Page 141 - Small Animal Clinical Nutrition 5th Edition

142 Small Animal Clinical Nutrition

CASE 6-2
VetBooks.ir Vomiting and Diarrhea in a Yorkshire Terrier

Patient Assessment
A one-year-old, intact female Yorkshire terrier weighing 2.7 kg had a sudden onset of lethargy, watery diarrhea, vomiting, icterus
and red-colored urine. Abnormal laboratory findings included hemolyzed plasma, anemia, azotemia, leukocytosis, hemoglobinuria
and an elevated total bilirubin concentration. Abdominal radiographs revealed a metal object at the pylorus. The object was recog-
nized by the owner as a nut that had been missing for two weeks from an airfreight kennel used to house the dog. Serum zinc con-
centration was 32 mg/kg, compared with 1.1 mg/kg in serum obtained from a clinically normal dog at the same time.

Assess the Food and Feeding Method
No dietary history was available. The manufacturer of the kennel indicated that the nut was made of pure zinc.

Treatment Plan
The nut was removed from the stomach using a fiberoptic endoscope. Additional therapy included intravenous fluids and a blood
transfusion.

Reassessment
The dog stopped vomiting but remained depressed and continued to have profuse watery diarrhea. Semi-solid feces were passed
on Day 5 after removal of the nut. The dog’s appetite returned on Day 6 and the dog steadily improved until discharge seven days
later. Serum zinc concentrations on Days 11 and 21 were 8.5 mg/kg and 1.0 mg/kg respectively (values for a clinically normal dog
were 0.7 mg/kg). The owner reported that the dog seemed completely normal three months after discharge.
On analysis, the nut contained 97% zinc, 2% aluminum and other elements.The nut removed from the stomach was highly cor-
roded and when its weight was compared with that of a new nut of the same design, it appeared that the dog received a total dose
of 703 mg zinc/kg body weight.

Bibliography
Torrance AG, Fulton RB. Zinc-induced hemolytic anemia in a dog. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 1987;
191: 443-444.

CASE 6-3

Reproductive Problems in a Group of Cats

Patient Assessment
A group of breeding domestic shorthair cats, ranging in age from two to five years and weighing from 3 to 4.5 kg, was presented
for poor reproductive performance, including failure to conceive, fetal resorption, small weak kittens and cannibalism. Neonatal kit-
tens from these queens had graying of hair, dry and curled coat texture and skeletal abnormalities including inverted carpi and
metatarsi, “kinked” tails and fused digits.
Physical examinations of the unbred queens were unremarkable. Some pregnant queens appeared slightly underweight for their
date of gestation but were otherwise normal when examined. Newborn litters contained several small kittens, weighing less than 70
g or kittens with gray-to-whitish coats over the caudal one-half to three-fourths of the body. The coat color over the head and feet
was unaffected.The coat texture of kittens less than three days old was somewhat dry and had a slightly curled appearance. Several
newborn kittens had kinked tails and inverted carpi. Kittens older than three weeks had normal coats and improvements in carpal
and tarsal malformations, but normal function or structure did not return in many kittens. Kittens with kinked tails and fused toes
did not improve with age.
Reproductive problems included a decline in conception rate from 100% to between 0 to 50% over an eight-month period. In
utero monitoring of pregnant queens through biweekly ultrasound examinations showed that the fetal loss rate was 67% and
occurred between 25 to 30 days of gestation. Food intake was only about two-thirds of that expected for the queens.
The initial evaluation included complete blood counts and serum biochemistry profiles for many of the queens and serum trace
mineral analyses and heavy metal toxicity screens for queens and affected kittens. The hemogram results included normal hemat-
ocrit and hemoglobin values with low mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentrations (hypochromasia) in four of six queens evalu-