Preface

**Section 4 Reproduction 125**

**VI** Contents

**Section 5 Orthopedics 157**

Castro Varón

**Section 6 Diagnostic Neurology 179**

Chapter 6 **Abnormalities in the Sexual Cycle of Bitches 127** Ali Risvanli, Halis Ocal and Cahit Kalkan

**Contraception in Dogs 139**

Chapter 8 **Patellar Luxation in Small Animals 159**

Chapter 7 **Pursuing Alternative Strategies for Healthier Medical**

Rita Payan-Carreira, Paulo Borges and Alain Fontbonne

Cleuza M.F. Rezende, Renato César Sachetto Tôrres, Anelise Carvalho Nepomuceno, Juliana Soares Lara and Jessica Alejandra

Chapter 9 **Diffusion Tensor Tractography in Cerebral White Matter 181** Mitzi Sarahi Anaya García and Jael Sarahi Hernández Anaya

Dogs perform many roles for people, such as hunting, herding, pulling loads, protection, assisting police and military, companionship, and aiding handicapped individuals. This in‐ fluence on human society has given them the sobriquet "man's best friend."

There is a possibility that during a pet's lifetime, medication may be recommended to treat medical conditions or problems. So, it does not hurt to know what the most common medi‐ cal conditions or problems are and how much you might pay for treatment.

This book *Canine Medicine - Recent Topics and Advanced Research* provides the knowledge in diagnosis and treatment of some important diseases and problems that the canines face.

I believe that this book offers broader perspective to the readers in the recent advances in **canine medicine**, starting from recent topics to application in clinical diagnosis and thera‐ peutics for practitioners and veterinarians.

The main purpose of the book is to point out the interest of some important topics of canine medicine and the progress in this field and to clear its importance in veterinary medicine. The book is concisely and clearly written and intended for veterinarians and clinicians and for people directly involved in dog health, management, and breeding.

The book included six sections ((1) Infectious Diseases, (2) Oncology, (3) Cardiology, (4) Re‐ production, (5) Orthopedics, and (6) Diagnostic Neurology) and has nine chapters.

**Chapter 1:** "Canine Parvovirus Type 2 (CPV-2)." The authors outline the importance of the disease and how to prevent and control it. Enteritis is characterized by intestinal hemor‐ rhage with severe bloody diarrhea. The causative agent, CPV-2, was first identified in the late 1970s. CPV is a nonenveloped, linear, single-stranded DNA virus with a genome of ap‐ proximately 5 kb, and it belongs to the genus *Parvovirus* , together with feline panleukopenia virus, mink enteritis virus, raccoon parvovirus, and porcine parvovirus. An antigenic var‐ iant, CPV-2a, was identified within a few years after the emergence of CPV-2, and another variant, CPV-2b, began appearing in the canine population in 1984. In 2000, a novel antigen‐ ic variant, CPV-2c, was first detected in Italy. This chapter focuses on the history, viral evo‐ lution, epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical signs, diagnosis, vaccination, and prevention of CPV-2.

**Chapter 2:** "Canine Visceral Leishmaniasis (CVL) in Brazil."—neglected diseases, risk fac‐ tors, zoonoses." In this chapter, the authors describe the cause and its transmission through the bite of sand flies, as well as its diagnosis, therapy, and prevention. Endemic regions have widened, and canine visceral leishmaniasis (CVL) occurs mainly in the Mediterranean re‐ gion and South America. There is no consensus on the risk factors associated with CVL, as results differ between the studied regions and countries. This chapter describes the main

aspects of epidemiology, immunology, clinical signs, diagnosis treatment, and control of ca‐ nine visceral leishmaniasis with emphasis on Brazil.

**Chapter 3:** "Infectious Causes of Abortion, Stillbirth, and Neonatal Death in Bitches."—pup‐ pies, bitches, reproductive failure. Problems in gestational development in dogs can be de‐ termined by infectious and noninfectious causes. Trauma during pregnancy, genetic characteristics of the animal, deficit nutrition, thyroid dysfunction, maternal problems, and hormonal disorders are among the noninfectious causes found. The majority of the cases are in relation to infectious causes; one should consider viral, bacterial, fungal, and protozoal, which can interfere directly or indirectly in fetal development. The progression of fetal de‐ velopment may be affected by the direct action of microorganisms to overcome the placenta, but they are also able to affect pregnancy and placental toxins by inflammatory processes and may still occur in maternal pathologies, which entail problems such as hyperthermia, hypoxia, and endotoxemia, which can result in abortion. Several diseases can trigger preg‐ nancy loss in dogs. This action can be direct by microorganisms, as well as indirectly trigger‐ ing other problems that lead to abortion. This chapter discusses the infectious etiologies of reproductive failures (abortion, stillbirth, and neonatal death) in bitches.

