Three Cases of Canine Dermatomyositis-Like Disease
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22456/1679-9216.86435Abstract
Background: Dermatomyositis is an idiopathic, inflammatory/immunemediated disease of the skin, muscles and bloodvessels of hereditary nature and unclear pathogenesis. This familial disease has been described in certain breeds, especially collies and Shetland sheep dogs and is of rare occurrence in mongrel dogs. To describe and discuss three clinical cases of dermatomyositis-like disease and provide a brief review of the literature.
Cases: Three young mongrel dogs are included in this report. Case 1: Mandarino, a 4-year-old mongrel dog, having a history of skin lesions for at least a year. Showed an underweight patient, skin ulcers, crusts, alopecia, peri-ocular scarring causing severe lagophthalmia and a corneal ulcer. Muscle atrophy was most notable in the head and legs; the dog had
difficulty and pain walking. Treatment was initialised with cephalexin 30 mg/kg BID, pentoxifylline 25 mg/kg BID, and prednisone 2.2 mg/kg SID. The patient was presented after two weeks for follow up; the anaemia and skin condition had improved, the weight had increased by 2 kg, dysphagia and locomotor abnormalities were not present. Case 2: Milagros,
a mongrel female dog approximately two years of age, rescued from a shelter. Physical examination showed facial alopecia, erythema and scarring of the periocular skin, crusting and scaling in alopecic areas, pinnae tip necrosis and crusting, ear alopecia, tail tip necrosis and crusting. Also present were distal limb alopecia, crusting and ulcers in areas of trauma in the hock and carpal surfaces; some nails presented onychorhexis and onychoschizia. The patient has been treated for
12 months with a good clinical outcome, with pentoxifylline, azathioprine 2.2 mg/kg EOD alternating with prednisone 1 mg/kg EOD. Case 3: Chuchito, an 11-month-old male mongrel rescued dog had been previously hospitalised due to his skin condition. Physical examination showed depigmented and alopecic areas in the nasal planum, perioral and periocular areas, and inflammation of the palpebral tissues. Necrosis of the distal pinnae, alopecia and scales were evident, along with sloughing of scales and ulcers. Skin lesions were also present in the distal limbs, and alopecia, erythema and some crusting and scales in the carpal, tarsal and digital areas. Onychodystrophy was present in several digits. This study describes the physical examination and the clinical pathological findings, including skin scrapings, fungal cultures, and skin biopsies, in three dogs with dermatomyositis-like disease, as well as the clinical outcomes after slightly different treatment protocols were used. The biopsy results of two dogs showed ischaemic dermatopathy.
Discussion: The most common initial signs of the disease are erythema, desquamation and alopecia in the facial area, ears, distal limbs and pinnae in young puppies aged between two and six months of age, followed by pigmentary changes. Muscular lesions are uncommon; when present, they represent the most severe form of this disease. Dysphagia is a common sign and mega-oesophagus may be present. Patients with muscular disease can manifest difficulty walking, with a stiff high gait. The immune mediated pathogenesis of dermatomyositis can relate to triggering factors in some dogs, such as drugs, infections, paraneoplasms, or toxins. Other potential inducing stressors include oestrus, whelping and excessive solar exposure. Dermatomyositis-like or familiar dermatomyositis is diagnosed using clinical findings, histopathology
of skin and muscle, and muscle physiology studies. Electromyography, breed predisposition and genetic background can be helpful in some cases. The clinical findings and response to the treatment of all three cases were compatible with dermatomyositis-like disease in mongrel dogs.
Keywords: dermatomyositis, dermatopathy, vascular disease, inflammatory myopathies, mongrel dog.
Downloads
References
Bensignor E. & Guaguère E. 2007. La dermatomyosite canine familiale. Bulletin de l’Académie Vétérinaire de France. 160: 241-244.
Bresciani F., Zagnoli L., Fracassi F., Bianchi E., Cantile C., Abramo F. & Pietra M. 2014. Dermatomyositis-like disease in a Rottweiler. Veterinary Dermatology. 25: 229-262.
