The general health condition of shelter dogs and cats is largely unknown due to the lack of veterinary interventions and few laboratory tests being performed routinely in many shelters in Japan. At Amitie, a veterinarian-run animal shelter in Tottori, dogs and cats translocated from other shelters undergo veterinary health examinations including blood and fecal examinations. In this study, the records of 90 dogs and 112 cats of various ages were evaluated in order to characterize the health status of stray animals found in Tottori prefecture. The results revealed that 73.3% of dogs and 54.5% of cats suffered from one or more diseases requiring medical or surgical veterinary interventions when they were rescued. These included gastrointestinal parasite infestations (25.7%), heartworm infection (32.0%) and associated cardiovascular diseases in dogs, and viral infections (8.9%) in cats. Of those, approximately 40% of dogs and cats required long-term treatment or monitoring even after adoption. The time from translocation to adoption was significantly shorter in dogs weighing <10 kg and kittens aged <1 year, but a significant effect was not observed for sex or health condition. This is the first report, to the author’s knowledge, that provides collective information regarding the health condition of stray dogs and cats in Tottori prefecture. The results suggested that veterinarians are encouraged not only to become involved in the health care of shelter animals, but also to play a leading role in improving public awareness regarding the responsibility of pet ownership in order to achieve good animal welfare practice in Japan.
The anti-rotation effect on the tibia exerted by lateral suture stabilization (LS), one of the femorotibial alignment reduction techniques, was evaluated in 10 small breed dogs (14 stifles) diagnosed with grade 2 or 3 medial patellar luxation (MPL). Anatomical lateral distal femoral angle (aLDFA), inclination of the femoral head angle (IFA), anteversion angle (AA), mechanical medial proximal tibial angle (mMPTA), and tibial torsion angle (TTA), were measured using computed tomography multiplanar reconstruction (CT-MPR) before surgery. In addition, the quadriceps angle (QA) was measured for chronological evaluation of the femorotibial alignment. In this study, no significant deformities of caudal limb were identified in all cases, and the anti-rotational effect was maintained for more than two months after the surgery. In conclusion, LS may be an effective surgical procedure to correct femorotibial alignment in small breed dogs with grade 2 and 3 MPL and minimal skeletal deformities of the tibia.
An 8.5-year-old intact male Boxer dog presented with a raised, dark red-to-brown, smooth-surfaced corneal mass, which was 4 mm in diameter and 2 mm in thickness. The dog had been continuously rubbing his right eye for 2 weeks before the lesion was noticed. On examination, the dog was noted to have blepharospasm and epiphora. The mass was promptly removed to the level of clear corneal stroma by keratectomy. There was severe bleeding from the corneal lesion, and a newly formed vessel was cauterized at the limbus. Histopathology revealed that the mass was composed of granulation tissue with thrombi and vasodilation. Corneo-conjunctival transposition was performed, and the corneal defect healed completely.
Two parasitic nematodes were found and removed from the peritoneal cavity of an eight-month-old dog of mixed breed during laparoscopic ovariectomy. Post-operative hematologic examination showed the animal to be positive for Dirofilaria immitis antigens, while the peripheral blood was negative for microfilaria. No cardiac malformations or parasitic worms were detected in the heart on echocardiography and the nematode load of the animal was considered to be limited to the two found in the peritoneal cavity. They appeared to be an immature female and a mature male of Dirofilaria immitis. Close inspection of the head and tail of the mature male, particularly the arrangement of the caudal papilla, allowed us to tentatively confirm its identification as Dirofilaria immitis. In addition, the genetic sequence of a sample derived from the immature female was consistent with that of the mature male, as well as a previously reported sequence. These results thus definitively confirmed both nematodes to be Dirofilaria immitis.