A Clinical Case from the Archives : 19/12/2006

This otherwise healthy 13 year old Golden Retriever is presented to you because of sudden visual loss. Both eyes look like this. What is happening here, why might this have occurred and what diagnostic tests would be necessary?

The dog has bilateral serous retinal detachments with foci of haemorrhage within the retina. Intraocular pressure was normal as was systemic blood pressure so, unusually for me, I asked for an extended blood profile. I felt something was very wrong somewhere inside this dog! It was indeed the case with a panleucopaenia and a raised plasma protein with this globulin spike suggestive of multiple myeloma with retinal detachment occuring because of hyperviscocity syndrome. Ehrlichiosis and Leishmaniosis can give a similar picture but the dog had not been out of the UK. The next images tell what we did next…..