ABSTRACT. A mongrel dog, aged 2 years, was found to have only a small number of sperm, immobilization of all sperm, and many sperm agglutinations in its ejaculates, and scrotal palpation revealed a small nodule in the left cauda epididymis. Addition of the dog's seminal plasma or serum to the semen of 2 normal dogs caused immobilization and agglutination of their sperm. Histological examination showed that the nodule was a sperm granuloma. Many lymphocytes were seen in the stroma around the sperm granuloma. Anti-sperm antibodies are presumed to be present in the semen and serum of the asthenozoospermic dog. KEY WORDS: asthenozoospermia, canine, sperm granuloma.J. Vet. Med. Sci. 65(3): 409-412, 2003 It has been reported that anti-sperm antibodies were detected in the serum of 6% of infertile men [6]. Anti-sperm antibodies consist of sperm-immobilizing antibodies and sperm-agglutinating antibodies [1,3,8], and sperm granulomas in the testis or epididymis have been identified as one of the causes of the production of anti-sperm antibodies [3,7]. There have been two reports of vasectomy [2] and congenital occlusion of the epididymal duct [4] causing a sperm granuloma in dogs. The other causes of sperm granuloma are severe stenosis or occlusion of the genital tract secondary to infectious orchitis and epididymitis [13] or injury of the testis and epididymis [9,10]. We report the cause of a dog with poor semen quality in which a sperm granuloma was found in the epididymis, and we examined the relation between spermatogenic dysfunction and the sperm granuloma in the dog.A mongrel dog (21 kg body weight), aged 2 years, and cared for at our university, was diagnosed with asthenozoospermia based on evalutions of the quality of semen collected by digital manipulation 3 times weekly, and scrotal palpation revealed a small, projecting, firm nodule in the left cauda epididymis. Semen samples were examined for total semen volume, total number of sperm, and percentages of actively motile sperm, viable sperm, and morphologically abnormal sperm by the methods described previously [11]. Peripheral vein blood samples were collected from the dog and 3 normal male beagle dogs, Dogs A, B, and C, 13-16 kg body weight and 2-4 years old, at the time of the semen collection. Peripheral vein plasma testosterone and estradiol-17β concentrations were measured by radioimmunoassay methods [12,15].The seminal plasma and serum collected from the mongrel dog and Dog C were used to perform the sperm immobilizing test and sperm agglutinating test. A 500 µl volume of seminal plasma obtained by centrifugating (700 g for 20 min) the semen and a 100 µl of serum inactivated at 56°C for 30 min were added to 500 µl of the semen of Dogs A and B, and the motility and agglutination of the sperm in the semen were examined after incubation for 15 min at 38°C in an atmosphere of 5% CO 2 in air. The left testis and epididymis of the asthenozoospermic dog were removed under halothane inhalation anesthesia, and the testis and the caput, corpus, and cauda epidid...
Long-term monitoring of circulating progesterone levels in three captive female false killer whales, Pseudorca crassidens, was conducted to characterize their reproductive events and to reveal the relationship between their estrous cycles or pregnancies and peripheral white blood cell (WBC) counts. Blood samples were collected at 2–3-day intervals or on a weekly-to-monthly basis for up to 10 years, from 2006 to 2017. In two mature females (initial body lengths of 4.22 and 4.07 m), some cyclic progesterone elevations were detected during the study period; the estimated mean (± SE) estrous cycle length was 40.5 ± 0.7 days (n=12). The seasonality of ovulation, estimated from the elevation of progesterone levels, varied among individuals or years, and ovulation did not occur every year. The third female (3.26 m) showed progesterone elevations, despite irregular cycles after sexual maturity, and became pregnant. The progesterone levels during pregnancy ranged from 7.3 to 42.2 ng/ml, and the gestation period lasted for 14 months until parturition. The mean WBC counts during estrous cycles were the lowest before the progesterone levels began to increase and then gradually increased toward the luteal phase. The WBC counts were significantly higher during pregnancy than before and were particularly high in early pregnancy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of the relationship between the estrous cycle or pregnancy and WBC counts in cetaceans.
This report describes the anesthetic management of a 14-yr-old, 160-kg, female Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin ( Tursiops aduncus ) that underwent surgical debridement for a refractory subcutaneous abscess twice within a 6-mo interval. The animal was otherwise in good physical condition at each anesthetic procedure. Following premedication with intramuscular midazolam and butorphanol, anesthesia was induced with propofol and maintained with sevoflurane by intubation. During surgery ventilation was controlled. Blood pressure was indirectly estimated using either oscillometric or pulse oximetry. Presumed hypotension was managed by adjusting the sevoflurane concentration and infusion of dopamine. During recovery, the dolphin regained adequate spontaneous respiration following intravenous administration of flumazenil and doxapram. The dolphin was extubated at 85 min and 53 min after the first and second surgeries, respectively. Successful weaning from the ventilator and initiation of spontaneous respiration was the most important complication encountered. Establishment of a reliable blood pressure measurement technique is critical to success for anesthesia in this species.
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