Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Severe fluid around lungs in dog caused by larval tapeworm infection
By Petrescu, Vasilica-Flory et al.·Published in Topics in companion animal medicine·2020·Department of Veterinary Medicine, Italy·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Severe Pleural Effusion in a Dog Affected by Larval Mesocestodiasis.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A 4-year-old mixed breed dog was brought to the vet because she was having severe trouble breathing. Tests showed that she had a lot of fluid in her chest, which contained cysts caused by a type of tapeworm infection. The vet started her on a medication called fenbendazole, but since she didn’t improve enough, they decided to surgically remove the cysts. After the surgery, the dog recovered well and didn’t have any breathing problems for a whole year.
People also search for: dog breathing problems · mixed breed dog pleural effusion treatment · tapeworm infection in dogs · fenbendazole for dogs · dog surgery recovery time
Abstract
A 4-year-old, 20 kg, female mixed breed dog was referred to our Veterinary Teaching Hospital for severe respiratory distress. Thoracic ultrasonography revealed severe pleural effusion with multiple anechoic cystic structures within the fluid. Abdominal cavity presented few small and irregular cystic structures. Diagnosis of infection by larval stages of Mesocestoides spp. on the basis of a PCR approach was performed and therapy with oral fenbendazole was started. Due to an incomplete clinical response, the dog underwent to remove metacestodes cysts by surgical debridement. The dog showed no recurrence of clinical signs for 12 months after the surgery. Pleural larval cestodiasis should be added as a differential diagnosis in the list of diseases causing pleural effusion in dogs.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32690287/