Abstract
A one-year-old male Japanese Chin with anorexia, retching, dyspnea and continuous coughing was brought to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Chungbuk National University. Chest radiographs showed moderate regional alveolar pattern with mild interstitial patterns in the caudo-dorsal lung fields and the ill-defined mass in the perihilar area which is consistent with perihilar lymphadenopathy. Although the dog showed severe eosinophilia in the complete blood count, the serum profile values were within normal ranges. There was no indication of any parasite infestation in the direct and floatation examination of feces, skin scraping test and heartworm examination. There was no growth of bacteria and fungi in the selected media such as Mueller Hinton broth, Sabouraud Dextrose agar and Potato Dextorse agar, which were inoculated with tracheal fluid collected using endotracheal tube and cultured for 3 days. In the tracheal fluid smear, most prominent cells were eosinophils, which are a almost 80% of total cells and other cells such as leukocytes, neutrophils and ciliated colummar cells were also observed. Any parasite was also not detected in its smear. Prednisolone (PDS; 1 mg/kg, BID SC), aminophylline (10 mg/kg, TID IV) and nebulization with gentamicin (50 mg) plus saline (3 ml) were given for 1 week. At 3rd day of treatment, blood eosinophil value was return to normal range and pulmonary condition was also improved. The allergen test with serum performed during therapy was positive in the 19 index including milk, barley, tomato pomace, catfish, bonito, house dust and wool, and borderline in 10 index including wheat, house dust mites and house fly. The patient is responding well to PDS therapy. Based on these findings, a possible diagnosis of pulmonary infiltration with eosinophils was made in this dog.
