Particular Clinical Manifestation of the Pain Syndrome in Canine Acute Gastroenteritis

Abstract

Introduction. Gastroenteritis is a widespread canine pathology often complicated with the pain syndrome and characterized by development of intoxication, dehydration, haemoconcentration and such inflammatory reaction as the neutrophilic left shift leukocytosis. The aim of the work is to provide a clinical description of the canine acute gastroenteritis dependingon the pain syndrome presence and severity degree.Materials and Methods. 31 dogs sick with acute gastroenteritis were studied, they were divided into 2 subgroups: the first (n=14) – animals with the acute gastroenteritis not complicated with the pain syndrome; the second (n=17) – animals with the acute gastroenteritis complicated with the pain syndrome.Results. In dogs with acute gastroenteritis, the depression or anxiety, vomiting, diarrhea, subfebrile fever, abdominal wall tenderness on palpation, decreased skin turgor, moderate tachycardia and tachypnea were observed. When analyzing the clinical and anamnestic data, it was found that before the symptoms emerged, 65% of the animals had consumed the poor-quality or rough feed (bones). In 35% of cases, the reason of acute gastroenteritis could not be detected. Contamination and increased growth of opportunistic pathogens in the gastrointestinal tract cause the development of intoxication, dehydration and systemic inflammatory syndrome. Alimentary gastroenteritis in 54.8% of sick dogs is complicated with the acute pain syndrome, which is a predictor of the disease severity degree.Discussion and Conclusions. In dogs with acute gastroenteritis complicated with the pain syndrome, the severe tachycardia and tachypnea get developed, the number of erythrocytes, leukocytes, band and segmented neutrophils, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and hematocrit in the blood significantly increase. The perspective for the further research is foreseen in the development and clinical testing of the multimodal analgesia methods in animals with the inflammatory gastrointestinal diseases.