Neosporosis was diagnosed in an 11-week-old puppy of the breed Kleiner Münsterländer with progressive hindlimb paresis. Pathohistological and immunohistological examinations revealed a disseminated infection with Neospora caninum. Parasitic stages were demonstrated in the brain, spinal cord, retina, muscles, thymus, heart, liver, kidney, stomach, adrenal gland, and skin. Immunohistochemistry investigations were carried out using polyclonal rabbit antisera developed against N. caninum tachyzoites and the recombinant bradyzoite-specific antigen BAG-5 of Toxoplasma gondii, which is known to cross-react with N. caninum bradyzoites. BAG-5 antibodies recognized tissue cysts within the CNS and some protozoan stages that were not surrounded by a visible cyst wall. All parasite clusters in the retina and some in muscle tissue stained positively with the BAG-5 antiserum. N. caninum was isolated in cell culture and mice inoculated with brain and spinal cord of the puppy. The new isolate is the first reported in Germany and is designated NC-GER1.

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A five-year-old, castrated, male chinchilla rabbit was presented for evaluation of recurrent bilateral exophthalmos. Besides a transient and stress-related exophthalmos with protrusion of both third eyelids, the ophthalmological examination was unremarkable. Plain radiography of the thorax revealed a large precardial mass of soft tissue density. Cytological preparations from the thoracic mass were dominated by small, mature lymphocytes with approximately 10 to 20 per cent lymphoblasts. Computed tomography of the head showed a symmetrical laterodorsal deviation of both eyes without evidence of retrobulbar masses. On necropsy a large cystic mass was present in the cranial thorax associated with severe hydrothorax, hydropericardium and ascites. Histology identified the precardial mass as thymic carcinoma with metastases in the kidneys. This case illustrates the difficulty of diagnosing thymic tumours based on cytological or histological features of the primary tumour alone. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first case of recurrent bilateral exophthalmos associated with a metastatic thymic carcinoma in a pet rabbit.

PMDS (Meyers-Wallen and others 1993). This short communication describes a case of pseudohermaphroditism due to PMDS in a male mixed-breed dog.A two-year-old mixed-breed dog was presented suffering from urolithiasis. The dog showed a male appearance, with an underdeveloped penis and hypospadia of the glans penis. The scrotum was not developed and the testes were not palpable in either the scrotal position or the inguinal region. Radiographic examination showed the os penis to be malformed (Fig 1).During surgery to remove the urinary calculus, a hypoplastic uterus was found. The left gonad was located in the inguinal position, and the second gonad was found in the ovarian position on the right side of the abdomen. The dog underwent gonadohysterectomy; in a second operation, the malformed glans penis was removed and urethrostomy was performed. Histological examination of the gonads showed them to be exclusively testis-like in character.Analysis of 100 Giemsa-stained and GTG-banded metaphases attained from whole blood culture using standard cytogenetic techniques revealed that the dog had a male chromosomal constitution of 2n=78, XY (Fig 2). Screening for the canine testes-determining SRY gene was carried out by PCR, using genomic DNA isolated from an EDTA-treated blood sample. The primers used were Dog_SRY_F (5'-AAGCGACCCAT

Primary diffuse leptomeningeal gliomatosis is a rare central nervous system neoplasm in which focal or diffuse evidence of gliomatous tissue is identified in the subarachnoid space with no evidence of a primary tumour. A case is presented and the differential diagnosis and management are discussed.