Ileocolic intestinal intussusception in a dog with leptospirosis.

Leptospirosis is a zoonotic infection causing clinical and subclinical disease in dogs, humans, and other mammalian species. Although more than 200 different Leptospira interrogans serovars have been identified (11), the serovars most commonly isolated from dogs with clinical leptospirosis in Southern Germany are L. grippothyphosa and L. saxkoebing (3). However, vaccines currently available in Germany only include the serovars L. canicola and L. icterohaemorrhagiae. They lack the ability to build up a sufficient protective immune response against other serovars, therefore explaining clinical disease in regularly vaccinated dogs (3, 16). The best known maintenance hosts for leptospira serovars are rodents (17), and an increase in the prevalence of cases seems to be linked to higher average rainfalls (19). This might explain why male outdoor working or herding dogs in rural areas are found to carry an increased risk for infection (19, 20). Clinical signs associated with canine leptospirosis often include non-specific symptoms such as fever, anorexia, vomiting, and lethargy, and clinical signs of hepatic and renal failure such as icterus, polyuria/polydipsia, and anuria (3, 6, 7, 17). Typical clinical features also seem to depend on the serovars involved in infection (4). Other less common clinical signs include dyspnoea, cough, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, muscle pain, and stiffness (10, 17). The patient described in this case report presented with acute hepatic icterus and renal failure. In addition to these common clinical signs of canine leptospirosis, the dog developed intestinal intussusception as a rare complication associated with the infection. Case history