Effect of breed, sex and age at presentation of diseases of the central nervous system in dogs treated at the Hospital of the Veterinary College in Uruguay

Abstract

Epidemiological data is very important when establishing clinical diagnosis. In Uruguay there are few studies that describe the epidemiology of neurological diseases, which make new contributions in the topic relevant, especially if it helps to establish risk factors associated to some diseases. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of central nervous system diseases in purebred dogs which attended to neurology clinic of Faculty of Veterinary between January 2009 and June 2013 and to determinate the effect of breed, sex and age on the occurrence of these diseases. A retrospective study of 211 cases and 461 controls randomized were performed. The cases were grouped according to sex, age and breed. Logistic regression analysis was performed with p<0.05. 37.9% of the animals, had myelopathies, 33.6% encephalopathies, 19.4% encephalomyeopathies, 7.6% vestibular syndrome and 1.4% had cerebellar diseases. Race was not acted a risk factor in either group of diseases. In spinal diseases, being male acted as a risk factor with an OR of 2.27. Also, being puppy acted as a protective factor, being OR for 1.5 to 7 and ≥ 7 years 2.56 and 2.78 respectively. None breed acted as risk factor. There was no sex, breed nor age predisposition for the other neurological diseases.