MANIFESTAÇÃO OCULAR ATÍPICA DA LEISHAMANIOSE E DIAGNÓSTICO PARASITOLÓGICO POR IMPRINT CONJUNTIVAL EM CÃO: RELATO DE CASO

Abstract

The nonspecific symptoms that characterize leishmaniasis in dogs include fever, splenomegaly, ascites, severe weight loss, and anemia. There may be skin ulcerations, skin peeling, ophthalmic and periocular lesions. One-year-old male Pug was referred to the Veterinary Hospital of UFPB, Areia-PB, with history of inappetence, epistaxis and lameness about three months ago. On examination, the most obvious changes were edema and hyperemia of the medial bulbar conjunctiva of eyes, alopecia and hyperkeratosis of the lateral eyelids of both eyes, hyperkeratosis and hairy rarefaction in the perianal region. The tonometry revealed anterior uveitis. The dog had nonregenerative anemia and thrombocytopenia throughout their clinical follow-up. Discrete and temporary changes were observed in ALT and FA dosages. Serological tests for leishmaniasis as indirect immunofluorescence and ELISA revealed negative results. However, due to the persistence of clinical signs, anemia and thrombocytopenia, although symptomatic treatment, leishmaniasis was not ruled out. Therefore, it was requested molecular examination of real-time PCR of total blood, that the result was also negative. Thus, conjunctival cytology, peripheral blood cytology and conjunctival biopsy were performed to further investigate the disease. Such parasitological examinations concluded diagnosis through observation of numerous amastigotes of Leishmania spp. on macrophages. A therapeutic protocol for leishmaniasis was established for the animal, with good clinical response.