Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
First natural case of canid heart worm infection in a cat
By Emily Katharina Gueldner et al.·Published in Veterinary Parasitology: Regional Studies and Reports·2019·View original on Semantic Scholar →
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Original publication title: First case of a natural infection in a domestic cat (Felis catus) with the canid heart worm Angiostrongylus vasorum
- Species:
- cat
Plain-English summary
An 11-month-old male neutered European short hair cat was brought in with swelling under the skin and fluid buildup in the chest and abdomen. Despite various treatments, his condition worsened, leading to euthanasia. A necropsy revealed severe kidney damage and pneumonia caused by a rare heartworm called Angiostrongylus vasorum, which is typically found in dogs. This case marks the first known natural infection of this parasite in a cat, suggesting that such infections might be more common than previously thought, even if they don't show typical signs.
People also search for: cat swelling under skin · cat heartworm symptoms · cat pneumonia treatment · why is my cat lethargic · Angiostrongylus vasorum in cats
Abstract
Cardiopulmonary nematodes in cats include different parasite species affecting feline lungs and the heart, with the metastrongyloid Aelurostrongylus abstrusus being the most frequent feline lungworm worldwide. The present case report describes an 11-month-old male neutered European short hair cat which presented with generalised subcutaneous oedema and pleural and peritoneal effusions. According to clinical examination, abdominal imaging and laboratory analyses, a tentative diagnosis of severe glomerulopathy with massive proteinuria was made. Due to worsening of the clinical signs despite therapeutic interventions and a poor prognosis, the cat was euthanised. Necropsy and histological examinations revealed severe bilateral collagenofibrotic glomerulopathy, generalised oedema and a focal verminous pneumonia with thrombosis in arterial lung vessels containing nematode cross sections. A serum sample was tested for the presence of antibodies against the cat lungworm A. abstrusus, resulting negative. Genetic analyses confirmed the presence of nematode DNA; after exclusion of common lung and heart parasites occurring in cats, DNA of the canid heart worm nematode Angiostrongylus vasorum was identified. This is the first description of a naturally occurring infection with A. vasorum in a cat. Previous experimental studies demonstrated the development of adult male and female A. vasorum worms containing eggs in cats, but no larval excretion in the faeces. Although cats did not become patent, A. vasorum infections were clinically relevant. As A. abstrusus and A. vasorum are both gastropod transmitted nematodes, they may share the same intermediate hosts within overlapping areas. In addition, especially chronic A. abstrusus infected cats become non-patent and do not excrete L1. Considering that patent A. vasorum infections are widespread in the dog and fox population in Switzerland (and several other countries) but are apparently not patent in cats, we cannot exclude that infections with A. vasorum may occur more frequently than expected.
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Search related cases →Original publication on Semantic Scholar: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/31796174