Clark L.A., Credille K.M., Murphy K.E. & Rees C.A. 2005. Brief communication: Linkage of dermatomyositis in the Shetland Sheep dog to chromosome 35. Veterinary Dermatology. 16: 392-394.
Evans J., Levesque D. & Shelton G.D. 2004. Canine inflammatory myopathies: a clinic pathologic review of 200 cases. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine. 18: 679-691.
Ferguson E.A., Cerundolo R., Lloyd D.H., Rest J. & Cappello R. 2000. Dermatomyositis in five Shetland sheepdogs in the United Kingdom. Veterinary Record. 146: 214-217.
Gross T.L., Ihrke P.J., Walder E.J. & Affolter K.V. 2005. Vascular disease of the dermis. Interface diseases of the dermal-epidermal junction. In: Skin Diseases of the Dog and Cat. 2nd edn. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp.247-250.
Halliwell R.E.W. 2012. Autoimmune and immune-mediated dermatoses. In: Miller W.H., Miller W.H., Griffin C. & Campbell K. (Eds). Muller and Kirk’s Small Animal Dermatology. 7th edn. St. Louis: Elsevier, pp.432-500.
Hargis M.A., Prieur J.D., Haupt H.K., Evermann J.F. & Ladiges W.C. 1986. Postmortem findings in four litters of dogs with familial canine dermatomyositis. The American Journal of Pathology. 123: 480-496.
Koler R.A. & Montemarano A. 2001. Dermatomyositis. American Family Physician. 64: 1565-1572.
Miller W.H., Griffin C.E. & Campbell K.L. 2012. Congenital and hereditary defects. Muller and Kirk’s Small Animal Dermatology. 7th edn. St. Louis: Elsevier, pp.573-617.
Odaguiri J., Rossi C.N., Larsson Jr. C.E., Michalany N.S. & Larsson C.E. 2012. Dermatomiosite canina familiarsimile: Relato de caso. Veterinária e Zootecnia. 19: 318-321.
Rees C.A. & Boothe D.M. 2003. Therapeutic response to Pentoxifylline and its active metabolites in dogs with familial canine dermatomiositis. Journal of Veterinary Pharmacology an Therapeutics. 4: 234-241.
Röthig A., Rüfenacht S., Welle M.M. & Thom N. 2015. Dermatomyositis in a family of Working Kelpies. Tierärztliche Praxis. 43: 331-336.
Vitale B.C., Gross L.T. & Magro M.C. 1999. Vaccine-induced ischemic dermatopathy in the dog. Veterinary Dermatology.10: 131-142.
Wahl J.M., Clark L.A., Skalli O., Ambrus A., Rees C.A., Mansell J.L. & Murphy K.E. 2008. Analysis of gene transcript profiling and immunobiology in Shetland sheep dogs with dermatomyositis. Veterinary Dermatology. 19: 52-58.
White S.D., Shelton G.D., Sisson A., McPherron M., Rosychuk R.A.W. & Olson P.J. 1992. Dermatomyositis in an adult Pembroke Welsh Corgi. Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association. 28: 398-401.
Yoon J.S., Minami T., Takizawa Y., Sekiguchi M., Yabuzoe A., Ide K., Nishifuji K. & Iwasaki T. 2010. Two dogs with juvenile-onset skin diseases with involvement of extremities. Journal of Veterinary Medical Science. 72:1513-1516.
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
This journal provides open access to all of its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Such access is associated with increased readership and increased citation of an author's work. For more information on this approach, see the Public Knowledge Project and Directory of Open Access Journals.
We define open access journals as journals that use a funding model that does not charge readers or their institutions for access. From the BOAI definition of "open access" we take the right of users to "read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles" as mandatory for a journal to be included in the directory.
La Red y Portal Iberoamericano de Revistas Científicas de Veterinaria de Libre Acceso reúne a las principales publicaciones científicas editadas en España, Portugal, Latino América y otros países del ámbito latino