**Chapter 4:** "Mast Cell Tumors."—mast cells, tumorigenesis, pathology, treatment. This chapter describes one of the major cutaneous tumors in dogs. Though the etiology of MCTs are not completely understood, it becomes clear that approximately 10 to 20% MCTs express mutant KIT receptors with ligand-independent phosphorylation. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors targeting KIT exert antitumor effects on malignant proliferation of mast cells with or with‐ out gene mutations. However, the efficacy of KIT inhibitors on dogs with MCTs has been limited. In this chapter, the authors try to outline the general understandings of mast cells such as the process of its differentiation and proliferation and what has been revealed re‐ garding the mechanism of tumorigenesis and therapeutic approaches. Especially, KIT muta‐ tion-related evidences and therapeutic approaches in the future are discussed.

**Chapter 5:** "Chronic Mitral Valve Insufficiency in Dogs: Recent Advances in Diagnosis and Treatment."—mitral valve, degenerative valve disease, mitral valve insufficiency, heart fail‐ ure, mitral regurgitation. Chronic mitral valvular insufficiency (CMVI) is the most common acquired heart disease in dogs and is characterized by degenerative valvular changes caus‐ ing progressive thickening of mitral leaflets and incomplete closure of mitral valve. As the disease progresses, it causes congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema if the LA dila‐ tion cannot accommodate the volume overload by mitral regurgitation. Therefore, it is the most common cause of cardiac mortality in dogs. This chapter discusses general features of CMVI in dogs focusing on recent advances in diagnosis and treatment.

**Chapter 6:** "Abnormalities in the Sexual Cycle of Bitches."—Sexual cycle abnormalities are an important cause of infertility in bitches, with disorders such as anestrous, split estrus, and persistent estrus having varied etiologies. Sexual cycle abnormalities in bitches may be addressed as follicular or luteal-phase disorders. However, pet owners should have a good working knowledge of the sexual cycles of their animals in order to better understand these disorders.

**Chapter 7:** "Pursuing Alternative Strategies for Healthier Medical Contraception in Dogs." —medical contraception, nonprogestogen drugs, antigonadotropins. Though extensively used in the control of the reproductive cycles in either the domestic or feral dogs, as well as in wild carnivores, medical progestin-based contraception still raises concerns to the veteri‐

nary practitioner and owners on its safety and efficiency. These concerns endorsed, in last decades, the research in the development of new alternatives for effective, reversible, and safe contraceptive methods for carnivores, mainly pursuing a larger scale control of canine reproduction and the development of products with few side effects. Nowadays, the medi‐ cal contraceptives often intend to master, in a reversible way, the reproductive cycle in ge‐ netically valuable dogs, which presumes that they would be active for short periods of time and ought to safeguard the animal fertility. However, hormonal contraceptives are also used worldwide to control the reproductive activity in either domestic or feral cats, for long-term treatments, because of a pretended short-term economic interest. Progestogens are the most frequently used hormonal contraceptive in carnivores. They are rather easy to obtain across the globe and relatively cheap; they have diverse drug presentations, allowing its use inde‐ pendent of veterinary assistance, and are effective in preventing pregnancy. Still a signifi‐ cant number of undesirable health side effects are attributed to progestins when employed with some chronicity, when applied in older animals, or even when it is due to a misuse. In the past two decades, several new approaches to managing dog reproduction were pro‐ posed to escape progestins. However, their efficiency and cost are still to be proven as a via‐ ble alternative around the world. This chapter aims to review the medical methods available as alternative to the progestin in canine contraception, addressing particularly the future perspectives, opportunities, and limitations linked to currently available substitutes, based on our practice. This information can be of utmost interest to students, clinicians, or colo‐ nies' technicians.

aspects of epidemiology, immunology, clinical signs, diagnosis treatment, and control of ca‐

**Chapter 3:** "Infectious Causes of Abortion, Stillbirth, and Neonatal Death in Bitches."—pup‐ pies, bitches, reproductive failure. Problems in gestational development in dogs can be de‐ termined by infectious and noninfectious causes. Trauma during pregnancy, genetic characteristics of the animal, deficit nutrition, thyroid dysfunction, maternal problems, and hormonal disorders are among the noninfectious causes found. The majority of the cases are in relation to infectious causes; one should consider viral, bacterial, fungal, and protozoal, which can interfere directly or indirectly in fetal development. The progression of fetal de‐ velopment may be affected by the direct action of microorganisms to overcome the placenta, but they are also able to affect pregnancy and placental toxins by inflammatory processes and may still occur in maternal pathologies, which entail problems such as hyperthermia, hypoxia, and endotoxemia, which can result in abortion. Several diseases can trigger preg‐ nancy loss in dogs. This action can be direct by microorganisms, as well as indirectly trigger‐ ing other problems that lead to abortion. This chapter discusses the infectious etiologies of

