Therapy of canine deep pyoderma with cephalexins and immunomodulators

Abstract

Pyodermas are among bacterial skin diseases often resisting antibiotic therapy. We therefore examined how the dogs with deep pyoderma (n = 29) respond to therapeutic effect of antibiotic cephalexins (Ceporex® 30 mg·kg-1 p.o., once a day for 9-11 weeks) combined with immunomodulators (Baypamune®, once a week i.m. pro toto). The dogs with the first occurrence of pyoderma (n = 11) were treated by antibiotics alone, whereas the dogs with recurrent pyoderma (n = 18) were treated by either antibiotics alone (n = 8) or antibiotics combined with Baypamune® (n = 10). Of 11 dogs with the first occurrence of disease, 8 (73%) were successfully cured. However, only 5 of them (45%) stayed recovered after a period of two months that elapsed from the completion of therapy. Of the 8 dogs with recurrent pyoderma treated by antibiotics only, 6 (75%) recovered quickly but only 3 of them (38%) stayed healthy after 2 months elapsing from the therapy termination. Of the 10 dogs treated by antibiotics combined with immunomodulators, 8 (80%) regained health within a therapeutic period and 7 of them (70%) remained completely cured after 2 months from completion of therapy. The durations of treatment in dogs with the first occurrence of pyoderma and those with recurrent pyoderma were 8.4 and 10.5 weeks, respectively, the difference begin significant. Hair lenght and percentage of the skin area affected had no effect on the therapy duration. The disappearance of pruritus preceded the successful treatment. The results suggest that the joint treatment of deep pyodermas in dogs by antibiotics and immunomodulators may be superior to the purely antibiotic therapy, because of a stronger suppressive effect on the disease relapse.