Services - Medical & Dental

Dermatology & Allergy

The integumentary system is the largest organ system comprising skin, hair, nails, footpads as well as glands and their products. The dermatology & allergy service provides diagnosis, treatment or management of a variety of conditions affecting an animal’s integumentary system, including:

   - Skin infections (bacterial such as pyoderma due to Staphylococci and other bacteria,
     fungal/yeast such as ringworm and Malassezia dermatitis, viral)

   - Allergic skin diseases (environmental allergies or atopy or allergy to pollens, molds and dust
     mites, food allergies, allergies due to the bites of insects such as fleas and mosquitoes)

   - Endocrine/ metabolic skin diseases (Cushings disease, Hypothyroidism)

   - Auto-immune skin diseases (pemphigus foliaceus and others)

   - Skin cancers and cutaneous paraneoplastic syndromes.

Our veterinary staff is also skilled in the diagnosis and treatment of the following conditions:

   - Chronic or recurrent ear canal and middle ear infections (otitis).
   - Hair loss (alopecia)
   - Foot and footpad diseases (pododermatitis)
   - Nail disorders
   - “Hot spots” (acute moist dermatitis)
   - Acral Lick Dermatitis
   - Cutaneous drug reactions
   - Genetic/congenital skin diseases

Listed below are some of the more common diagnostic tests or procedures we perform:

   - Skin and ear cytology
   - Fine needle aspirate
   - Skin and ear bacterial culture
   - Skin fungal culture
   - Acetate tape preparation
   - Skin scraping
   - Trichogram
   - Flea combing
   - Wood’s lamp examination
   - Hormone level testing to evaluate hormonal causes of skin diseases
   - Intradermal/skin allergy testing for atopic dermatitis
   - Serologic allergy testing for atopic dermatitis
   - Allergen specific immunotherapy
   - Food elimination trials
   - Skin biopsies (most biopsies will not require general anesthesia)
   - Medicated bathing
   - Skin mass removal