The objective of this study was to compare wound healing in stomach with CO₂ laser and scalpel incision by measuring the extent of bleeding, the ease of gastric incision, incision time, degree of adhesion and wound healing degree in dogs. Sixteen healthy dogs were used. Two symmetrical incisions were made in ventral aspect of the stomach between the greater and lesser curvatures were made with scalpel and 0.2 mm spot diameter CO₂ laser (8W, continuous wave) in sixteen dogs. And then each wound was closed with absorbable suture in a two-layer inverting seromuscular pattern. At 3, 7, 14 and 21 days after initial wounding, each wound was taken for histological observation. On surgery, the extent of bleeding, the ease of incision and incision time showed significant differences between the groups. The CO₂ laser provided better hemostasis (p less than 0.05) and smaller postoperative adhesion compared with the scalpel. However, the scalpel produced faster speed of incision and was easier to handle than the CO₂ laser (p less than 0.05). Although there was no considerable difference between the two groups in histological observation, necrosis and calcium deposit tended to be larger in the CO₂ laser than in the scalpel.

A 7-year-old, castrated male Yorkshire terrier dog with chronic vomiting, and melena lasted for 3 weeks was referred to the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital of Chungnam National University. The complete blood counts and serum biochemistry revealed no remarkable findings. Gastrointestinal series revealed irregular margin in small intestinal lumen. After upper gastrointestinal series, erythema of the small intestinal lesions was found by exploratory laparotomy and full-thickness biopsy was performed. Histopathologic examination revealed infiltration of predominantly eosinophils and other inflammatory cells in small intestine. Based on these findings, the dog was diagnosed as eosinophilic enteritis. After 4 weeks medical treatment and hypoallergenic diet, the patient showed no vomiting, melena and other complications.

Canine distemper virus (CDV)-specific immune response was measured in different dog populations. Three groups of vaccinated or wild-type virus exposed dogs were tested: dogs with a known vaccination history, dogs without a known vaccination history (shelter dogs), and dogs with potential exposure to wild-type CDV. The use of a T-cell proliferation assay demonstrated a detectable CDV-specific T-cell response from both spleen and blood lymphocytes of dogs. Qualitatively, antibody assays [enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and neutralization assay] predicted the presence of a T-cell response well, although quantitatively neither antibody assays nor the T-cell assay correlated well with each other. An interesting finding from our study was that half of the dogs in shelters were not vaccinated (potentially posing a public veterinary health problem) and that antibody levels in dogs living in an environment with endemic CDV were lower than in vaccinated animals.

A 5-year-old female Cocker spaniel dog (body weight 7.0 kg) was presented with primary complaints of exercise intolerance and loud precordial thrill which was noticed since she was a puppy. Physical examination revealed a grade Ⅴ/Ⅵ continuous murmur over the maximal point of the left basal area, bounding femoral pulse, but no differential cyanosis. Tall R waves were detected in electrocardiogram, suggesting left ventricular enlargement. Diagnostic imaging studies showed enlarged left ventricle, bulged descending aorta (dAo), markedly dilated right pulmonary artery, and continuous shunt flow between the dAo and main pulmonary artery. Based on these findings, the dog was diagnosed as left to right shunted patent ductus arteriosus (PDA). The patent ductus arteriosus was treated by lodging a PDA duct occluder via the transvenous approach. Clinical signs were markedly improved after the ductal occlusion, the shunt flow was mildly persistent. The case presented is the first case of PDA occluded by the PDA duct occluder via the transvenous approach in a small breed of dog. Although the residual shunt flow was mildly persisted, the dog was clinically normal without detectable murmurs.

Currently the diagnosis of renal diseases is based on thorough history, clinical examination, urinanalysis and investigation of hemato-biochemical profiles. But biochemical markers are not sensitive to detect early renal damage. Also usefulness of their estimation is limited in early renal failure when marked reduction of GFR may be associated with little change in their concentration. At present imaging is an important diagnostic tool for early precise diagnosis. Scintigraphy is a less known diagnostic imaging technique in veterinary medicine, although it is similar to competitive methods such as radiography, ultrasound and endoscopy. By all the other methods only morphological objects can be visualized whereas scintigraphy has the advantage of the so-called physiological imaging. Scintigraphy is able to visualize and quantitate distribution of different materials in living organisms indicating normal [physiological] or abnormal (pathological) processes of the object. This is a sensitive, specific and non-invasive diagnostic method supporting clinician's diagnosis, as a part of combined modality-imaging systems; it gives useful data for veterinary clinicians. Present study was planned to standardize the scintigraphic profile for healthy dogs. Perfusion index Mean ± S.D. for right kidneys and left kidney was 154.7 ± 40.05 and 169.0 ± 46.0. The mean percent uptake at 2-3 minutes was 53.56 ± 6.17 and 46.46 ± 6.17 for right and left kidney. Time taken to Peak (TPP) minute, which indicates efficiency of blood flow at both the kidneys, was 3.12 ± 1.21 and 3.03 ± 1.22 min for right and left kidney respectively. The T½ from peak count [min] for right and left kidney was 5.02 ± 2.24 and 5.15 ± 3.6 min. The GFR for right and left kidneys was 68.79 ± 33.67 and 61.62 ± 31.92, respectively and the normalized GFR when both the kidneys are considered together in healthy dogs was 439.48 ± 55.67.

An early declining trend in haemoglobin concentration, concurrent with reduced total erythrocyte count and PCV% was observed with pentazocine or lysine acetyl salicylate (LAS) analgesic premedication in thiobarbiturate intravenous general anaesthesia in atropine-primed normal dogs. While the declining trend in PCV% persisted with pentazocine, it had abated at 1.5 hr with LAS pre-medication. No evidence of intravascular haemolysis or red cell morphological aberration was found. Alterations in the values of major haematological indices appear to be a passive consequence of volume changes in the splenic pulp: initial dilatation induced by the thiobarbiturate followed by spontaneous contraction back to original biometry. The observed early lymphopoenic-eosinopoenic response might reflect enhanced glucocorticoid titre during the anaesthetic stress.

The present study characterizes canine reticulocyte exosomes. Exosomes are small membrane vesicles involved in membrane remodeling that are released from reticulocytes during the final maturation step of red blood cells. The vesicles collected from reticulocyte culture supernatants by differential centrifugation contained major exosomal proteins including heat shock protein cognate 70 (Hsc70) and transferrin receptors (TfR), consistent with the definition of the exosome. In addition, the Na,K-ATPase alpha-subunit and stomatin, a lipid raft-associated protein, were extruded by the exosome pathway, possibly leading to the absence of these proteins in erythrocytes, while the major protein constituents of erythrocyte membranes, spectrin and band 3 were retained in reticulocytes and not expelled into exosomes. The Na,K-ATPase alpha-subunit, as well as TfR and about half of the stomatin contained in exosomes, was obtained in a detergent-soluble fraction that was distinct from the lipid raft micro domain. Moreover, Na,K-ATPase and a portion of stomatin were distributed differently to Hsc70, TfR, stomatin, and ganglioside Gsub(M1) in vesicles separated with sucrose density gradient centrifugation. These results demonstrate that a heterogeneous group of exosomes participates in the loss of Na,K-ATPase and membrane remodeling during reticulocyte maturation in dogs.