Ovarian tumours in dogs-an overview.

Most common ovarian diseases appears in animals are to be cystic or ovarian tumours. Both of these conditions affect health, fertility or even the life of the affected animal. Canine ovarian tumours are not common in dogs due to a practice of routine ovariohysterectomy in many countries of the world. It tends to affect older female dogs more often, especially female dogs that have not been already spayed. The overall prevalence of ovarian tumours is 0.5% to 1.2% but is as high as 6.25% in intact female dogs. Depending on the cell origin, they are broadly classified into four types: epithelial tumours, germ cell tumours, sex cord-stromal tumours and mesenchymaltumours. In most ovarian tumourcases, there are no symptoms until they grow to be noticeably large. Hormonal dysfunctions and presence of carcinogenic fluid in the abdomen are two signs of tumours. Granulosa cell tumours can cause hormonal imbalances due to the effect of the anti-mullerianhormone in the hypophysealgonadotropic axis. The diagnosis of canine ovarian tumours is usually complicated because of the discrete clinical symptoms and can be easily confused with other diseases. However, radiography, ultrasonography, histological examination of surgically excised tissue andimmunohistochemistry are commonly deployed diagnostic modalities all over the world. The management of ovarian tumour in dogs can be done using surgery, chemotherapy, combination of surgery and chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Treatment of ovarian neoplasia by ovariohysterectomy results in favorable prognosis, if there are no malignancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]