Contribuição ao Diagnóstico Clínico da Disfunção Cognitiva Canina

Abstract

The increase in life expectation in companion dogs is bringing new challenges to veterinary medicine. One of them is the difficulty in differentiating normal from pathological aging. One of the main behavioral changes found in old dogs that is associated with pathological aging is canine cognitive dysfunction (CCD), resulting from neurodegenerative changes similar to the ones found in Alzheimer´s disease (AD) in humans, and characterized by changes in orientation, social and environmental interaction, sleep-wake cycle, house training and other activities. There is great difficulty to diagnose CCD, once there are no biological markers nor standardized tests, the same found with AD. As a consequence, there is great variability concerning the prevalence of CCD described by different authors and, so far, no brazilian studies were found about this subject. Therefore, the objectives of the present study were to develop a questionnaire easy to use in clinical environments for the clinical diagnosis of CCD, to estimate de number of cases in an elderly dog sample, to correlate the results found with results obtained with ARCAD scale (Age-Related Cognitive and Affective Disorders), that has previously had its results compared with histopathological findings. Besides, we studied the possible influence of several factors in the occurence of CCD signs, how these signs interfered in the relationship between dogs and owners and how far were these owners willingness to treat these dogs. There was a significant correlation between the results of the two questionnaires. We found that 37,66% of the 77 old dogs included in the study had signs of CCD. The factors significantly associated with the occurrence of signs of CCD were: increased age, concomitant diseases, presence of other animals in the house (including dogs) and male castration. The perception of owners of how CCD signs affected the relationship with their dogs was variable, however most of them were willing to treat their dogs, even if this treatment was for the rest or their lives. The percentual of dogs affected, the worsening of the relationship with the dogs reported by several owners and their s willingness to treat their dogs show the importance of making veterinarians and owners aware of this pathological aging condition and the necessity of searching more information about this subject, through other studies.