Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Dog with spreading infection causing leg pain and weakness
By Anderson, Stephanie et al.·Published in Frontiers in veterinary science·2022·Department of Population Health and Pathobiology, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Case Report: Novel DisseminatedInfection in a Dog.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A 2.5-year-old spayed female Australian Shepherd was brought to the vet with a 2-month history of limping in all legs, weakness, extreme tiredness, and severe pain. During the exam, the dog had a high fever and an increased heart rate, and the vet noticed swollen lymph nodes. Unfortunately, due to the poor prognosis and difficulty managing her pain, the decision was made to humanely euthanize her. Tests revealed a serious fungal infection affecting multiple organs, which is rare in dogs.
People also search for: dog limping and lethargy · Australian Shepherd pain · dog fungal infection symptoms
Abstract
A 2.5-year-old, 25.5 kg, spayed female Australian Shepherd dog had a 2-month history of shifting leg lameness in all limbs, tetraparesis, progressive lethargy, and severe pain. On the physical examination, fever (40.61°C), tachycardia, tachypnea, mild diffuse pelvic limb muscular atrophy, left prescapular and right popliteal lymphadenomegaly were observed. Due to the poor prognosis and difficult pain management, humane euthanasia was elected. Macroscopic and histological findings revealed multifocal to coalescing granulomas with central areas of lytic necrosis within the right femur, left humerus, left scapula, left biceps brachii, right semimembranosus muscle, liver, spleen, and lymph nodes. The necrotic areas contained myriad intralesional, intracellular, and extracellular negatively stained, non-pigmented, septate acute angle branching hyphae with parallel walls measuring 3-6 μm in width with polar bulbous projections measuring 7-13 μm in width. Fresh samples of the liver were submitted for fungal culture. Panfungal PCR targeting the major conserved genes-ITS, TUB, CAL-confirmedspp. are members of anamorphic fungi classified under the phylum Ascomycota. Paecilomycosis is an uncommon fungal infection caused byspp with a disease reported in humans and animals ranging from superficial to systemic clinical forms affecting both immunocompromised and immunocompetent individuals. In dogs, disseminated paecilomycosis has been reported, but the species of fungi are not always determined. To our knowledge, this is the first case of disseminated paecilomycosis caused byinfection in a dog.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35656172/