Topical Treatment of Feline Dermatophytosis

Abstract

Dermatophytosis is one of the most frequent fungal skin diseases of pet animals, with high cost of treatment, and difficult control measures. Also, the disease has an important public health consequence. In our study, during a period of 2 year, 183 cats with cutaneous lesions were examined using direct microscopic examination and by fungal culture on Sabouraud Dextrose Agar (SDA). Out of 183 suspected samples, 94 cultured positive (51.4%). Where 73 samples showed colonies of M. canis (77.7%), while 13 showed T. mentagrophytes colonies (13.8%) and only 4 samples (4.3%) yielded mixed infection (M. canis and T. mentagrophytes). One sample (1.1%) was positive for M. gypseum, one sample (1.1%) for T. verrucosum, one sample (1.1%) for T. phaseoforme and one sample (1.1%) for T. violaceum. Randomly, 25 dermatophytes-infected cats were allocated into 5 groups (5 cats each) where they are treated using topical antifungal agents; Terbinafine, Miconazole, Enilconazole, Ketoconazole as well as combined essential oils (EOs) where they were tested for their curative antifungal effects. Results showed that topical treatment with combined essential oils have had a very effective antifungal curative effect. Also, antifungal agents showed clinical improvement of skin lesions in the following order: combined essential oils, Enilconazole, Miconazole, Terbinafine and Ketoconazole. The results also proved that local treatment appears to be effective in most cases with no need for systemic treatment.