Immune-mediated skin diseases in dogs and cats

Immune-mediated skin diseases are uncommon to rare and result from an abnormal immune response to foreign antigens. They can be difficult to diagnose, because clinicians often rely on histopathology alone for a diagnosis; however, many cases require the clinician to make a clinical diagnosis first and then use histology to support it, or rule it out.

In this paper the clinical signs and diagnosis of erythema multiforme, Stevenson-Johnson syndrome/toxic epidermal necrolysis and vasculitis are discussed. Immune-mediated skin diseases often wax and wane and their prognoses are guarded to poor. Many cases will require long term management with immunomodulating drugs which can have adverse effects. There are a number of drugs with imunomodulating properties each of which may have various adverse effects with long term use.