Eosinophilic Leukemia in a Pet African Hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris)

Clinicopathologic Findings of Spontaneous Leukemia in 9 Pet African Hedgehogs (Atelerix Albiventris)

“…The cause of death was unclear and could have been due to the leukemia or concurrent neoplasms, which were evident in 2 of the animals on postmortem examination. Our results are similar to that of other reports, where prednisone and cytarabine treatment of eosinophilic leukemia resulted in a limited response (15,16). Given the apparent lack of response to therapy, future cases may require more aggressive chemotherapy.…”

“…In veterinary medicine, chronic eosinophilic leukemia is a rare hematopoietic neoplasm with an indolent course that has been reported in cats (18,19). Given the relatively high incidence in our case series and several other reports of this neoplasm in hedgehogs (15,16), hedgehogs may have a unique genetic susceptibility to this type of leukemia. For instance, mutations in the platelet-derived growth factor receptor have been identified in humans with eosinophilic variants of leukemia (20).…”

“…There are limited reports of leukemia in pet African hedgehogs and most previously reported cases were diagnosed at postmortem examination, with little description of clinical pathologic findings (13)(14)(15)(16). Here we provide the largest case series of leukemia in these exotic species, with information on history, clinical signs, clinicopathologic and histopathologic results, and clinical outcome.…”

“…For this reason, certain lymphoid neoplasms are grouped into the categories of precursor or immature leukemia/lymphoma or mature leukemia/lymphoma by the World Health Organization (12). Leukemia is rare in hedgehogs, with 2 affected animals with suspect myeloid leukemia in one case series of 36 hedgehogs (1) and briefly mentioned cases of presumptive myeloid leukemia in retrospective studies of spontaneous tumors in exotic mammals (13)(14)(15)(16). In these reports, the myeloid leukemia was classified as eosinophilic leukemia or was not specified (1,(13)(14)(15)(16).…”

Surgical and medical management of an oral spindle cell sarcoma in an African hedgehog (Atelerix albiventris)

“…Within one study population, 85% of tumours were classified as malignant (Raymond & Gardner, 2001). It is not uncommon to find multiple tumour types with multi‐organ metastasis in hedgehogs (Done et al., 2007; Higbie et al., 2016; Matute et al., 2014; Mikaelian & Reavill, 2004; Papadimitriou et al., 2014; Ramos‐Vara, 2011; Raymond & White, 1999; Tsai et al., 2016; Wellehan et al., 2003). Of the tumour types, epithelial tumours are most common, followed by round cell and spindle cell tumours (Raymond & Gardner, 2001).…”