Severe Ulcerative Dermatitis in Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus)

Abstract

tions and portions of skin from the back and ear and portions of the kidney and liver yielded colonies of D. con golensis.These were 1 mm in diameter, white to yellow, rough, round, raised and adherent to the surface.Giemsa-stained smears from crusts on the back and the ear canal showed the typical filaments of D. con golensis (Fig. 2).Coccoid bodies as would be observed with the fragmentation of Dermatophilus filaments, were noted in sections of the lymph node.Methenamine silver and Giemsa-stained sections of the skin revealed several actinomycete "granules" in the epidermis and dermis (Fig. 3).The granules were composed of short, generally nonbranching, multiseptate filaments in a radiating configuration and surrounded primarily by degenerating neutrophils.Hematoxyhin and eosinstained sections showed extensive hyperkeratosis, with areas of parakeratosis and epithelial 'l#{149}., .'c.1 4ad..,..