Abstract
A five-year-old, spayed female, Shetland sheepdog was presented with six-month history of progressive, symmetrical alopecia and pigmented macules on the ventral neck, abdomen and caudomedial thigh along with enlarged vulva and mamillaes. The dog showed no pruritic behavior on the skin lesions. Serum estradiol, 17α-hydroxyprogesterone (17α-OHP), progesterone, testosterone and cortisol levels before and after ACTH stimulation showed no abnormalities, whereas cytology of vaginal smear revealed complete cornified epithelial cells, suggesting estrus. Exploratory surgery revealed a remaining ovary on the right side of abdomen. Surgical removal of the remaining ovary caused regrowth of hairs from 21 days after surgery, and the coat was almost at normal appearance at day 187 after surgery. Thus, the dog was diagnosed as having sex hormone-related dermatopathy associated with remaining ovary. Our findings also suggested that time course analyses of cytology of vaginal smear is useful in diagnosis of sex hormone-related diseases, especially in cases in which serum sex hormone levels showed no abnormality.
