Abstract
Purpose: :
to study the prevalence of microorganisms of the conjunctival flora of diabetic dogs
Methods: :
conjunctival flora of 29 diabetic dogs (58 eyes) examined at the Ophthalmology Service, of the Veterinary Teaching Hospital of the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of São Paulo were evaluated. These dogs were not using any kind of eyedrops, did not present any ocular disease or systemic disease other than diabetes mellitus that could change the results. Samples were taken with sterile swabs from the conjunctival sac and inoculated on Brain Heart Infusion (BHI) and Sabouraud-dextrose broth, then sown in blood agar, MacConkey and Sabouraud-dextrose-cloranfenicol. Not touching the swab on eyelid or eyelashes avoided contamination during harvesting procedure. Microorganisms were identified by their morphological aspects at bacterioscopy, gram staining, macro and microscopic characteristics of the colonies and by biochemical tests
Results: :
Staphylococcus presented the higher prevalence (32,79%), mostly the coagulase negative ones(S. klosii, S. simulans, S. capitis, S. pasteuri, S. saprophyticus, S. haemolyticus), which are frequently isolated from ocular infections. Either isolated, were Bacillus sp. (11,48%), S. intermedius (6,56%), Streptococcus sp (1,64%) and some fungus, such as Cladosporium sp and Candida parapsilosis. Gram negative bacteria, anaerobic stricts or facultative were not identified in this study
Conclusions: :
we conclude that, as DM dogs present potential pathogens on the conjunctiva and are probable candidates to cataract surgery, which discontinues the ocular barrier of protection, we suggest the identification of the agent etiology before surgery and the proper use of antibiotic before and after any intraocular surgery
Keywords: conjunctiva • diabetes • microbial pathogenesis: clinical studies