Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Blindness and unsteady walk in French bulldog with brain inflammation
By Spitzbarth, I et al.·Published in Journal of comparative pathology·2010·Department of Pathology, Germany·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Immunohistochemical characterization of inflammatory and glial responses in a case of necrotizing leucoencephalitis in a French bulldog.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A 3-year-old male French bulldog was brought in for severe symptoms including blindness, staggering, and difficulty walking. Unfortunately, his condition worsened, and he was humanely euthanized. A post-mortem examination revealed a serious brain condition called necrotizing leucoencephalitis, which caused significant damage to his brain tissue and optic nerves. This case suggests that necrotizing leucoencephalitis is not just a problem for Yorkshire terriers, as previously thought, but can also affect French bulldogs.
People also search for: French bulldog blindness staggering · necrotizing leucoencephalitis in dogs · dog brain disease symptoms
Abstract
A 3-year-old male French bulldog was presented with blindness, staggering and ataxia and was humanely destroyed due to worsening of the neurological signs. At post-mortem examination a non-suppurative leucoencephalitis with extensive malacia within the forebrain was found. In addition, a bilateral necrotizing optic neuritis and focal retinitis was detected. Immunohistochemistry revealed a CD3(+) T-cell dominated inflammatory response with intralesional reactive astrocytes expressing glial fibrillary acidic protein. Astroglia-like cells expressing vimentin, which is characteristic of immature astrocytes, were found within the malacic lesions. The pathological findings are similar to those described in idiopathic necrotizing leucoencephalitis (NLE) of Yorkshire terriers and substantiate the hypothesis that NLE is not a breed-specific disorder that exclusively affects Yorkshire terriers, but also the French bulldog.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19815229/