Disease Description: A skin disease caused by a dog's reaction to an inhalant allergy

Inherit Mode: -

Disease Symptom: Dogs with atopic dermatitis usually have physical signs commonly seen in other skin diseases, such as flea bite hypersensitivity, food hypersensitivity, contact dermatitis, scabies, intestinal parasite hypersensitivity, folliculitis, pelodera dermatitis, and hookworm dermatitis.

Disease Cause: -

Disease Diagnose: Diagnosis of allergies is a complicated task. The investigation of a suspected allergic dog should include rigorous treatment for external parasites and secondary bacterial and yeast infections which often complicate and contribute to the itch. A diagnosis of food intolerance is made in 2-10% of 'itchy' dogs. It can be controlled without using drugs and is worth ruling out by introducing an elimination diet followed by dietary challenge to confirm the diagnosis. Elimination diets are time consuming and require considerable owner commitment. It can be up to 3 months before the dog stops scratching. Once other causes of itch have been ruled out, specific tests to detect allergic antibodies to environmental allergens can be undertaken to confirm the diagnosis of atopy.Skin tests can be used to determine the allergens to which the animal is hypersensitive.

Treat Method: Unfortunately, dogs rarely 'grow out' of their allergies and most atopic dogs require lifelong therapy. Various treatments are available and your veterinarian will recommend the best regime. Ciclosporin (Atopica; Novartis Animal Health; cyclosporine, cyclosporin A or CsA) has been licensed for canine atopic dermatitis (AD) since 2002.

Breeder Advice: Affected animals should not be used for breeding. The breeders of atopic animals should be informed if a particular sire and dam produced affected offspring and this should influence decisions regarding future breeding. Neem oil can be considered as effective and is beneficial for dogs with atopic dermatitis. Recent findings suggest that daily application of a 0.0584% hydrocortisone aceponate (HCA) spray not only provided short-term alleviation of clinical signs associated with atopic dermatitis, but also improved skin barrier function, which is associated with the disease.

Disease Description Source: Link