Veterinaria Mordisco Caracas

01/05/2026

Radiograph of the day — can you spot it?

This is a lateral thoracic radiograph from a cat diagnosed with IRIS Stage 4 CKD and poorly controlled phosphorus / CKD-MBD (CaxP 120 mg²/dL² )
Look closely at the ascending aorta. That radiopaque density isn't artifact — it's aortic calcification, a rare but striking manifestation of advanced feline CKD-MBD.

In humans with ESRD, vascular calcification affects up to 80–90% of dialysis patients and is a major driver of cardiovascular mortality. In cats, it's far less commonly reported — Schwarz et al. (2002) found zero cases of aortic mineralization in 786 feline thoracic radiographs. But when CKD-MBD deteriorates enough — severe hyperphosphatemia, calcium × phosphorus product exceeding 70 mg²/dL² — the same pathophysiology unfolds: smooth muscle cell osteogenic transdifferentiation, loss of calcification inhibitors (MGP, fetuin-A), and hydroxyapatite deposition in the vessel wall.

🔬 Teaching points:
→ Managing phosphorus in CKD and managing CKD-MBD isn't just about slowing progression. It's also about protecting the vasculature.
→ Metastatic calcification in cats requires extreme Ca×P dysregulation
→ Ascending aorta is the most common site in dogs; feline cases may be underdiagnosed

Have you seen vascular calcification in a CKD cat? Drop a comment 👇

30/04/2026

This massive meta-analysis demonstrates that the Moxi-Doxy (slow-kill) protocol achieves antigen-negative status in ~99% of dogs with stage 1–2 heartworm disease by 12 months.

Pooled data from 285 dogs show a progressive, time-dependent increase in antigen-negative conversion, with near-complete clearance by 12 months and outcomes broadly comparable to melarsomine from ~9 months onward.

Across studies reporting microfilarial outcomes, a rapid decline in circulating microfilariae was observed within the first month of treatment.

Post-treatment complications were primarily cardiovascular and respiratory (~13%), with no statistically significant difference compared to melarsomine.

These findings are most applicable to stage 1–2 heartworm disease. However, interpretation should remain cautious due to limited comparative trials, heterogeneity across study designs, variable risk of bias, and inconsistent outcome definitions.

Edit: Melarsomine remains the gold standard per American Heartworm Society guidelines. Non-arsenical protocols (e.g., Moxi-Doxy) are not recommended as first-line therapy and should be considered only when melarsomine is unavailable or contraindicated, with careful consideration of resistance risk and prolonged infection. This aligns with the authors’ conclusions, which frame Moxi-Doxy as an alternative in settings of limited access, not a first-line replacement.

Study cited in comments

30/04/2026

POCUS PEARL: the medullary rim sign 🐱

Scanning kidneys on a cat for something unrelated and you catch it: a bright hyperechoic band hugging the corticomedullary junction. Sharp. Clean. Doesn’t shadow.

That’s the medullary rim sign. And it’s not normal.

What it is:
Calcium salt deposition in the tubular epithelium of the outer medulla. The outer medulla runs hypoxic at baseline, so it’s the first thing to go when there’s ischemia, toxin exposure, or chronic metabolic stress. Mineralization follows damage.

Your differentials:
• Hypercalcemia (lymphoma, idiopathic, primary hyperparathyroidism, hypervitaminosis D)
• CKD
• Nephrotoxins (lilies, ethylene glycol, aminoglycosides)
• FIP
• Renal lymphoma

Hypercalcemia and CKD are your most common culprits. MRS alone won’t tell you which, it just tells you the kidney has been through something.

What to do next:
Ionized calcium, full chemistry, UA. Survey the rest of the abdomen while you’re in there.

Techs: if you see a bright band at the corticomedullary junction, flag it. That’s a reportable finding.

The kidney’s trying to tell you something.

30/04/2026

🦮 Diagnóstico de infección por Oslerus osleri en perros.

Oslerus (Filaroides) osleri es un nematodo que afecta a cánidos domésticos y silvestres.

Sin embargo, la infección se reporta comúnmente en perros jóvenes menores de 2 años y a menudo se diagnostica erróneamente como tos de las perreras (Yao et al. 2011).

Tras infectarse con Oslerus osleri, los perros suelen presentar signos de traqueobronquitis acompañados de tos prolongada y pueden sufrir dificultad respiratoria (Rafailov et al. 2021).

Típicamente se desarrollan nódulos característicos en la bifurcación de la tráquea, aunque existen estudios retrospectivos donde la enfermedad del tracto respiratorio inferior se ha atribuido a la infección por O. osleri (Brownlie 1990).

En este estudio, se reportan los casos de dos perros jóvenes en los que la investigación diagnóstica se realizó mediante evaluación citológica del líquido de lavado broncoalveolar e histopatología, respectivamente.

Se diseñó un ensayo de PCR para O. osleri en muestras de lavado broncoalveolar y muestras fijadas en formalina e incluidas en parafina.

La prueba de PCR para O. osleri es factible en ADN genómico obtenido de frotis de lavado broncoalveolar teñidos y cortes de tejido fijado en formalina e incluido en parafina.

El tratamiento en ambos casos consistió en fenbendazol a 50 mg/kg durante 14 días en el primer caso, y 3 semanas en el segundo paciente. 3 meses después, la medicación con fenbendazol fue necesaria una vez más, dado que el paciente comenzó a toser nuevamente, esta vez con más frecuencia.

28/04/2026

25/04/2026

21/04/2026

Esto casi no se habla… pero es importante 😳

Esterilizar a los hipopótamos ayuda a frenar su reproducción, pero no soluciona todo el problema.

¿Por qué?

Porque cada hipopótamo puede producir grandes cantidades de heces todos los días.

Y cuando están en ríos como el Magdalena,
esos desechos liberan nutrientes en exceso,
lo que altera el equilibrio del agua.

Esto puede causar:
menos oxígeno en el agua,
cambios en los ecosistemas
y afectar a otras especies.

Es decir…

aunque no nazcan más,
los que ya están siguen impactando el ambiente.