Canine pododermatitis: A retrospective study of 300 cases

The medical records of 300 dogs with pododermatitis were reviewed and the possible associations be-tween signalment, history, clinical and laboratory findings, as well as various primary and secondary causative factors were investigated. The age of the dogs ranged from 3 months to 15 years. Most dogs were mongrels, West Highland white terriers(WHWTs), French bulldogs, German Shepherd dogs (GSDs) and Shar-Peis. In most of the cases podo-dermatitis was chronic/recurrent (69%), pruritic (75%) and affected all four feet (54%). The predominantly affected site was the interdigital skin(66%).Erythema (77.7%), hypotrichosis/alopecia (57%), skin thickening (26.3%), crusts (25%) and hyperpigmentation (22%) were the most frequently encountered lesions. Among the secondary causes, bac-teria (36.3%)were more commonly found than Malassezia spp. (14.3%). The principal primary causes were allergies (43.7%), demodicosis (10.7%), sarcoptic mange (5.7%), skin neoplasms (4.7%), leishmaniosis (4.7%) and interdigital furunculosis (3.7%). In this study, WHWT, Shar-Peis and French bulldogs were predominantly presented with allergic pododermatitis (P=0.001). Interdigital skin was more commonly involved in dogs with allergic dermatitis (89.3%) and demodicosis (62.5%),while metatarsal area in dogs with sarcoptic mange (100%). Crusts were commonly seen in bacterial pododermatitis (P<0.001), whereas greasy crusts (P<0.001) and lichenification (P=0.008) were seen in Malassezia pododermatitis. Finally, dogs that did not have frequent paw cleaning had the lowest rates of Malassezia dermatitis(P=0.047).