Abstract
Chronic nasal disease is a common problem in dogs. To determine the aetiology, a retrospective study in 75 dogs with persistent and chronic nasal disease was done. All dogs were evaluated by means of survey nasal radiographs, antegrade and retrograde rhinoscopy, bacterial and fungal cultures, and histopathology. A definitive diagnosis was made in 74/75 cases (98.6%). Nasal neoplasia was the most common diagnosis (46.7%), median age 108 months, followed by lympho-plasmacytic rhinitis (20%), median age 112 months, and fungal rhinitis (10.7%), median age 53.5 months. Other diagnoses included nasal foreign body (5.3%), median age 51 months, and primary bacterial rhinitis (6.7%), median age 116.5 months. Rare aetiologies identified were nasal polyps, granulomatous rhinitis, oro-nasal fistula and naso-pharyngeal stenosis. This study showed that by using a structured combination of survey radiography, rhinoscopy, cultures and histopathology, a diagnosis could be made in dogs with chronic nasal disease.
Highlights
Chronic nasal disease is characterised by nasal and/or ocular discharge, sneezing, and nasal stertor and can be a common problem in dogs[3,19]
No bacteria or fungi were cultured in 17 dogs (48 %), normal flora was cultured in 17 dogs (48 %), and a pathogenic bacterium (Streptococcus canis) was cultured in 1 dog
The neoplasia was classified as undifferentiated carcinoma (15) adenocarcinoma (9), transitional carcinoma (4), chrondrosarcoma (3), fibrosarcoma (1), neuro-endocrine carcinoma (1), squamous cell carcinoma (1) and adenoma (1)
Summary
Chronic nasal disease is characterised by nasal and/or ocular discharge, sneezing, and nasal stertor and can be a common problem in dogs[3,19]. There are, only a few published reports concerning the prevalence of the different aetiologies in the dog[19]. Signs of chronic nasal disease may include sneezing, nasal discharge, epistaxis, nasal stertor, paroxysmal reverse sneezing, coughing, halitosis, open-mouth breathing, facial deformities, facial pain, discoloration of the nares and/or exophthalmos. Various diseases of the nasal cavity present with similar clinical signs, with no one sign being pathognomonic for any particular disease[4], rendering clinical diagnosis difficult. Common causes of chronic nasal disease in dogs include nasal neoplasia, fungal rhinitis, and lympho-plasmacytic rhinitis (LPR), referred to as inflammatory rhinitis[2,4,12,19,20].
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