ABSTRACT
This article aims to report a case of Mycobacterium bovis infection in a six-month-old domestic cat, emphasizing its clinical and therapeutic aspects. The feline presented as history the intake of unboiled cow's milk and later developed signs of anorexia, non-productive cough and lymphadenomegaly. Additional imaging, hematological, cytological and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests were performed to elucidate the diagnosis. In the presence of Mycobacterium infection, treatment was instituted by the combination of three antimicrobials (Enrofloxacin 5mg/kg, Clarithromycin 10mg/kg, and Rifampicin 15mg/kg) orally every 12 hours, to which the animal responded positively, presenting significant decrease of the clinical signs, however after 60 days of treatment the cat died accidentally, hit by a car on the street. It is concluded that the treatment in cats affected by tuberculosis can cause improvement of clinical signs and that although rare in Brazil, this disease should be included as a differential diagnosis of infectious diseases in this species.
Keywords:
antimicrobials; diagnosis; feline; PCR; tuberculosis
