Could it be Pythium?
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By Caroline Coile
Minka was one of those young dogs breeders dream about. She won the group, breeder/owner/handled, her first time out as a special, and shot up in the rankings within weeks. One night, after a huge breed win, she kept me up having to go out. By the next day it was obvious we needed to skip the rest of the weekend and head home. It would be her last show.
Over the next weeks she had increasing diarrhea, at first intermittent, then steady. Anti-diarrhea drugs helped only a bit. A specialist diagnosed her with food allergies. I was doubtful, as that’s not a common problem in salukis. Regardless, the prescription food didn’t help. The bloody diarrhea and abdominal pains worsened.
Then one of my older dogs, Beanie, developed identical bloody diarrhea and cramping. Beanie’s ultrasound revealed thickened intestinal walls and a mass in his large intestine, most likely cancer. The surgeon removed one-hird of his large intestine. A few days later we received the good news that the biopsy had no sign of cancer.
It was very late Friday night when the phone rang. The caller identified himself as the pathologist at the University who had examined Beanie’s biopsy sample. He said something had bothered him about the sample and, on a hunch, he hadn’t disposed of it after finding it cancer-free. Instead he cultured it. And examined it with several different stains. And that’s when he found it: pythium insidiosum.
Pythiosis
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Short URL: http://caninechronicle.com/?p=195101
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