Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Dog with insulinoma and brain damage from low blood sugar
By Shimada, A et al.·Published in Journal of comparative pathology·2000·Department of Veterinary Pathology, Japan·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Hypoglycaemic brain lesions in a dog with insulinoma.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A 5-year-old female Collie was brought to the vet after showing signs of excessive drooling, vomiting, weakness in her back legs, and confusion, eventually leading to her lying down and paddling her limbs. Blood tests revealed very low blood sugar levels, indicating a serious condition. Sadly, the dog was diagnosed with insulinoma, a type of tumor that affects insulin production, which can lead to dangerously low blood sugar levels. Unfortunately, the dog did not survive, and an examination after death showed brain damage linked to the low blood sugar episodes.
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Abstract
A 5-year-old female Collie dog showed excessive salivation, vomiting and neurological signs, including hind-limb weakness, mental dullness and subsequent recumbency with paddling movements of the limbs. Blood glucose and insulin concentrations were 35 mg/dl and 70.0 microU/ml, respectively. At necropsy, two masses, one at the caudal edge of the pancreas and the other in the omentum, were found and diagnosed as insulinoma. Histological examination of the brain showed early signs of acute neuronal necrosis exclusively in the superficial layers of the cerebral cortex, in addition to spongy changes in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. The light microscopical findings were identical in character and distribution with those of naturally occurring hypoglycaemia in humans and experimentally induced hypoglycaemia in animals.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10627392/