Clinical signs associated with prostatic disorders in canines: Retrospective study in Uruguay (2011-2019)

Prostate disease represents about 0.7% of diseases in canines. The main diagnosed pathology is benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). However, the reports that study the association of a certain clinical sign with a specific prostate disease are scarce.

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the clinical relevance of the most commonly observed clinical signs associated with the different prostatic disorders in canines admitted to the hospital of the Facultad de Veterinaria-Universidad de la República between 2011 and 2019.

This retrospective study included 7,729 male canines treated at the hospital de la Facultad de Veterinaria-Universidad de la República (Montevideo, Uruguay) between 2011 and 2019. 289 canines with a presumptive/definitive diagnosis of prostate diseases were selected, recording the presence/absence of associated clinical signs. Results were reported in terms of odds ratios (ORs) using logistic regression (p < 0.05).

The five most frequently reported clinical signs were tenesmus (34%), anorexia (32%), lethargy (27%), prostatomegaly or pain during rectal examination (25%), and abdominal pain from palpation (22%). Diarrhea (3.39 vs. 0.33 OR), anorexia (2.07 vs. 0.39 OR), weight loss (2.27 vs. 0.27 OR), hematuria (3.25 vs. 0.44 OR), and urinary incontinence (2.96 vs. 0.33 OR) indicated a highest predictive value (p < 0.05) with prostatitis versus BPH, respectively. Being weight loss, the clinical sign is more frequently associated with neoplasia (20.2 OR, p = 0.002).

This study shows that there are clinical signs with a higher degree of association for certain canine prostatic disorders than others.