To Bob Church
 
>..... I did a necropsy and found very thick longitudinal folds within the
>colon, one of the symptoms of proliferative colitis.  Tomorrow I shall
>section some of the samples to view the histology to confirm the tenative
>diagnosis.  In addition, Gus's heart was malformed; probably a birth defect,
>which certainly contributed to his rapid death.
 
Mo' Bob - Let me first state that I sympathize with your loss....It seems if
you have had a really rough period over the last few weeks...
 
While I read your note on your latest outbreak, I became concerned because
the syndrome you describe does not really correspond to that of
proliferative colitis, at least not what I have seen.  I Proliferative
colitis is not an epidemic disease, but a sporadic one, and one which tends
to last for weeks or even months before death occurs.  I have never heard of
a case where 50% of the animals in a household were affected.  It results in
profound straining and passage of small often bloody stools, not watery
greenish stools.
 
I'm not sure what to make of the positive diagnosis of campylobacter - in
most cases of proliferative colitis, the campylobacter (actually we know
that it's not campylobacter but a related bacteria named Lawsonia
(Ileobacter) now) is not isolated.  How was it isolated so quickly?
 
I would be interested in seeing the slides from this case, if you wouldn't
mind a second opinion.
 
Hang in there with all of the rest....
 
Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP              Chief Pathologist, AccuPath
Dept. of Veterinary Pathology               [log in to unmask]
Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
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[Posted in FML issue 1692]