Clients invited to bring in their itchy pets to the practice.
Most of us will have suffered from Chicken pox at some point in our lives - even almost three decades on I can still remember the agonising desire to scratch myself raw. None of us would want our pet, a treasured family member, to feel like that.
Last month 19% of the cases seen by our team in our rural Welsh practice were due to a dermatological condition. This highlights how big a big problem skin conditions are in pets, with 26% of these cases being repeat examinations or recurrent cases.
So why are we not curing all these itchy pets? Isn’t there just a magic injection? A cure to fit all ailments? When I see this poor creature on my consult table, missing half its fur or crying when I touch his hot painful ears, I truly wish there were.
However, if you have read the “Scratch below the surface” booklet, you will realise there are so many different causes of that itch, and they each require appropriate treatment. This is why we think the Dermatology initiative is so important - we need your help.
Firstly, we’d like you to bring your animal to see us. If we see him or her early on in the disease process, not only are we likely to find out the cause more quickly, but secondary infections/reactions are less likely to have kicked in, and your pet will likely recover more quickly.
Secondly, if you allow your pet’s case to be logged, and his or her condition to be photographed, we can then submit it to our XLVets dermatology survey. The when we come together as a profession and share all the information we have, we can find out where the pitfalls in our protocols are, how we can improve, and if there is anything new we can share to further benefit our pets. You could help future itchy pets!