Estudo clínico-patológico de alterações encefálicas de cães idosos

Abstract

Brazil is the fourth country in the world in number of pets and the second in number of dogs and cats. Veterinary medicine is increasingly improving its diagnostic, clinical and preventive methods, leading to an increase in the life expectancy of these animals and associated with the increase in the longevity of dogs is the appearance of several diseases. Among the most important systems of the body, this central nervous system and diseases that affect this are important causes of death in dogs. It is still not known the frequency of brain diseases in elderly dogs in the different regions of Brazil, as well as the distribution of the brain lesions caused by these diseases. This thesis addresses brain lesions in elderly dogs through three scientific articles. The first article describes three cases of encephalic vascular accident in elderly dogs, due to occlusion / rupture of cerebral vessels by thrombi. The second one had the objective of describing two cases of elderly dogs diagnosed through necropsy and histopathological examination with intraencephalic neoplasias. The last article deals in a general way with the cerebral lesions and their distribution according to the affected areas found in elderly dogs necropsied in the animal pathology sector of the Federal University of Pelotas. In this thesis, different lesions of the central nervous system of elderly dogs were observed, which can cause different behavioral changes, although not necessarily related to the mortis cause of these animals. These behavioral changes are difficult to identify by tutors as they are associated with the normal aging process of dogs.