest. We noticed grossly papules were the most common clinical manifestation seen around 61% followed by scales (33.33%), nodular papules (30%), pustules (26.6%), erosions and ulceration 23%, plaques and nodules (17%) and hyperpigmentation (13%). In 89% of cases, mixed presentation of gross lesions being noticed. Out of the 75 cases examined, cytologically fungal dermatitis, Malassezia infection, demodicosis, superficial pyoderma, deep pyoderma, sterile pyogranulomatous dermatitis, granulomas, tumors, acral lick dermatitis, pemphigus folliaceous, allergic dermatitis, abscess and otitis were recorded. Four was mammary gland tumor, one was mast cell tumor and 1 was cutaneous lymphoma and 2 cases of fibroma. In the mammary gland tumor, papillary adenocarcinoma in one case, and remaining mixed mammary gland tumor. Out of the total 75 samples examined by skin scraping examination, 15 cases were positive for Demodex canis. Demodex were also seen in cases of pododermatitis and, otitis externa. Malassezia globosa identified in the present study was first report of this type of yeast in dogs in India. It was associated with generalized malassezia infection and otitis in dogs. In the present study, we isolated staphylococcus spp. (5) and Streptococcus spp. (1) from skin lesions and its antibiotic sensitivity were also conducted.