Dog with abdominal mass causing soft stools and blood in stool

Abstract

A 10-year-old spayed female Boxer-mix was presented with a history of several weeks of soft stools, straining to defecate, inappetance, and lethargy and several days of hematochezia, melena, and dyschezia. Physical examination findings included mild tachycardia and tense cranial abdomen. CBC results indicated moderate mature neutrophilia. Ultrasonographic examination of the abdomen revealed a large mass with complex echogenicity in the cranial abdomen, likely associated with the intestines. Cytologic examination of a fine-needle aspirate revealed a population of round, stellate, and spindle-shaped cells arranged individually and in aggregates with occasional cells embedded in an eosinophilic extracellular matrix. The cytologic interpretation was malignant mesenchymal neoplasm with osteosarcoma being the primary differential. Surgical exploration of the abdomen revealed a 10-cm-diameter mass located at the intestinal mesenteric root. The mass occluded blood flow to portions of the gastrointestinal tract. The dog was euthanized due to the nonresectable nature of the tumor. Histopathologic examination revealed an expansile poorly demarcated mesenchymal neoplasm composed predominantly of spindloid and pyriform cells, occasionally embedded in a matrix compatible with osteoid. The diagnosis was extraskeletal osteosarcoma of the intestinal mesenteric root, only rarely reported in dogs.