Azithromycin pharmacokinetics in the serum and its distribution to the skin in healthy dogs and dogs with pyoderma.

Serum and skin tissue azithromycin (AZM) concentrations were analysed in healthy and pyoderma affected dogs to determine AZM pharmacokinetics and to establish the effect of disease on AZM skin disposition. AZM was administered orally to two groups of healthy dogs: (1) at 7.02mg/kg (n=7) and (2) at 11.2mg/kg (n=9). A crossover design was used on five of them. Seven dogs with pyoderma were treated with AZM at 10.7mg/kg. The two groups of healthy dogs received AZM once daily over three consecutive days and dogs with pyoderma received the same treatment repeated twice with an interval of 1week. AZM concentrations were determined by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry.