Clinical Vignette
History
Ben is an 8-year-old male castrated Golden retriever trained for tracking and drug detection. The owner noticed that for several weeks Ben was not detecting decoy drugs placed in luggage. He was examined and no abnormalities were detected. During the past 2 weeks, Ben has developed depression, anorexia, and atrophy of the masseter and temporalis muscles.
Physical and Neurological Examination
Ben is depressed and tends to walk aimlessly. There is marked atrophy of the left masseter and temporalis muscles. Jaw mobility is normal. There is no menace or palpebral reflex in the left eye, and conscious perception of noxious stimuli is absent from the left facial area. Each nostril was challenged with alcohol-soaked cotton balls. No reaction was elicited when the left nostril was tested, but withdrawal of the head occurred when the right nostril was challenged. Postural reactions and spinal reflexes were normal. Ben has a body condition score of 2/5. The rest of the physical examination is normal.
Identify the problems in Ben and write an initial plan for each using the problem-oriented approach described in Chapter 1.
Problem Definition and Recognition
Olfaction is the ability to detect and differentiate odors. Anosmia is the loss of the sense of smell. Olfaction is highly developed in dogs and cats, but anosmia is still difficult to recognize in animals. Dogs can detect minute odors or scents, and this ability is exploited in training dogs for hunting, tracking, drug and explosives detection, and human cadaver detection. Owners rarely detect loss of smell unless dogs lose the ability to “scent” or cats quit eating. The most common presentation is an owner who perceives their hunting dog has lost the ability to find game.
Pathophysiology
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