Modern Approaches to Treatment of Alopecia X in Dogs: Review of Research

Abstract

Introduction. Noninflammatory alopecia is a disorder of canine appearance, which brings aesthetic discomfort to dog owners. Among foreign studies there are only few publications on implementing the drugs of the humane medicine for treatment of this disorder. The publications in the national literature present the descriptions of the individual clinical cases. The reviews of research containing the analysis and summary of the canine noninflammatory alopecia treatment methods are unavailable in the scientific literature. Therefore, this work aims at providing a comparative analysis of the canine noninflammatory alopecia treatment methods (based on the literature sources analysis).Materials and Methods. Searching by subject area was conducted in the eLIBRARY.RU, PubMed, Crossref and Google Scholar databases for materials published from 2000 to 2023 by the following keywords: dog AND alopecia, dog*AND alopecia X, dog*AND “name of the drug”. The selected materials were structured, 111 publications were analysed, 69 of which were included in the present review.Results. The studies on the use of humane medicine methods and drugs for treatment of alopecia X in dogs were analysed. The information was systemized into thematic blocks depending on the physiological causes of alopecia X and the drugs used. The main methods and approaches to be investigated were the use of melatonin, mitotane, trilostane, minoxidil, hormonal drugs, microneedling and microtrauma techniques.Discussion and Conclusion. Currently, the unified protocol for treatment of alopecia X in dogs is not developed in the veterinary medicine. Upon analysis of the treatment methods described in the literature, microneedling, oral administration of melatonin and trilostane, along with the use of subcutaneous implants of deslorelin acetate have been identified as the optimal ones, combining high efficiency with minor side effects. The use of mitotane, minoxidil and osaterone acetate causes the serious side effects, that prevents them from being the future-oriented methods.