Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Dog with multiple spinal cord tumors causing limb weakness
By Henker, L C et al.·Published in Journal of comparative pathology·2018·Department of Veterinary Pathology, Brazil·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Multifocal Spinal Cord Nephroblastoma in a Dog.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A 1-year-old male American pit bull terrier was brought in because he was having trouble with coordination and was limping on his right hind leg. Over five months, his condition worsened to weakness in his back legs and then all four legs. After a thorough examination, the vet found multiple tumors in the spinal cord that were affecting his movement. Unfortunately, the dog was diagnosed with a rare type of tumor called nephroblastoma, which is a type of kidney tumor that can also affect the spinal cord. Sadly, the outcome was not positive, as this condition is serious and can lead to significant complications.
People also search for: dog weakness in back legs · pit bull spinal cord tumor · dog lameness treatment · why is my dog having trouble walking · dog coordination problems
Abstract
A 1-year-old male American pit bull terrier was presented with a history of proprioceptive deficits and mild lameness of the right hindlimb, which progressed after 5 months to paraparesis, culminating in tetraparesis after 2 weeks. Necropsy findings were limited to the spinal cord and consisted of multiple, intradural, extramedullary, slightly red masses which produced segmental areas of medullary swelling located in the cervical intumescence, thoracolumbar column, sacral segment and cauda equina. Histological evaluation revealed a tumour, composed of epithelial, stromal and blastemal cells, with structures resembling tubules, acini and embryonic glomeruli. Immunohistochemical labelling for vimentin, cytokeratin and S100 was positive for the stromal, epithelial and blastemal cells, respectively. A final diagnosis of multifocal spinal cord nephroblastoma was established. This is the first report of such a tumour showing concomitant involvement of the cervicothoracic, thoracolumbar, sacral and cauda equina areas of the spinal cord.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29422310/