Regional distribution of ten common skin diseases in dogs.

We investigated the regional distributions of the most commonly diagnosed skin diseases in dogs from 17 North American veterinary teaching hospitals. Between January 1983 and December 1983, 11,456 diagnoses of skin disease were made. The 10 most common diagnoses were fleabite allergic dermatitis, skin cancer, pyoderma, seborrhea, allergy, demodectic acariasis (demodicosis), sarcoptic acariasis, immune-mediated skin disease, endocrine related skin disease, and acral lick dermatitis. Regional differences in the frequency of skin diseases were apparent. The northeast region had high frequencies of fleabite allergic dermatitis, allergy, and immune-mediated disease, and a low frequency of seborrhea. The midwest had a high frequency of seborrhea, and low frequencies of demodectic acariasis and allergy. In the plains region, low frequencies of fleabite allergic dermatitis, pyoderma, seborrhea, allergy, and demodectic acariasis were detected. In the west, the frequencies of fleabite allergic dermatitis, skin cancer, pyoderma, seborrhea, and acral lick dermatitis were high, whereas few dogs had allergic disease and sarcoptic acariasis. The southwest had high frequencies of fleabite allergic dermatitis and demodectic and sarcoptic acariasis. Fleabite allergic dermatitis, pyoderma, and demodectic and sarcoptic acariasis were frequently diagnosed in the southeast, but the number of dogs with seborrhea was low.