A case report of acute bilateral bullous keratopathy in a septic calf

Bullous keratopathy occurs in dogs, cats and humans, and it is diagnosed by clinical and ophthalmic presentation. A 20 days old septic calf developed an acute bilateral ocular abnormality, with mild ocular discharge and corneal opacity. Slit-lamp biomicroscopy showed a severe central cornea oedema with a subepithelial bulla. The clinical diagnosis was bilateral bullous keratopathy; it was treated with glucose 35% ointment. After 2 weeks, corneal bullas were reabsorbed, and mild focal areas of corneal oedema were present bilaterally. Three weeks after discharging, the calf was hospitalised again for severe dyspnea, recumbency and depression and was euthanised due to worsening of clinical conditions. A necropsy was performed. Clinical signs, ophthalmic examination and histopathologic findings were suggestive of bullous keratopathy. Bullous keratopathy might be rare but due to the importance of predisposing diseases (i.e. septicaemia), early diagnosis and proper therapy could be useful to reduce farmers’ economic losses.