Thaís de Almeida Moreira

Puma (Puma concolor) predating sheep in Uberlândia, Brazil: physical injuries, stress and myopathy

Puma (Puma concolor) is in Brazil among the major species involved in human-wildlife conflicts, primarily due to the predation of sheep and goats in farms. A puma might kill from one to several animals in a single predation episode, and free-ranging flocks of goats and sheep are usually affected. These attacks are rarely witnessed and direct observation of predation is rare. We herein report three predation episodes and the cause of death of sheep kept inside paddocks in a farm located besides a major town of Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Death of 31 animals was attributed to a puma as determined by circumstantial evidence, necropsy of 16 animals, laboratory findings and direct observation of the predator at the occurrence site. However, death of only eight animals was caused by traumatic injury mainly at the cervical region. The remaining animals lacked lethal traumatic injuries and post mortem examination indicated circulatory collapse (congestion of internal organs). Two surviving animals had a great increase in creatinine phosphokinase blood levels and thus death of remaining animals was attributed to stress and myopathy caused by fear and chasing of sheep trapped inside paddocks. Measures taken after the third predation episode (illumination of paddocks, pasture height control, vegetation clearance around the paddocks and closure of animals in stalls at night) prevented further

Cystic liver disease in domestic feline inffected with Platynosomum sp. - A Case report

Platinosomosis affects felines and it is caused by a trematode of the genus Platynosomum sp. The parasitized animals can be symptomatic or asymptomatic and the disease can evolve severely, killing the animal. Due to the similarity between clinical signs and changes of platinosomosis and those of other pathologies caused by the parasite and having in mind that the parasite occasionally appears on the stool, the search for trematodes and eggs in material coming from bile aspirate is a more efficient way to diagnose the parasitic disease, what helps to distinguish it from other liver diseases. Thus, the clinical veterinarian is able to perform the treatment correctly. The aim was to report a case of cystic liver disease related to platinosomosis in a domestic feline which has been undergoing treatment of liver disease for over a year. During the clinical evaluation, the animal was apathetic and with hepatomegaly. A complete blood count (CBC) revealed a discreet lymphopenia. The enzymes alkaline phosphatase and alanine transaminase were above the normal range for the species. The parasitological examination of the biliary material indicated eggs from the trematode Platynosomum sp. whereas the histopathology examination of liver masses indicated cystic structures covered by connective tissue and multifocal mononuclear inflammatory infiltrate. In conclusion, liver cysts in felines with chronic liver disease can be associated with cases of diseases caused by the trematode helminths.

Discrepancy between Clinical and Postmortem Diagnosis of Dogs in a Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital

Background: The postmortem examination offers the opportunity to study the processes involved in disease. Although a portion of veterinary medical professionals and students consider the necropsy as a diagnostic tool of purely academic interest, it can provide valuable assistance in formulating health strategies in order to prevent and control animal diseases. The number of necropsies performed in general is higher in universities where the cost is subsidized. In veterinary medicine, studies intended to assess the frequency of necropsy and the discrepancy between clinical and postmortem diagnosis of dogs are rare. The main purpose of the necropsy is to discover the cause of death of dogs, by defining a possible etiology and pathogenesis in order to reach a diagnosis. Material, Methods & Results: We used medical records and necropsy records to define the clinical and postmortem diagnosis, respectively. Data relating to deaths was recorded as the number of euthanized dogs and natural deaths in 2014. From the information cause of death, these were categorized as infectious disease, cardiac, gastrointestinal, renal, pulmonary, neurological, metabolic or endocrine disease, neoplastic disease, trauma, or systemic disease. We used the Binomial discrepancy in the comparison of the rates between different years and also to verify the association between discrepancy and the correlation between clinical and postmortem diagnosis of dogs with euthanasia and natural death, with statistical significance (P < 0.05). In 2009, 56.81% (25/44) of cases included in the study had a concordance between the clinical and postmortem diagnosis, while 43.19% (19/44) were discordant. In 2014, it was observed that 71.70% (76/106) of the diagnosis was confirmed with the necropsy, while 28.30% (30/106) were discordant. The disagreement rate was higher in 2009 (P < 0.05) and there was a reduction of 14.89% in the disagreement rate between 2009 and 2014. Regarding the cause of death, infectious diseases, gastrointestinal disease, and heart disease were the categories in which the discrepancy was higher. It was found that in the group of dogs euthanized, the discrepancy rate was lower compared with the group of dogs that had anatural death (P < 0.05). Discussion: The disagreement rate can be considered high when compared with a veterinary study and similar to those observed in a human study. Decrease in the discrepancy rate in the years, as observed by other authors, that can be attributed to improvements and expansion of diagnostic services of the hospital and better training of veterinarians. The difficulty in determining the etiology of infectious diseases is associated with lack of specific diagnostic tests and the high cost of available tests, which often is not bank rolled by the tutor. Dogs in this study were rarely submitted to diagnostics tests such as electrocardiogram or echocardiogram which explains the high discordance in the diagnosis of heart disease. Distemper is an infectious disease of great importance regarding euthanized animals, especially in cases that progress to central nervous system injuries with extremely poor prognosis and wind up having euthanasia indication. Another common cause of domestic animals euthanasia indication is the occurrence malignant neoplasms, which depends on the progression of the disease and psychological and social conditions of the owner. The results generated herein suggests that infectious, gastrointestinal and cardiac diseases origin tend to have a greater discordance between clinical and postmortem diagnosis, however this rate is decreasing due to improved infrastructure of veterinary centers with better professionals qualification.