Resolution of tongue lesions caused by Leishmania infantum in a dog treated with the association miltefosine-allopurinol.

Canine leishmaniosis is a severe systemic disease caused by the kinetoplastid protozoan Leishmania infantum, an obligatory intracellular parasite of mammalian macrophages, transmitted by the bite of phlebotomine sandflies. The infection in dogs might occur without any clinical signs or might be characterised by chronic viscerocutaneous signs, such as lymphadenopathy, skin lesions, splenomegaly, onychogryphosis, and renal as well as ocular damage due to immunocomplex deposition. In atypical cases the parasites can be found in the striated musculature, the central nervous system, the endocrine glands or gonads, with or without functional damage.