May 2012

0512
Text

 

History: Dog, 2 years, male

Diagnoses: Kidney, severe acute segmental infarction with peripheral haemorrhage; multifocal moderate acute petechial haemorrhages

Description: Renal cortex and medulla are affected by multifocal areas of deep red discoloration surrounding pale whitish areas that bulge above the capsular and cut surface.

Comments: The dog had been imported from Greece and was presented clinically with fever and diarrhea. Bloodwork identified severe thrombocytopenia and anemia. Petechial haemorrhages of the oral mucosa and abdominal skin were visible in the clinical examination. Necropsy revealed severe acute pulmonary haemorrhages, splenomegaly with acute focal necrosis, generalized lymphadenopathy, multiple acute renal infarcts as well as a moderate chronic tubulointerstitial nephritis and petechiae in several tissues.

Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) was assumed to be the most probable cause for the systemic haemorrhages and the acute renal infarcts. There were no vascular changes. Leptospirosis was considered one of the possible causes, especially because of the accompanying severe pulmonary haemorrhages. This pulmonary form of canine leptospiral infection closely resembles Leptospiral pulmonary haemorrhagic syndrome (LPHS), which is well-recognized in humans. However, neither bacteria nor other causative agents could be identified.

Picture by: Afonso da Costa, Department of Veterinary Pathology, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany

Author: Stephanie Plog, Department of Veterinary Pathology, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany