Description
The discussion on biliary tract disease will consider several diseases that, despite many clinicians’ impression, are relatively common. In fact, most busy practices will see biliary tract diseases multiple times per year. Cholecystitis is surprisingly common, but it can be an especially subtle disease with no obvious signs on history, physical, imaging or clinical pathology laboratory testing. Necrotizing cholecystocentesis can rapidly kill the patient if the gall bladder ruptures and allows infected bile to enter the peritoneal cavity. Mucocoeles can also be fatal if they rupture the gall bladder. However, there is a major difference between the mature “kiwi fruit” mucocoele and the so-called immature mucocoele (i.e., non-gravity dependent gall bladder sludge). Pancreatitis is the most common cause of extrahepatic biliary tract obstruction in the dog. In general, surgical correction of the extrahepatic biliary obstruction should be avoided as most patients will respond to medical management. Gall stones can be associated with clinical disease, but they are often asymptomatic, fortuitous findings.