Hemato-Biochemical and Mineral Status in Dogs with Intermittent Diarrhea and Unthriftiness

| Poor growth rate and intermittent diarrhea in pets are common problem faced on daily practice. T. canis is one of the most common cause to these problem and has a major health impact to both veterinarian and pet owner. This study aims to scrutinize hemato-biochemical and mineral status in dogs suffering from intermittent diarrhea and unthriftness due to T. canis. Thirty dogs were involved in this investigation, hematologic, serum and stool samples were taken and examined. Significant decrease in RBCs, HB, and PCV (P≤0.01, P≤0.001) along with significant increase (P≤0.05) in WBCs and eosinphils (P≤0.01) were the most consistent hematologic alterations recorded. Significant decrease (P≤0.01, P≤0.05) in TP, albumin accompanied by significant increase (P≤0.05) in ALT, AST and cholesterol values were found. Mineral profile showed significant decrease (P≤0.05) in zinc, copper and iron levels in the examined dogs. In conclusion, Toxocara canis infection appeared to have direct effect on mineral status, in dogs suffered from diarrhea due to T. canis, the cholesterol levels change; anemia is furthermore major health concern associated with the parasite and affects the growth of these dogs.


INTRODUCTION
I n canine practice, one of the most recognizable prob- lem faced on daily basis is intermittent diarrhea, which known to cause a major annoyance to pets' owners.Poor growth and diarrhea causes are varied, one of them is Toxocara canis (T.canis).
Toxocara canis infection is directly correlated with GIT disturbance, diarrhea, vomiting, potbelly and poor growth are the most common clinical signs in puppies (Carter and Payne, 2005;Bowman, 2014).
The most common hematologic alteration associated with helminthes invasion of the body is eosinophilia (Löscher and Saothoff, 2008).Researches on minerals are complicated by the reality they have multi-function (Seyreck et al., 2009).Zinc plays an integral part in T-cell mediated reactions for host protection in opposition to parasite invasion (Shi et al., 1998).Copper is fundamental constituent of ceruoplasmin, which aid load iron into transferrin (Evans and Haliwell, 2001).Zinc and copper are essential component of SOD, an enzyme of major participation in oxidative process (Brodzki et al., 2015).

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Thirty dogs of different ages, sexes, and breeds were involved in this study; the dogs were referred to small animal medicine-teaching hospital, faculty of veterinary medicine, Cairo University.Dogs showed poor growth rate and intermittent diarrhea were considered eligible for parasitologic investigation.
The stool samples of suspected dogs were examined by direct smear method, sedimentation method and salt floatation technique (Urquhart et al., 1996) under light microscopy.Identification of parasites was performed based on the morphological features (Soulsby, 1982).
Blood samples for hematologic evaluation were taken.Sera of infected dogs were analyzed for total protein, albumin, total bilirubin, cholesterol, triglycerides, ALT, AST, BUN, creatinine, potassium and sodium and mineral profile (Zinc, copper and iron) with respective test kits (Stanbio ® Inc.USA, Spectrum-Diagnostics).
The mineral profile showed significant reduction (P≤0.05) of zinc level, meanwhile copper and iron showed decrease (P≤0.05) in the levels in comparison to normal data and the decrease considered to be statistically significant.

DISCUSSION
In veterinary practice, diarrhea causes major annoyance to pet's owners, diarrhea of parasitologic etiology is known to decrease nutrient absorption from intestinal tract and hence causes unthriftiness.In this study, puppies below 3 months old were the most common affected, the prevalence of T. canis tends to be higher in puppies, however, the adult dogs can be also infected (O'Lorcain, 1994;Ridley et al., 1994;Overgaauw, 1997).Dogs of all ages can acquire Toxocara infection (Bowman, 2009;Epe, 2009;Lee et al., 2010) nevertheless; the clinical picture tends to be more predominant in young puppies (Carter and Payne, 2005).
Significant reduction in erythrogram in parasitized dogs compared to control dogs suggesting anemia, correlation between Toxocara infection and anemia in puppies has been recorded (Deger et al., 1997;Ogunkoya et al., 2006;Chattha et al., 2009;Qadir et al., 2011;Kumar et al., 2014) but the exact cause of the anemia was not fully explained.However, in one research paper dealt with Toxocara vitulorum in buffalo calves, Sarma et al. ( 2012) postulated the anemia might be a result of oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation mechanism of tissue damage.
Eosinophilia was the predominant feature of Toxocara canis infected dogs leukogram, it is widely accepted that the eosinophils number is increased as a part of host protection in parasitic infection (Kwon et al., 2006).Eosinophils play a fundamental part in host defense mechanism against parasitic infection by lowering number of infectious agents (McEwen, 1992).
Significant reduction in total protein especially albumin level was observed in this study, the parasite can cause intestinal mucosa damage which may interfere with the mucosal absorption and digestion mechanism ability (Dargie and Allonby, 1975).
Significant increase in Cholesterol, AST and ALT levels were recorded.The epinephrine and corticosteroids that elevated due to stress might lead to consequent rise in cholesterol level (Atasoy et al., 2015).The elevated activities of liver enzymes might be correlated to increase hepatic cells permeability of those enzymes to blood stream due to the parasitic effect (Kumar et al., 2014).
Significant decrease in zinc level was found in this study, similar result was found in Arabian foal with Parascaris equorum (Salem et al., 2015).The impairment of absorption caused by the parasite physical damage to intestinal epithelial lining might be implicated (Ertan et al., 2002); however, Sarma et al. ( 2012) attributed the drop of zinc level to excessive consumption of zinc to counterbalance reactive oxygen species overproduction.The nematodes are believed to have outstandingly high content of zinc-dependent superoxide dismutase (Shi et al., 1998).Zinc deficiency weakens host response to parasite invasion and expanded parasite life span in host (Scott and Koski, 2000).Inverse correlation between copper and cholesterol levels has been recorded; animal with decreased copper level tends to have elevated cholesterol value (Rucker et al., 2008).Iron absorption and metabolism are impaired due to copper reduction (O'Dell and Sunde, 1997).
In conclusion, Toxocara canis infection appeared to have direct effect on mineral and cholesterol levels in dogs; anemia is furthermore major health concern associated with the parasite and affects the growth of these dogs.

Figure 1 :
Figure 1: Stool sample examination under light microscopy reveals Toxocara canis egg