Pitiose em equinos: relato de caso

Abstract

Pythium insidiosum is the etiologic agent of cutaneous pythiosis in horses, which is a non-contagious, chronic and granulomatous infectious disease that affects the skin tissue of horses and other mammals that live near swampy areas, this disease has a rapid progression, reaching mainly the limbs and the ventral part of the animal that comes into direct contact with flooded surfaces and contaminated with the etiological agent, a disease that can lead the patient to death, as well as causing economic damage to tutors. The differential diagnosis of pythiosis is habronemosis (summer wound), sarcoid, exuberant granulation tissue and fungal and bacterial granulomas. For the animal to contract this disease, in addition to having contact with these wetlands, it must have microlesions or wounds that can serve as a gateway for the etiological agent. The clinical signs of equine pythiosis have characteristics with specific lesions, which can be identified macroscopically and confirmed through complementary exams such as histological study of the lesions and isolation of the microorganism in a culture medium, currently the methods that help in the diagnosis of an early and correct way, are immunohistochemical tests, ELISA or PCR. The objective of this work was to make a successful case report of pythiosis in horses, attended at the Veterinary Hospital of the Federal University of Paraíba, located in the city of Areia-PB, in June of the year 2022, where the The patient, a ten-year-old gray mare, presented lesions in an atypical location (left back). Surgical treatment was performed through debridement of the affected tissue, and clinical treatment based on triamcinolone acetonide and wound cleaning, with significant improvement in the patient in a few days.