Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Dog with heartworm causing dead tissue in back legs and paw wound
By Taweethavonsawat, Piyanan et al.·Published in Frontiers in veterinary science·2022·Department of Pathology·View original on PubMed →
PetCaseFinder translated the abstract of this peer-reviewed paper into plain English so pet owners can read it. We do not publish original research — every detail traces back to the citation above. How we work →
Original publication title: Case report: Thromboembolic heartworm induced lower limb necrosis in a dog.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A 9-year-old spayed female boxer was brought in for lameness in both back legs and had a serious wound on her paw with a worm-like creature coming out of it. The vet found that she was severely infected with heartworms, which were affecting her heart and blood vessels. During surgery, the vet removed several heartworms, but not all could be taken out due to the severity of the infection. Sadly, the dog's condition worsened, leading to her death from complications related to the heartworm infection.
People also search for: dog heartworm infection treatment · boxer dog lameness · heartworm surgery complications
Abstract
A 9-year-old spayed female boxer suffered from lameness in both hindlimbs with a perforated paw wound. Additionally, a linear, worm-like creature was penetrating out from the wound. On examination, the dog was emaciated and infected with heartworms, detected through a fresh blood smear, echocardiography, and transabdominal ultrasonography. Adult heartworms were detected at the right atrium (RA), right ventricle (RV), and pulmonary artery (PA), including the distal abdominal aorta, external iliac, and femoral arteries. During the surgery, adults heartworms were removed from both the heart (= 8) and the femoral arteries (= 5). Unfortunately, not all heartworms could be removed from these locations due to the extent of the heartworm infection. The opened, ischemic wounds in the distal limbs progressively expanded and the dog subsequently died, possibly due to caval syndrome complications and septicemia. The necropsy showed no evidence of an atrial septal defect, and a total of 25 adult heartworms were collected from the perforated paw, heart, pulmonary, and femoral arteries. All worms collected during the necropsy process were molecularly confirmed to be.
Find similar cases for your pet
PetCaseFinder finds other peer-reviewed reports of pets with the same symptoms, plus a plain-English summary of what was tried across them.
Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35990283/