Nasal Disease in Dogs

Development of novel therapeutic regimes for nasal disease in dogs

Fungal diseases of the nose are a highly distressing and debilitating problem for dogs. Nasal aspergillosis is a particularly common problem in dogs and can cause patients to feel very unwell with acute facial pain, swelling and nasal discharge being very common clinical signs in affected animals. Oral medications are unable to readily treat nasal aspergillosis so historical treatments have involved drilling into the sinuses and placing indwelling catheters which facilitate the administration of drugs into the diseased sinuses and nasal cavity. This is a highly invasive procedure which was very uncomfortable for dogs. This problem drove us to make a series of changes to our treatment approach for this condition. We have developed a minimally invasive technique which involves putting a small camera into the nasal cavity and sinuses that allows us to debride the diseased tissue. We then place anti-fungal treatment into the nasal cavity. This approach has proved to be highly effective and very well tolerated by the dogs and led to significant improvements in patient outcomes.

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Minimally invasive treatment of sino-nasal aspergillosis in dogs.