DINIZ, P. V. N.; DINIZ, Paula Valeska Nóbrega.
Resumo:
The objective of this study was to describe the epidemiological, clinical and pathological
features of four cases of pythiosis in dogs diagnosed at the Laboratory of Animal
Pathology, Veterinary Hospital of the Federal University of Campina Grande. The animals
were breeds poodle, German shepherd, pitbull and SRD, two males and two females
ranging in age from one to three years. Two cases occurred in 2011, one in 2013 and one in
2014, were from two municipalities of Paraíba and two of Rio Grande do Norte. The four
animals were bred in the urban area, three had access to flooded areas of the countryside
and which had no contact with wetland, drank well water. Clinical signs were varied,
observing vomiting, diarrhea and tenesmus. Two dogs had suspected bowel obstruction
and one had primarily cutaneous involvement. Macroscopically, in two cases there was an
irregular, firm yellowish mass involving the initial portion of the small intestine, affecting
the duodenum, pancreas, mesenteric lymph nodes and pancreatic and fourth case also had
liver damage. The second case had ulcerative lesions with serosanguineous secretion in the
skin region that stretched from the sacral dorsal-caudal to the anus and the end portion of
the rectum. The third case showed thickening of the wall of the rectum and anus with
irregular nodules that extended the perianal region, also with transmural involvement of
the vagina. Histologically, the lesions were similar, characterized by multiple granulomas
containing negative images of hyphae in tissue sections stained with hematoxylin eosin
(HE). For better visualization of hyphae was used special stains methenamine silver
Grocott (GSM) and periodic acid Schiff (PAS). The diagnosis was based on
epidemiological, clinical and pathological and histological findings with confirmation by
immunohistochemistry. Pythiosis occurs sporadically in dogs from northeastern semiarid
region and should be included in the differential diagnosis mainly of diseases that cause
obstruction of the gastrointestinal tract.