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Background: The increase in the life expectancy of dogs and cats in recent decades has heightened the incidence of aging-associated diseases. Among such diseases, endocrinopathies, such as obesity, stand out. In addition, there exists a lack of professionals with expertise in this area. Therefore, proper knowledge of the characteristics of patients affected by endocrinopathies as well as the frequency of these diseases aid in the recognition of endocrine syndromes in the general population. Thus, the aim of this study was to conduct a retrospective analysis of medical charts of dogs and cats compiled by a Division of Endocrinology in southern Brazil during a 10-year period.Materials, Methods & Results: An epidemiological survey of the medical charts of 1,400 dogs and cats compiled by a Division of Endocrinology between 2004 and 2014 was performed. The diagnostic data based on laboratory and hormone tests and on ultrasound scans were used as gold standard. The data were tabulated using Excel for Windows for the stratified analysis of the diagnoses. The major diseases (93.4% of the cases) detected in dogs were hyperadrenocorticism (37%), diabetes mellitus (22%), hypothyroidism (11%), and overweight/obesity (8%), whereas the main diseases (6.6% of the cases) detected in cats were diabetes mellitus (42%) and hyperthyroidism (23%). Some rare and uncommon diseases were diagnosed, such as hypoparathyroidism, pheochromocytoma, pituitary dwarfism, and diabetes insipidus, but they were present in less than 1% of the patients. Multiple endocrinopathies accounted for 8% of the cases, and the most frequent association was that between diabetes mellitus and hyperadrenocorticism in dogs and cats. The mean age of dogs was 9.11 ± 3.43 years, and 69% of the patients were female. The mean age of cats was 10.97 ± 4.29 years, and 58% of the patients were male.Discussion: The high prevalence of endocrinopathies among female dogs is closely related to the higher prevalence of diabetes mellitus and hyperadrenocorticism in female patients, and these two diseases together accounted for 59% of the cases. Among cats, the high prevalence of endocrinopathies among male cats was influenced by the large number of cases of diabetes mellitus, a disease that is typically more prevalent among tomcats. Some findings were alarming as they indicate probable lack of early diagnoses of some conditions (e.g., the prevalence of dogs with hyperadrenocorticism and diabetes three times greater than that reported by other countries), absence of patients younger than 10 years with hyperthyroidism, or failure to seek veterinary care for obese cats with initial presentation of overweight. Raising the awareness of tutors about the consequences of overweight can drastically reduce the incidence of diabetes mellitus in cats. Finally, knowledge about the characteristics of patients with the most common types of endocrinopathies is useful to clinicians as it can increase the predictive values of clinical and laboratory findings and help them include certain endocrinopathies as differential diagnoses for patients with some risk factors (age or sex). Anyway, the endocrinopathies, as well as the characteristics of the affected population in southern Brazil, are in line with similar studies on the most frequent diseases in other regions, taking into account small differences in breed and age distribution.

Diseases’ clinical-epidemiological characterization assists in directing the diagnosis. The objective of this study was to describe epidemiological, clinical and laboratorial aspects of a case series of canine hyperadrenocorticism (HAC). One-hundred fifteen records of dogs diagnosed by the low dose dexamethasone suppression test and/or ACTH stimulation test were evaluated. Of the cases, 81.3% were HAC ACTH-dependent and 18.7% HAC ACTH-independent. Females were more affected, representing 69.3% of the cases. The mean age was 10.3±2.5 years and 64.9% were gonadectomized. Most of the patients were small size dogs, weighting less than 10kg (73.9%). The most frequent breeds were: Poodle (27%), Dachshund (17.4%), and Yorkshire Terrier (10.4%). The most frequent clinical manifestations were polyphagia (86%), polydipsia (82.6%), polyuria (80%), abdominal enlargement (82.6%), thin skin (79.1%), muscular weakness (78.3%) and panting (74.8%). However, eventually unusual HAC-associated signs would be present in some dogs in a more important way compared with the classic disease´s clinical signs. The CBC showed neutrophilia (66%), eosinopenia (58.3%) and lymphopenia (42.6%) as main hematological abnormalities. The most common findings in serum biochemistry were increased alkaline phosphatase activity (81.74%), increased ALT activity (62.6%), hypercholesterolemia (66%) and hypertriglyceridemia (54.7%). Urinalysis revealed hyposthenuria in 14.9% and isostenuria in 13.5%; besides proteinuria in 50% of the cases. Abdominal ultrasound showed bilateral adrenal hyperplasia (92.2%) with adrenal asymmetry in 20.8% of the cases, in addition to hepatomegaly (80.9%), biliary sludge (67.8%) and hepatic hyperechogenicity (47.8%). It was concluded that small size gonadectomized female dogs, mainly Poodles and Dachshunds, presented higher frequency in the population studied, and that the main changes observed in clinical and complementary tests were polyphagia, polyuria, polydipsia, abdominal enlargement, adrenal hyperplasia, increased phosphatase alkaline and hyperlipidemia. These results corroborated to a better disease characterization at Brazil. This work concluded that the population studied resembles the profile describe in European and North American epidemiologic studies, and that the HAC dog´s clinical picture looks similar worldwide.

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