Clinical Presentation, MRI Characteristics, and Outcome of Conservative or Surgical Management of Spinal Epidural Empyema in 30 Dogs.

Spinal epidural empyema (SEE) represents a neurological emergency in veterinary medicine, but information on this condition is limited to date. This retrospective case series study describes the clinical and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) features, and the outcome of conservative or surgical management of SEE in 30 dogs diagnosed with SEE from September 2015 to March 2020 at one referral neurology centre. The most frequent clinical sign was pain 28/30 (93%), and 22/30 (73%) showed neurological signs with ambulatory paraparesis/tetraparesis 15/30 (50%), monoparesis 1/30 (3.3%), non-ambulatory paraparesis 3/30 (10%), or paraplegia 3/30 (10%). MRI was valuable for the diagnosis and in the follow-up. In this group of dogs, 24/30 (80%) were conservatively treated and 6/30 (20%) were surgically treated. The outcome was considered favourable in all dogs: 20/30 (66.6%) achieved full recovery (3 surgically treated and 17 medically treated) and 10/30 (33.3%) dogs had an improvement in the neurological signs with residual ambulatory paresis (3 surgically treated and 7 medically treated). Surgical treatment showed better short-term (7 days) outcomes than medical treatment in non-ambulatory paraparetic or paraplegic dogs (33%). Nevertheless, this study suggests that a good recovery may be achieved with conservative treatment even for non-ambulatory or paraplegic dogs. Further prospective studies, with a standardised protocol of diagnostic tests and a homogeneous distribution of conservatively and surgically treated dogs, are needed to establish treatment guidelines.

Presumptive Haematomyelia Secondary to Warfarin Toxicosis in a Dog.

A 3-year-old male entire Boxer was presented for a 6-day history of progressive symmetric nonambulatory tetraparesis with diffuse spinal hyperesthesia. Eight days prior to admission, the dog ingested warfarin accidentally, exhibiting systemic clinical signs of intoxication 2 days later. Upon referral, the dog was nonambulatory with paretic thoracic limbs and plegia with absent nociception on pelvic limbs, spinal reflexes were decreased to absent in all four limbs, and urinary and faecal incontinence were noticed. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the cervical, thoracic, and lumbar regions of the vertebral column revealed intramedullary lesions extending from the first cervical segments to the conus medullaris consistent with extensive intramedullary haemorrhages. Despite management with vitamin K1 and physiotherapy, 6 weeks later, improvement was limited to thoracic limb motor function, and euthanasia was elected. This case reports an extensive presumptive haematomyelia with severe neurological deficits suspected to be secondary to warfarin intoxication in a dog.

First detection of Onchocerca lupi infection in dogs in southern Spain.

BACKGROUND: Onchocerca lupi causes ocular pathology of varying severity in dogs from south-western United States, western Europe and northern Asia. This filarioid has also been recognized as a zoonotic agent in Tunisia, Turkey, Iran and the USA, though the information about the biology and epidemiology of this infection is largely unknown. In Europe, O. lupi has been reported in dogs from Germany, Greece, Hungary, Portugal and Romania and in a cat from Portugal. The present study was designed to establish the occurrence of O. lupi in dogs in southwestern Spain. In the present study a total of 104 dogs of different breed, sex, and age living in a shelter in Huelva (SW Spain) were examined. Skin snip samples were collected using a disposable scalpel in the forehead and inter-scapular regions and stored as aliquots in saline solution (0.5 ml) before light microscopy observation of individual sediments (20 µl) and molecular examination. RESULTS: Of the 104 dogs examined, 5 (4.8 %) were skin snip-positive for O. lupi: two by microscopy and three by PCR. One of the O. lupi infected dogs showed neurological signs but ocular ultrasonography and/or MRI detected no abnormalities. CONCLUSIONS: This first report of O. lupi infection in dogs in southern Spain expands the range of geographical distribution of this parasite and sounds an alarm bell for practitioners and physicians working in that area.