Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Dog with inflamed heart sac fluid tested positive for Anaplasma
By Murdock, Betsy K et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary internal medicine·2024·School of Veterinary Medicine, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Detection of Anaplasma phagocytophilum in an inflammatory pericardial effusion of a dog.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
An 11-year-old female spayed German Wirehaired Pointer was brought to the vet after a week of feeling very tired, not eating much, having diarrhea, and coughing. The vet discovered fluid around her heart, which was putting pressure on it and causing serious breathing problems. Tests showed that the fluid contained a bacteria called Anaplasma phagocytophilum, which can cause infections. After draining the fluid and treating her with doxycycline, an antibiotic, the dog showed improvement, and a follow-up exam a month later showed no more fluid around her heart.
People also search for: dog coughing and lethargy · Anaplasma infection in dogs · doxycycline for dog heart problems
Abstract
An 11-year-old female spayed German Wirehaired Pointer with a 1-week history of lethargy, hyporexia, diarrhea, and coughing presented with pericardial effusion causing cardiac tamponade. An echocardiogram revealed no structural cause for pericardial effusion. The pericardial effusion was an exudate with mixed macrophagic and neutrophilic inflammation. Morulae occasionally were found within neutrophils. The pericardial fluid and blood were qPCR and cPCR positive for Anaplasma phagocytophilum (NC State University, Vector-borne Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, Raleigh, NC). The dog's blood was negative by ELISA (Vetscan Flex4 Rapid Test, Zoetis, Parsippany, NJ) for A. phagocytophilum antibodies at initial presentation and subsequently positive (SNAP4DxPlus, IDEXX, Westbrook, ME) 7 days later. After pericardiocentesis and administration of doxycycline (5 mg/kg PO q12h for 14 days), a repeat echocardiogram performed 1 month later showed no recurrence of pericardial effusion.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38703185/