Christina Gentry, DVM, DACVM, discusses common skin cases that should be addressed as emergencies, during a dvm360 interview at VMX 2026.
What are some common conditions that can present as dermatologic emergencies? Christina Gentry, DVM, DACVM, assistant clinical professor at Texas A&M University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biological Sciences in College Station, is discussed certain types of cases that require immediate intervention, in a dvm360 interview recorded at the 2026 Veterinary Meeting & Expo (VMX) in Orlando, Florida. Gentry presented a series of lectures at VMX— hosted by the North American Veterinary Community—on dermatological topics that included education on dental radiographs, concurrent endocrine and dermatology conditions and when general practitioners should consider partnering with dermatologist as well as common dermatologic emergencies.
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The following is transcript of the interview portion shown in the video:
dvm360: What types of cases should be considered dermatologic emergencies?
Christina Gentry, DVM, DACVM: Dermatologic emergencies, overall, it almost sounds like a joke because dermatologists in general are the nonemergency people, but there are a few typically immune mediated diseases that can present as emergencies. The most severe ones are actually going to be drug reactions. So when animals take medications, they can have all sorts of reactions. They may feel lethargic; they may have vomiting or diarrhea and things like that. With medication discontinuation, everything is fine again, but the reactions that we're talking about specifically are things like toxic epidermal necrolysis, and it's sister disease, Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, where when they take a medication, their body somehow gets a signal that instead of processing the drug correctly, they should mount an immunologic response in the skin, where the body sends out signals that all the keratinocytes in your skin—so all your tops of the skin—should die all at once. And when that happens, that can lead to widespread necrosis, not only the haired skin, but the nonhaired skin, like your oral cavity and the paw pads and the pinna as well. And so those can be very serious and life threatening, because losing large sections of your epidermis can really throw off your homeostasis.
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