Cholangiocarcinoma in a young bitch – case report

Primary hepatobiliary tumors have low prevalence in dogs and are usually observed in nine to 12-year-old animals. This article reports a case of acute clinical cholangiocarcinoma in a three-year-old Labrador Retriever bitch. The animal had a clinical history of emesis and hyporexia. Physical and laboratory examinations disclosed hyperthermia, jaundice, hypoglycemia, leukocytosis, anemia, thrombocytopenia and coagulopathy. Abdominal ultrasound revealed an enlarged liver of heterogeneous echotexture with hyperechoic and hypoechoic irregular areas. The animal developed severe hemolysis and came to die. Necropsy revealed hepatomegaly and irregular appearance of the liver; metastasis were found in the bone marrow, kidneys and spleen, and neoplastic pulmonary embolism was also observed. Cholangiocarcinoma was identified microscopically. The aim of this report was to describe an atypical case of cholangiocarcinoma because of the precocity of its occurrence.