Leishmaniasis and diahorrea?

RE: Leishmaniasis and diahorrea?

Stephen Courtney — Mon, 26 Aug 2019 13:05:30 GMT

[quote user="skatealexia"]

Dear all,

I have a boxer imported from Romania. Slightly sketchy details about import and leishmania testing prior- owner going to look into it as currently have no proof or results. Presented with chronic diahorrea, mild conjunctivitis and general ill-thrift. BCS marginal 4/9. Initial general medication for diahorrea (metronidazole, panacur, diet trial) not much effects. Faecal screen -ve. General bloods mild neutrophilia. Only thing on intestinal blood profile was a low folate/cobalamin but not unexpected. Some weight loss. How common is leishmaniasis to present with diahorrea?

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Leishmaniasis can easily present with chronic diarrhoea, usually as part of a generalised syndrome of ill thrift and vague grottiness. The low folate and cobalamin relate to GI disease as you say, and more typical Leish related coat changes may follow.

In addition conjunctivitis is common in Leish cases.

I don't know what the risk of Leish is from Romania though - I thought it was more Mediterranean-based

If you want to rule it out I would suggest get a leishmania serology done - easy peasy and it will be confirmatory - they are either very low ( negative) or very high ( positive). Don't splash the client's cash on a PCR on whole blood though - usually negative as the organism sequesters itself rapidly.

I've just written up a case for my CertSAM, and it presented as recurring conjunctivitis and chronic diarrhoea. then progressive periorbital alopecia . That dog was from Greece, and I have another from Cyprus that presented in a very similar way.

RE: Leishmaniasis and diahorrea?

Andreia Dias — Fri, 23 Aug 2019 12:05:17 GMT

With those changes (or lack of), I would not be thinking Leishmania from the top of my head.

RE: Leishmaniasis and diahorrea?

Emily Rainbow — Thu, 22 Aug 2019 21:51:33 GMT

There’s also histiocytic ulcerative colitis seen in boxers to consider.

RE: Leishmaniasis and diahorrea?

skatealexia — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 13:05:24 GMT

No changes in the lymph nodes. Mild ocular dermatitis alongside conjunctivitis. Biochemistry normal.

RE: Leishmaniasis and diahorrea?

Andreia Dias — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 13:00:04 GMT

Hmmm any changes on the skin or lymph nodes? Don't typically see Leishmania presenting just with diarrhoea (very rarely primary complaint). Biochemistry normal, or not done? Would be more worried about something else (cancer because it's a Boxer?).