Occurrence of ascites in dogs in and around Gannavaram, India

The present investigation was carried out at VCC, NTR College of veterinary science, Gannavaram from June to December 2022 to know the occurrence of ascites in dogs in and around Gannavaram. In current study a total of 4704 dogs were screened for ascites. The dogs that were diagnosed with abdominal effusion based on ultrasonography formed the material for the study. The occurrence of ascites was documented according to breed, age, gender, and etiology. The dogs were classified into different age groups such as less than 1 year, 1-4 years, 4-7 years and > 7 years. The affected dogs were categorized into distinct groups based on their underlying causes and comparative evaluation between groups was carried out. Out of 4704 dogs screened, 48 were diagnosed with ascites thus the overall occurrence of ascites was 1.02 per cent. The common causes of ascites reported were hepatic origin (43.75%), cardiac origin (20.83%), renal origin (12.50%), mixed origin (14.59%), parasitic origin (4.17%) as well as hypoproteinemia and neoplastic origin (2.08%) each. Occurrence was higher in male dogs (58.33%) aged above seven years (37.50%) and Labrador Retriever (39.58%) was most commonly affected breed.