BackgroundFew effective treatments for disseminated Aspergillus infections in dogs are available. Posaconazole has potent and broad‐spectrum activity against Aspergillus spp., but its use has not yet been sufficiently evaluated in dogs.Hypothesis/ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to determine the safety and efficacy of posaconazole for the treatment of naturally occurring disseminated Aspergillus infections in dogs.AnimalsTen client‐owned dogs with disseminated aspergillosis.MethodsProspective, nonrandomized, noncontrolled study with posaconazole administered to dogs at dosage of 5 mg/kg PO q12h. The primary veterinarian or the veterinary specialist caring for the dogs provided patient data.ResultsThe treatment response for dogs with disseminated disease while receiving posaconazole was defined as clinical remission (n = 4) and clinical improvement (n = 6). There was a high rate of relapse during treatment or after cessation of treatment in both groups, and most dogs died or were euthanized due to progressive disease. Excluding 1 dog concurrently treated with terbinafine that remains alive 5 years after diagnosis, the mean survival time for dogs was 241 days (range 44–516 days). Three other dogs lived >1 year after starting treatment. No clinically relevant adverse events or increases in serum liver enzyme activity occurred during treatment with posaconazole.Conclusions and Clinical ImportancePosaconazole appears to be safe and well‐tolerated for treatment of disseminated Aspergillus infections in dogs. Long‐term survival >1 year is possible with prolonged treatment, but relapse is common.

Despite their important role in security, little is known about the energy requirements of working dogs such as odor, explosive and human detection dogs. Previous researchers have evaluated the energy requirements of individual canine breeds as well as dogs in exercise roles such as sprint racing. This study is the first to evaluate the energy requirements of working dogs trained in odor, explosive and human detection. This retrospective study evaluated twenty adult dogs who maintained consistent body weights over a six month period. During this time, the average energy consumption was or two times the calculated resting energy requirement (). No statistical differences were found between breeds, age or sex, but a statistically significant association (p = 0.0033, R-square = 0.0854) was seen between the number of searches a dog performs and their energy requirement. Based on this study’s population, it appears that working dogs have maintenance energy requirements similar to the 1974 National Research Council’s (NRC) maintenance energy requirement of (National Research Council (NRC), 1974) and the reported for young laboratory beagles (Rainbird & Kienzle, 1990). Additional research is needed to determine if these data can be applied to all odor, explosive and human detection dogs and to determine if other types of working dogs (tracking, search and rescue etc.) have similar energy requirements.