Autumn Meeting BVDSG
From Nov 4th-6th I’m spending the weekend at Manchester Airport at the annual autumn meeting of the British Veterinary Dermatology Study Group.
There was a special presentation on the Friday evening on an exciting new oral preparation for the control of fleas. Comfortis, has been used in the United States for the last 3 years and has recently been launched here. USA Veterinary Dermatologist, Craig Griffin, gave us a very interesting presentation on his experience using this new drug in the treatment of flea allergy and other itchy skin conditions in dogs. Comfortis is a tablet that given every 4 weeks and starts killing fleas within half an hour and within 4 hours all fleas are dead. It is particularly useful in dogs which need to be shampooed regularly or swim, where topical treatments may not work well. It would also appear that this product works very well at further reducing itch in animals which have been on topical flea control, so it would appear it has great uses for the control of fleas in allergic dogs and the management of allergic skin disease.
The theme for the rest of the weekend is therapeutics and I am enjoying listening to world famous Dermatologists such as Craig Griffin from the USA and one of the UK’s renowned internal medicine experts, Ian Ramsay from Glasgow Veterinary School, with some very thought provoking information on the treatment of such diseases as demodectic mange,on the use of steroids in practice and on the treatment of of Immune mediated skin disorders, Atopic Dermatitis and Cushings Disease. I’m sure I will come back to the practice with information that will help me serve my clients and their animals better.
