Chronic thallium intoxication in five German pointers of one litter

The difficulty of diagnosis and therapy of chronic thallium intoxication is described in five German Pointers with the same skin disease. The detection of thallium in cases of skin lesions like the cutaneous eryth ema with oedema and crusts or in chronic cases with multifocal alopecia is difficult. The first diagnostic information was gathered in this case from the high thallium level in the urine. The thallium concentration in the hai r is subject to great variations, even in physiologic conditions. The trich ogramme showed in this case pathognomonic changes like adhesion of the hair follicles. Differential diagnosis for this symmetric alopezia without pruritus are hor monal disturbances or, in puppies, the generalized form of demodicosis. The five affected dogs were treated with Fe III-Hexacyano-ferrat. The clini cal appearance of the skin improved slowly during a period of 1-2 months.