I have published several papers in scientific journals, some of them with respect to cases, others describing fundamental research.
Fundamental research
When I first became involved in veterinary skin disease, I soon found that one particular aspect was very common. This is “pyoderma”; literally this means “pus in the skin” but is seen as scaling, skin redness, a rash, or crusting, and is due to bacterial infection. It is remarkably common, but, because it can take so many forms, is often unrecognised. I began to ask why it should be so common – and I am still asking!
I believe that the microclimate, which exists close to the dog’s skin, is important – for bacteria need warmth, moisture and food. One part of my research has been to investigate this. The picture ( Humidity meter) shows an apparatus devised with the help of my son-in-law, a computer whiz, which sucks small quantities of air from the dog’s coat, and can measure the amount of moisture it contains – its relative humidity and its temperature. With this I have been able to show that the coat humidity varies form one body site to another; beneath he neck, for example, the relative humidity can rise to almost 90%. This may explain why certain organisms can cause disease just here.
Observations
Some research is simpler, and needs only a sharp eye and a fondness for looking down a microscope. Infestation with the hair follicle mite Demodex canis is not uncommon, and for a hundred years there was thought to be only one form, which affects the dog (though there are two in humans). The disease it causes varies from small patches of hair loss to a devastating, potentially fatal problem, affecting the entire body surface. In the mid 1980s a different, much shorter form of Demodex was recognised in dogs. Initially thought to be rare, I have shown, that, with sufficient diligence, it can be shown that if a dog is infested with the well known long form, the short one is almost always present also. The picture shows both the long and the short form.
 Demodex mite (long) |
 Demodex mites (short) |