Response to Therapy in Three Cases of Canine Bullous Pemphigoid
World Small Animal Veterinary Association World Congress Proceedings, 2009
M.M. Bezerra; C.P. Souza; R.C. Novais; T.N. França; R.R. Ramadinha
Universidade Federal Rural Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Bullous pemphigoid is a very rare autoimmune disorder of skin or oral mucosa or both, reported in dogs, cats and humans. The clinical signs are a vesiculobullous, blistering, erosive, ulcerative and crusting dermatitis. These lesions can be in the oral cavity, in the skin and mucocutaneous junctions. Definitive diagnosis is based on clinical history, physical examination, cytology and histopathology of the skin and mucosal, which can be characteristic or strongly suggestive. Therapy of canine bullous pemphigoid may be difficult and sometimes the animals are not responsive and require large doses of systemic glucocorticoids with or without other potent immunomodulating drugs. The purpose of this report is to describe the response to therapy in three cases of canine bullous pemphigoid attended at the Dermatology Sector of the Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro. The first case, a four years old male, Cocker spaniel was presenting halitosis and ulcers all over his oral cavity and depigmentation and ulcers of nasal planum. The second, a seven years old bitch, crossbreed, had similar lesions, in addition with injuries in the pinnae and footpads. In the third case, an 11 years old male crossbreed dog, the ulcers were observed all over the oral cavity, nasal planum and pinnae; in the dorsal skin and groin there were a scaling and crusting dermatitis. The histological features of these three cases were examined and included the characteristics subepidermal vesicles and clefts with moderate lichenoid inflammation with neutrophils and eosinophils. The association of the clinical and histological finds allows the diagnosis of bullous pemphigoid in these dogs. All the three animals were treated with prednisone (2mg/kg/SID) and fatty acids for the first 30 days and the response was good in animals numbers 1 and 3. The maintenance treatment began when decreased the steroid therapy and was done with tetracycline plus niacinamide (500mg/dog/TID) for the Cocker spaniel and with azathioprine (2mg/kg/SID) for the third dog. The Cocker spaniel showed the best response and is under control, without lesions for about 6 years and takes the medicines only every other day. The second dog is also well with azathioprine. The female dog doesn't improve and was euthanized three months later. No side effects were observed in these animals.

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M.M. Bezerra
Universidade Federal Rural Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil


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