**Chapter 4:** "Mast Cell Tumors."—mast cells, tumorigenesis, pathology, treatment. This chapter describes one of the major cutaneous tumors in dogs. Though the etiology of MCTs are not completely understood, it becomes clear that approximately 10 to 20% MCTs express mutant KIT receptors with ligand-independent phosphorylation. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors targeting KIT exert antitumor effects on malignant proliferation of mast cells with or with‐ out gene mutations. However, the efficacy of KIT inhibitors on dogs with MCTs has been limited. In this chapter, the authors try to outline the general understandings of mast cells such as the process of its differentiation and proliferation and what has been revealed re‐ garding the mechanism of tumorigenesis and therapeutic approaches. Especially, KIT muta‐

**Chapter 5:** "Chronic Mitral Valve Insufficiency in Dogs: Recent Advances in Diagnosis and Treatment."—mitral valve, degenerative valve disease, mitral valve insufficiency, heart fail‐ ure, mitral regurgitation. Chronic mitral valvular insufficiency (CMVI) is the most common acquired heart disease in dogs and is characterized by degenerative valvular changes caus‐ ing progressive thickening of mitral leaflets and incomplete closure of mitral valve. As the disease progresses, it causes congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema if the LA dila‐ tion cannot accommodate the volume overload by mitral regurgitation. Therefore, it is the most common cause of cardiac mortality in dogs. This chapter discusses general features of

**Chapter 6:** "Abnormalities in the Sexual Cycle of Bitches."—Sexual cycle abnormalities are an important cause of infertility in bitches, with disorders such as anestrous, split estrus, and persistent estrus having varied etiologies. Sexual cycle abnormalities in bitches may be addressed as follicular or luteal-phase disorders. However, pet owners should have a good working knowledge of the sexual cycles of their animals in order to better understand these

**Chapter 7:** "Pursuing Alternative Strategies for Healthier Medical Contraception in Dogs." —medical contraception, nonprogestogen drugs, antigonadotropins. Though extensively used in the control of the reproductive cycles in either the domestic or feral dogs, as well as in wild carnivores, medical progestin-based contraception still raises concerns to the veteri‐

reproductive failures (abortion, stillbirth, and neonatal death) in bitches.

tion-related evidences and therapeutic approaches in the future are discussed.

CMVI in dogs focusing on recent advances in diagnosis and treatment.

disorders.

nine visceral leishmaniasis with emphasis on Brazil.

VIII Preface

**Chapter 8:** "Patellar Luxation in Small Animals."—patella, surgery, radiography, dog, cat. This chapter describes lesions that occur in the stifle joints of dogs with patellar luxation. These lesions are associated with the animal's age, body weight, and degree of luxation. It also reports on the rate of redislocation. The patellar lesions found include articular cartilage erosion, subchondral bone exposure, a flattened or concave patellar surface, and entheso‐ phytes. Extrapatellar lesions included synovitis, osteophytes, blunting of the trochlear groove, an absence of trochlea, erosion of the condylar margins, capsule thickening, a long digital extensor tendon injury, "joint mice," flap formation, cranial cruciate ligament rup‐ ture, and meniscal prolapse. Such lesions were frequently found in animals with Grade II or III luxation that were aged 24 months or older; they were more severe in dogs weighing more than 15 kg. Patellar luxation causes changes that favor articular degeneration and should be treated surgically. Conservative treatment relieves pain but does not address tis‐ sue alterations.

**Chapter 9:** "Diffusion Tensor Tractography in Cerebral White Matter."—diffusion tensor, cerebral white matter, in vivo. Conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allows re‐ searchers and doctors to observe the autopsy and injuries of the cerebral white matter (CWM) in dogs. However, there are dynamic images on the basis of need (DT) tensor de‐ ployment of fiber to assess the safety of the device from the CWM technology. Diffusion tensor tractography (DTT) produces a three-dimensional representation of the data, which is displayed on a color map obtained from the variation of water molecules in space CWM. Fractional anisotropy (FA) variation is a value that measures changes in the deployment of water, which can occur if spaces CWM displaced disrupted, or infiltration. The aim of this chapter is to determine the feasibility of DTT in vivo examination of a natural appearance of the CWM in dogs by visual and quantitative analysis of the most representative areas of CWM.

The book is the result of the collaborating parties. I gratefully acknowledge the assistance provided by all authors that have contributed to the publication of this volume and by the InTech editorial office that initiated this project and that has completed the book edition.

#### **Dr. Hussein Abdelhay Elsayed Kaoud**

Full Professor of Animal, Poultry, Aquaculture Health, and Environmental Pollution Department of Hygiene and Management Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Cairo University El-Giza, Egypt

**Section 1**

**Infectious Diseases**

The book is the result of the collaborating parties. I gratefully acknowledge the assistance provided by all authors that have contributed to the publication of this volume and by the InTech editorial office that initiated this project and that has completed the book edition.

X Preface

Full Professor of Animal, Poultry, Aquaculture Health, and Environmental Pollution

**Dr. Hussein Abdelhay Elsayed Kaoud**

Department of Hygiene and Management

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine

Cairo University El-Giza, Egypt

**Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**
