AVC welcomes its first veterinary dermatologist

The Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown is now home to a newveterinary dermatologist.

Dr. CharliePyehasbeen coming to work at AVC for short periodsover the last sixyears to see patients, but now she's practising out of the college permanently.

'Live a really good life'

Pyesaid she's the only veterinary dermatologist currently practising in Atlantic Canada andit's the first time theAVC has had someone in the fieldat the animal hospitalfull time.

After graduatingfrom the college in 2009,Pyesaid she's happy to be backto serve her patientson the Islandandto be able to teachvet students.

"Having that extra knowledge that I've gained through my extra training I think is really important to help those animals become a lot more comfortable and live a really good life,"Pyesaid.

Pyesaid 30 to 40 percent of daily cases in vet clinics are skin-related andcan often be complex and challenging to treat.

"So all the vet students who are coming through the college being able to get that extra knowledge and graduate being a lot more comfortable dealing with those cases is really going to help them when they're out there in practice," she said.

Patients from across Atlantic Canada

Pyesaid she sees about three different patients a day at AVC, and that numberis growing.

She said since she's the only veterinary dermatologist in Atlantic Canada, Pye sees patients from all the Maritime provinces and a few from Newfoundland.

She works mainly with cats, dogs and horses, helping them with various skin conditionsincludingparasites, infections, allergies and some cases of skin cancer.

"A lot of those disease processes are so complex take allergies for instance there's so much going on when an animal has allergies, there's lots of different treatment options out there and it's not a one-size-fits-all, you really have to tailor it to the individuals needs,"Pyesaid.

Pye said during exams she often takes small skin samples and tests them under a microscope to look for bacterial infections or mites. Because each case is unique and can take some time to treat, she said often sees patients on an ongoing basis.

"That's one of the reasons that I decided to specialize in dermatology, I love having that bond with the families that I work with and their pets," Pye said.

'We're really lucky'

One of those patients is Gerald, a three-year-old pug who has been struggling with several skin conditionsover the last year.

Gerald's ownerKim Roach said she and her husband thought it was just allergies, until earlier this spring Gerald's skin became so bad they had to rush himin foran emergency visit with their vet. That's when they were referred toPye.

"It's extremely comforting to us, especially because Gerald's conditions elevated so quickly," Roachsaid. "Having her here, we're really lucky."

Roach said before bringing Gerald toPye, she tried changing his diet, allergy tests and a lot of different medications, which only seemed to make his skin worse.

She said at one point, he stopped wanting to playand his skin became too inflamed to touch.

"It's so hard to know with them because they can't really tell us what they're feeling or what's going wrong," Kim said. "We were really grateful that they were able to decide that it wasn't just allergies."

Pyehas been treating Gerald since Juneand his owners said the improvement to his skin and quality of life has been amazing.

"He seems to have quite a bit of quality of life back, which is the number one main concern," said Roach.

More P.E.I. news