Dog with colonic tumor causing large bowel intussusception

Abstract

An 8-year-old spayed female British bulldog was presented with vomiting, hyporexia, and large-bowel diarrhea. Abdominal ultrasound revealed a focal colonic mass with an intussusception located immediately oral to the mass. The intussusception encompassed the ascending and transverse colon and was non-reducible. Colonic resection and anastomosis were completed to include the intussusception and colonic mass. Histopathological examination of the mass demonstrated a spindle cell neoplasm arising within the muscular wall of the intussuscepted segment that obliterated normal architecture. Mild-to-moderate cytoplasmic immunoreactivity of the tumor cell population for CD117 and smooth muscle actin was consistent with a diagnosis of a gastrointestinal stromal tumor. The dog described herein remains alive and free of progressive disease at the time of writing. Key clinical message: The entire gastrointestinal tract should be evaluated in any animal with gastrointestinal symptoms. A gastrointestinal stromal tumor remains a plausible differential diagnosis, regardless of the intestinal segment affected, and tumorassociated intussusception is a rare but urgent clinical finding.