The Diagnosis And Pathogen Isolation And Identification Of Canine And Cat Endometritis

Endometritis is an important disease for middle-aged and old female animals. The purposes of this study were to diagnose canine and cat endometritis with clinical signs, ultrasound, X-ray and pathogens isolation and identification, and evaluate the possible causes of endometritis. The results should be useful for early efficient diagnosis for small animal endometritis, which could improve its healing rate of expectant treatment, reduce the risk of surgical therapy, and ensure animal reproductive ability.Canine and cats that were suspected suffering from endometritis, were examined by B-mode ultrasound and X-ray. Diagnosis for endometritis could be accurate by B-mode ultrasound. Although X-ray can diagnose pyometra, it can't diagnose early endometritis effectively.The contents of the uterus and vaginal secretions were collected and cultured (aerobic). Species and strains of bacteria were evaluated with biochemical identification. The main pathogen was Escherichia coli, accounting for 34.5%; the other pathogenic bacteria isolated were Shigella, Salmonella, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Proteus, Pseudomonas and Corynebacterium. Gram-positive bacteria accounted for 20.6%, gram-negative bacteria accounted for 79.3%. 0.6ml pathogens solution harvested from broth cultures were inoculated intraperitoneally in healthy mice. The results of above pathogenic mode showed that the mortality rates of different pathogen had distinction, which were from 66.7% to 100%. No bacterium was isolated from the healthy uterus contents. Six kinds bacteria had been isolated from vaginal samples, such as Staphylococcus aureus, Proteus mirabilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, E. coli, Shigella and Salmonella. Of the total, Gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria accounted for 16.7%and 83.3% respectively. These bacteria species were familiar with that in endometritis uterus, which demonstrated that the most likely source of the pathogenic bacteria of endometritis was the bacteria retroinfected from vaginal fornix, moreover, the dominant pathogenic bacteria of endometritis was gram-negative.There was no fungus isolated from the uterine contents, but two fungi were isolated from the vaginal secretion samples. That does not mean that there was no fungus in uterus, because the culture was aerobic.The concentration of progesterone and estradiol in serum samples were detected by the radioimmunity assay. The result showed that the progesterone in pyometra canine sera were significantly higher than that in early endometritis, but the latter was significantly higher than that in normal canine. The results indicated that with the occurrence and development of the endometritis disease, the content of progesterone in the blood getting higher and higher. Meanwhile the estradiol content of major endometritis canine was higher than that in normal canine, but some of it from endometritis canine was similar to normal canine.The uterus from healthy and endometritis canine were made histopathological examination and analysis. The uterus histological damage was mainly expressed endometrium thickening, endometrial epithelial loss, inflammatory cell infiltration and variant degrees of uterine cystic glandular change.