Veterenarian Case Study On Bacterial Infection In Male German Shepherd
The subject of my case study is Fitzgerald who is a two year old neutered male German Shepherd. Prior to the day of his physical examination, Fitzgerald was fine. Fitzgerald’s owner realized that he had been producing larger fecal volumes than he usually would. He also mentioned Fitzgerald to be very gassy and has a bubbling noise going on while gas flows through his intestines. The disease process that Fitzgerald is suffering from is a bacterial infection. The pathophysiology behind it is decreased muscle mass, and thin, unthrifty appearance.
The typical signalment of this animal is a two year old neutered German Shepherd. Fitzgerald fits into that signalment based off his background and it would give the veterinarian better aid with making diagnosis since most diseases have a certain prevalence towards a specific group of animals. If Fitzgerald were a ten year old dog, other complications that would have contributed to his condition would have probably been Leptospirosis, Auto-immune diseases, panosteitis, parasites, kidney or liver problems, obstruction in the intestines and much more. Steatorrhea is when there is too much fat in your feces. Borborygmus is bowel noises that your stomach make when accompanied by loss of appetite and diarrhea because of gastrointestinal upset. Fenbendazole is a dewormer medication that veterinarians use to treat and get rid of many different intestinal parasites. Metronidazole is an antibiotic used to treat inflammatory bowel disease that is like diarrhea. It can also be used as an anti diarrhea medication.
Fitzgerald improved initially because of the medication. The medication cleared up the infections his body was experiencing but not the actual main cause for the illness. The medication given was just a temporary fix until the veterinarian could see what the labs showed, to know exactly how to treat Fitzgerald’s condition. The cobalamin and folate levels were checked to see if Fitzgerald had intestinal nutrient absorption problems. It will help the veterinarian receive as much information as possible. If the disease level is high in the small intestines it would be a decrease in the folate levels. If there are problems located in the lower ileum tract the cobalamin absorbs more. If a large area of the ileum tract is infected, it would be a decrease in both the cobalamin and folate levels. The intestinal mucosal biopsies were done on Fitzgerald to pinpoint the exact cause of his problem. A fecal alpha protease inhibitor was done to screen Fitzgerald for intestinal protein loss due to intestinal problems experienced. Trypsin-like immunoreactivity is the test that measures the trypsinogen the has entered the bloodstream directly from the pancreas. It is used for the diagnosis of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth is abbreviated SIBO, which is basically bacteria in the colon area. Tylosin is an antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections or certain chronic diarrhea in dogs. It was prescribed to Fitzgerald to treat the chronic watery diarrhea that he was having. Fitzgerald was placed on a specific diet to help with his pancreatitis.
A two year old neutered male German Shepherd by the name of Fitzgerald has been suffering with chronic watery diarrhea. In order to determine the cause of this systematic problem a Complete Blood Count (CBC) will be performed by the veterinarian. Diarrhea in dogs can be caused by different factors. It may be caused by ingestion of odd materials, viral or bacterial infections, or serious diseases. A watery or loose stool is what we call a diarrhea. It is an indication that something wrong is going on inside your German Shepherd’s tummy or digestive tract. The watery stool may or may not come with blood, worms, undigested food or materials, or foreign objects. German Shepherds and other dogs with diarrhea may show other signs like straining to defecate, relieving more often, “accidents”, tummy pain, and cramping. Normally, a dog’s colon functions to remove excess water in the digested material and helps make it a firm and well-formed stool. When something irritates the dog’s digestive system, the colon brings water into it to flush it out and this leads to the liquefying and softening of the dog’s stool. If the problem is not fixed with the medication further testing would include an intestinal mucosal biopsies to better pinpoint what is actually going on. This way Fitzgerald would probably have to end up on a low fat and fiber diet.
