Must-knows for diagnosing canine allergies

What should veterinarians know when it comes to diagnosing canine allergies? During the Fetch dvm360 conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Julia E. Miller, DVM, DACVD, sat down with the team to talk about her lecture on diagnosing canine allergies. In the interview, Miller offered advice for an accurate diagnosis, emphasizing the importance of doing cytology in every case, diagnostics, and more.

Below is a partial transcript

Julia E. Miller, DVM, DACVD: So, I think I’ve become a broken record about a few things, but they're very important. In dermatology, things that are near and dear to my heart is cytology everything. We're scientists. How do you know what you're treating unless you prove it? So I think in dermatology, it is so important that you do cytology on all your cases. Look for the bacteria, look for the yeast, look for the ectoparasites, because if you don't look, you're not going to find them and it's really important that we know what we're treating. That's always number one for me: be certain that you're treating the right thing.

Another thing I like to tell people is, if at first you don't succeed, you missed something—do more diagnostics, right? So don't just keep repeating the same thing over and over again. Keep giving Apoquel [oclacitinib]. If it didn't work, why didn't it work? If you've used that antibiotic in that dog and they're not clearing the skin, why are they not clearing the skin? Goes back to cytology, but other diagnostics—if you're doing the same thing and you're not getting the results, you need to kind of branch out and do a little bit more there