synchronous occurrence of visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis in a shih tzu terrier dog

Leishmania is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite with a digenetic life cycle, which causes leishmaniasis in humans and animals and holds zoonotic importance. this protozoan belongs to the family trypanosomatidae and is primarily transmitted between its mammalian hosts through sandflies of the genus phlebotomus. the sand-fly becomes infected by biting a host suffering from leishmaniasis and subsequently transmits the infection to other mammalian hosts. in the sand-fly, the parasite appears in the promastigote form, while in the final mammalian host, it appears in the amastigote form. a one-year-old female shih tzu terrier was presented to the small animal veterinary hospital with clinical signs including pustular dermatitis, swelling and redness of the skin, localized alopecia around eyes, ocular discharge, and difficulty breathing. following clinical examination, blood sampling, direct agglutination testing, and preparation of direct smears for parasite observation, the results indicated that leishmania infantum was responsible for causing both visceral & cutaneous leishmaniasis. due to the chronic nature of the disease and the weakened immune system, a secondary bacterial infection was also observed. the treatment protocol included the use of allopurinol and broad-spectrum antibiotics. antibiotic treatment was initiated with long-acting amoxicillin and clindamycin for three days, followed by a combination of ampicillin and enrofloxacin. unfortunately, due to severe pulmonary and hepatic involvement caused by the visceral form of the parasite, the case resulted in the death of the animal.