The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a questionnaire on the quality of life (QoL) of dogs with skin diseases and their owners. Twenty‐six qualitative interviews with owners of dogs affected with severe skin diseases were performed to identify which aspects of the life of dogs and owners were impaired. To assess the clarity of questions, a preliminary 19‐item questionnaire (answer range, 0 = none to 3 = severe) was developed following current models from human dermatology and administered to a pilot sample of 20 owners. Questions with a low positive answering rate or statistical relevance were eliminated. A final 15‐item questionnaire was distributed to the owners of 41 dogs with atopic dermatitis (AD) and 40 healthy dogs. The severity of the AD was assessed by an owners’ severity scale (0–3), a descriptive Visual Analogue Scale for pruritus and CADESI‐03. The correlation between these results and those of the questionnaire were analysed. Repeatability was evaluated by testing 44 owners of dogs with different skin diseases on two occasions 3 days apart. The QoL scores for dogs with AD and their owners were significantly different from those for healthy control dogs (P = 0.0001). There was a reliable repeatability of scores (α = 0.8). Owner‐perceived severity correlated significantly with QoL scores (P = 0.02). The correlation between QoL and pruritus scores was high (>0.36), while that with CADESI‐03 was lower (<0.26).

A previously validated 15-item questionnaire on dogs' life quality (QoL1) and that of their owners (QoL2) was applied in a multicentre study to owners of 200 dogs with different dermatological conditions, together with a question on the owner-perceived disease severity (S). Factor analysis was applied to the whole questionnaire. The correlation of S with QoL1 and QoL2 scores was evaluated using Spearman's rank correlation tests. Owner sex, age, educational level and willingness to pay for a potential definitive cure of the disease were recorded, and compared with quality of life (QoL) scores. In 23 atopic dogs, CADESI-03, pruritus Visual Analogue Scale and QoL scores were obtained before and after therapy, and their correlation was evaluated with linear regression. Factor analysis revealed that three factors (S, QoL1 and QoL2) explained 75% of the variance. Owner-perceived severity correlated significantly with QoL1 and QoL2 (P = 0.002 and P = 0.015, respectively). The five diseases with the worst QoL scores were scabies, pododermatitis, complicated atopic dermatitis, pemphigus foliaceus and endocrine alopecia. Pruritic diseases did not give significantly higher QoL1 or QoL2 scores compared with nonpruritic diseases (P = 0.19, Kruskall-Wallis test). Owner sex, age or educational level did not influence QoL scores. Female sex, a younger age and a higher educational level were significantly associated with more willingness to pay. In atopic dogs, all the scores decreased after therapy, but post-treatment CADESI-03 and Visual Analogue Scale scores did not correlate with QoL1 and QoL2. Questions related to the burden of maintenance therapy showed the lowest improvements in score.

Penile shortening after radical prostatectomy peaks at the time of catheter removal and it continues to a lesser but still significant degree for at least 1 year. Nerve sparing surgery and recovery of erectile function appeared to have an independent protective effect on penile length loss at 1 year. These figures should be taken in consideration when counseling patients for radical prostatectomy.

Once-daily cephalexin is as effective as twice-daily cephalexin in the treatment of canine superficial pyoderma.

Perianal pruritus was seen more frequently in dogs with AFR/CAD than with other dermatological diseases. This is the first study to evaluate perianal pruritus in dogs with skin disease and without anal sac disease.