Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Chronic mouth inflammation in cats - symptoms and causes
By Rolim, Veronica Machado et al.·Published in Journal of feline medicine and surgery·2017·1 Department of Veterinary Pathology of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Clinical, pathological, immunohistochemical and molecular characterization of feline chronic gingivostomatitis.
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
A group of 26 cats with chronic gingivostomatitis (FCG) showed symptoms like difficulty swallowing, bad breath, excessive drooling, weight loss, and severe oral pain. Many had red, swollen lesions in their mouths that bled easily. Tests revealed that about 30% of these cats had feline leukemia virus (FeLV) present in their oral tissues, but no feline calicivirus (FCV) was found. This suggests that FeLV might contribute to the oral issues in some cats with FCG. Treatment options typically include medications to manage pain and inflammation, and in some cases, dental procedures may be necessary to improve their quality of life.
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Abstract
Objectives This study presents the clinical, pathological, immunohistochemical and molecular characterization of 26 cats with feline chronic gingivostomatitis (FCG). Methods Oral mucosal biopsies, blood and swabs were collected from cats presenting with oral lesions. The tissue sections were submitted for histopathology and immunohistochemical analysis for feline calicivirus (FCV), feline leukemia virus (FeLV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV). The swabs were subjected to PCR analysis for FCV, and blood for FeLV and FIV. Results The main clinical findings were dysphagia (88.2%), halitosis (76.5%), sialorrhea (47.1%), weight loss (41.2%), intense oral discomfort (35.3%), oral hemorrhage (17.6%), and lackluster and fragile coat (11.8%). Gross inspection revealed bilateral lesions across the palatoglossal fold to the lateral tongue base. The lesions were diffuse, proliferative, intensely red and friable, and bled easily upon examination in 80.8% of cases. In 23.1% of cases, the lesions were multifocal to coalescent, at times forming multiple vesicles on a reddened, edematous palatoglossal fold. Microscopic examination showed that 15.4% of lesions had moderate (grade 2) and 84.6% had severe (grade 3) inflammation. Immunohistochemistry revealed the presence of FeLV antigens in the epithelium and the inflammatory infiltrate of 30.8% of the cats with FCG. FCV antigens were not detected in the FCG lesions. Conclusions and relevance The FCG cases analyzed could not be correlated with FCV. It is possible that FeLV plays a role as a causal agent of lesions in cases where the presence of the virus has been confirmed by immunohistochemistry in epithelial samples.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26858258/