Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Dog with high blood calcium caused by low urine calcium loss
By Teshima, Takahiro et al.·Published in The Journal of veterinary medical science·2025·School of Veterinary Medicine, Japan·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Acquired hypocalciuric hypercalcemia in a dog.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A 12-year-old male Labrador Retriever was found to have high calcium levels in his blood during a routine check-up, but he showed no symptoms. The vet suspected a problem with his parathyroid glands, which help regulate calcium, and performed surgery to remove them. Unfortunately, the high calcium levels didn't improve after the surgery. Further tests revealed that the dog had a rare condition called acquired hypocalciuric hypercalcemia, which is linked to an issue with the body's calcium-sensing mechanism. This case highlights a unique diagnosis that may help other dogs with similar issues.
People also search for: dog high calcium levels · Labrador hyperparathyroidism treatment · dog calcium-sensing receptor problem
Abstract
A 12-year-old castrated male Labrador Retriever presented with asymptomatic hypercalcemia. Based on elevated parathyroid hormone levels and an enlarged parathyroid gland, primary hyperparathyroidism was suspected, and parathyroidectomy was performed, but the hypercalcemia did not improve. Histopathology of three resected parathyroid glands revealed hyperplasia and hypertrophy of the principal cells. After surgery, the fractional excretion of calcium examined in a spot urine sample was close to that in healthy dogs, but lower than that in a dog with primary hyperparathyroidism. Autoantibodies against calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR) were confirmed by incubating a cell line expressing canine CaSR with a serum sample from the hypercalcemic dog. Our report is the first to describe the diagnosis of acquired hypocalciuric hypercalcemia in a dog.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40533243/