Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Brain abscess from plant stuck in dog's brain treated with surgery
By Cloquell, Ana & Mateo, Isidro·Published in Open veterinary journal·2019·Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Spain·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Surgical management of a brain abscess due to plant foreign body in a dog.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A 5-year-old Great Dane was brought in for signs of brain problems, including seizures, after imaging showed an abscess in the brain caused by a grass awn (a type of plant). The veterinarian performed surgery to drain the abscess and remove the foreign body from the dog's brain. After the surgery, the dog was given antibiotics and was sent home without any major neurological issues, although it continued to have occasional seizures. A follow-up MRI six months later showed that the brain had healed completely.
People also search for: dog brain abscess treatment · Great Dane seizures · grass awn foreign body dog · dog surgery recovery
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Intracranial abscesses as a result of grass awn migration have been rarely described in the veterinary literature. The identification of their radiological features is mandatory for proper diagnosis. As occurs with abscesses in other organs, surgical drainage and directed antibiotic therapy should be considered the treatment of choice. CASE DESCRIPTION: A clinical case of a Great Dane dog with forebrain signs and magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography findings compatible with intracranial abscess associated with inflammatory changes in orbital musculature is described. An exploratory rostro-tentorial craniotomy with durotomy was performed, allowing the drainage of purulent content and the extraction of a plant foreign body from the cerebral parenchyma. Antibiotic treatment was instituted and the patient was discharged without recurrence of neurological deficits other than quarterly seizures. Six months later, revision magnetic resonance was performed, revealing the resolution of the intracranial lesion and the normalization of the extracranial tissues. CONCLUSION: This is the first case in veterinary literature in which a grass awn has been surgically extracted from the brain of a dog with long-term outcome described. Observed changes in the extracranial musculature were fundamental to establish the pre-surgical diagnosis of a migratory foreign body.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31998614/