Veterinary Services

The Inverness Centre suspected ethylene glycol toxicity in a three-year-old male Labrador that had been dull and vomiting after drinking dirty water last summer. Two months later renal failure was diagnosed.

The urea and creatinine parameters initially improved slightly but then continued to worsen and the dog was euthanased. At necropsy the kidneys were very small, pale and fibrotic.

Histopathology revealed chronic tubulointerstitial disease. Small amounts of crystalline material were present in some of the tubules with evidence of tubular necrosis and regeneration.

Post-mortem examination of a 20-month-old male German Shepherd dog that died after episodes of vomiting over a one week period, revealed an intussusception of the everted stomach into the oesophagus which also involved the proximal small intestine and spleen.

The Aberdeen Centre suspected congestive heart failure as the cause of sudden death of a four-year-old Domestic Shorthaired cat with left ventricular hypertrophy and marked pulmonary and hepatic congestion. Similar findings were observed at post mortem examination of a two-year-old Labrador found dead with no previous clinical signs.

The great majority of staphylococcal isolates from cats and dogs were identified as Staphylococcus intermedius recovered from cases of otitis, dermatitis and from a dog with a chronic anal gland infection. The Aberdeen Centre reported the isolation of Staphylococcus aureus from a canine skin scraping and from a three-year-old Ragdoll cat with a nasal discharge. Microsporum canis was isolated from a nine-month-old Persian with circular lesions on its back, confirming ringworm.

The Perth Centre isolated Campylobacter jejuni from the faeces of dogs from two separate premises. One was a 2.5-month-old retriever with a history of diarrhoea. The other was a four-month-old Labrador.  In the latter case parvovirus infection was suspected clinically and parvovirus antigen was also demonstrated in the faeces submitted for examination. Aberdeen detected canine parvovirus antigen in a faecal sample from a 10-week-old Basset hound with vomiting and diarrhoea. The puppy also had a faecal nematode egg count of 1400 Toxocara epg.

Salmonella London was isolated from a faecal sample from a two-year-old dog with intermittent diarrhoea.