Juvenile cellulitis was diagnosed in 18 puppies, 3 weeks to 5 months of age. When examined by the Dermatology Service, all puppies had facial (muzzle, lips, eyelids) lesions and enlarged submandibular and prescapular lymph nodes. Eleven dogs (61%) had pinnal lesions and 6 dogs (33%) had widespread skin lesions. Fever and lethargy were present in only 22% and 17%, respectively, of the puppies. Seventeen dogs were cured with immunosuppressive glucocorticoid therapy for 7 to 21 days. No side effects were reported. One mildly affected puppy spontaneously resolved. No relapses were reported.

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The efficacy and safety of cefovecin in the treatment of naturally occurring bacterial infections of skin and soft tissues in dogs was evaluated in patients presented to veterinary clinics in Japan. Patients were treated with either cefovecin (8 mg/kg bodyweight as a single subcutaneous injection) or with orbifloxacin (5 mg/kg bodyweight by oral administration once daily for seven consecutive days) according to a randomised design. Prior to treatment, the predominant pathogens identified were Staphylococcus intermedius, Staphylococcus aureus and Proteus mirabilis. The MIC₉₀ values of cefovecin and orbifloxacin, respectively, for isolates of these three pathogens were: 0.12 μg/ml and 0.5 μg/ml for S. intermedius; 1 μg/ml and 1 μg/ml for S. aureus; 0.5 μg/ml and 4 μg/ml for P. mirabilis. The response to treatment was assessed using clinical scores recorded according to an index for the clinical signs of skin infection. The clinical scores recorded pre-treatment and at 7 and 14 days post-treatment were used to calculate an improvement ratio for each animal and dogs were categorised as either "cured", "improved" or "failed" according to the degree of improvement observed. Animals categorised as "cured" or "improved" were considered a clinical success. For cefovecin, the clinical success at Day 7 post-treatment was 63.8% (37 out of 58 animals) and at Day 14, 87.5% (49 out of 56 animals); for orbifloxacin clinical success at Day 7 and Day 14 post-treatment was 44.4% (24 out of 54 animals) and 73.3% (33 out of 45 animals), respectively. No adverse events attributable to cefovecin were observed during the study period and no injection site abnormalities were noted in any animals. The results demonstrated that when administered subcutaneously once at a dose of 8 mg/kg bodyweight, cefovecin was effective and safe in the treatment of skin and soft tissue infections in dogs.

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