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Peer-reviewed veterinary case report

Skin sores around face in Maltese dog with distemper

By Maeda, H et al.·Published in Zentralblatt fur Veterinarmedizin. Reihe A·1994·Research Institute of Drug Safety, Japan·View original on PubMed

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Original publication title: Distemper skin lesions in a dog.

Species:
dog

Plain-English summary

A 3-year-old male Maltese dog was brought in with skin lesions around his eyes, nose, and mouth due to distemper, a viral infection. The dog had noticeable thickening of the skin and small blisters and pustules. Tests showed that the virus was directly attacking the skin cells. Unfortunately, distemper can be serious, and treatment focuses on managing symptoms and preventing secondary infections, but the overall prognosis can be poor depending on the severity of the disease.

People also search for: dog distemper symptoms · Maltese skin problems · distemper treatment for dogs

Abstract

Skin lesions were studied in a 3-year-old male Maltese dog with distemper. Hyperkeratosis and parakeratosis with vesicles and pustule formation were the outstanding features of the skin lesions around the eye, nose, and mouth. Multinucleated syncytial giant cells together with nuclear and cytoplasmic inclusion bodies containing viral particles and viral antigen were scattered in the epidermis, and epidermal appendages. These findings suggest a direct viral attack on the skin.

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Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7941841/