The Retrospective Study of Prevalence and Associated Risk Factors of Diseases and Others Clinical Conditions Diagnosed in Dogs and Cats in Douala City, Cameroon

· Background: A good knowledge of the epidemiology of diseases conditions of pet dogs and cats is essential for their prevention and control. Over a period of 5 years (2014 to 2019), a retrospective study was undertaken to establish the prevalence of clinical diseases and others clinical disorders in dogs and cats in Douala city, Cameroon, based on sex, breeds and age. Data were collected from clinical case records of dogs and cats admitted in six private veterinary clinics and analyzed using Chi-Square test statistics. · Results: A total of 2397 clinical conditions were recorded, among them dogs and cats were 2222 (92.7%) and 175 (7.3%), respectively. According to system affected, digestive disorders were found to account signicantly (P<0.0001) for 58.3% of the diagnosed cases, followed by skin disorders (13.5%) and musculoskeletal disorders (13.1%). Fourty-six (46) types of clinical diseases were recorded involving nonspecic diseases (dogs 25.1% and cats 19.4%), viral diseases (dogs 16.8%), parasitic diseases (dogs 12.7% and cats 9.7%), protozoan diseases (dogs 2.7%) and bacterial/fungal diseases (dogs 1.4%). For dogs, the most occurring clinical diseases comprised parvovirosis (16%), helminthoses (8.2%), gastroenteritis (7.8%) and poisoning (7.8%), whereas pet cats showed highest prevalence of helminthoses (9.7%), poisoning (5.1%) and dermatitis (2.9%). The sex-wise highest prevalence was observed in male (dogs 67% and cats 59.4%) than female (dogs 33% and cats 40.6%) (p=0.009). Of the dog breeds, Cross breeds (31.7%), local breeds (24.02%) and German shepherd (13.1%) were mostly affected, while highest clinical diseases were found 96 (54.9%) in the local cat breed counterpart. Incidence of diseases were more in puppies (68.7%) and in young cats (75.5%) compare with other age groups. · Conclusions: Most of the clinical diseases/conditions recorded from this study were avoidable cases and they have greater public health signicance, demanding veterinary support in order to prevent the risk of zoonosis. This study provides useful information about the major health problems of dogs and cats in Douala City. These results might help to instruct pet owners on preventive measures and to develop supplementary effective disease management and control strategies against pet animal diseases. Cross breed (31.7%), breed (24.02%), (13.1%), (8.7%), (p 0.0001), ectoparasitism (p 0.001), amoebiasis and babesiosis (p = 0.017), (p abscess, ascites, paralysis, umbilical hernia and myiasis. more prone to be affected by septicemia, aural haematoma, eczema, orchitis, otitis and mites (mange). Prevalence of clinical in cats in relation with the revealed that the clinical conditions were found 96 (54.9%) in the local cat breed in comparison with exotic cat (79, 45.1%).

rabies epidemiology [7,17] and the prevalence of gastrointestinal helminths of dogs [14]. None of such reports focused on the pro le of clinical diseases of pet dogs and cats. Hence, to reduce the gap in our knowledge of the distribution of clinically important diseases of pets, this retrospective study was undertaken to evaluate the prevalence of the most common clinical disease conditions of dogs and cats diagnosed in six private veterinary clinics in Douala city, Cameroon. Likewise, determination of the main clinical signs and the effects of age, sex and breeds on the distribution of diseases. These data may be helpful for the veterinary practitioners as well as pet owners to take the necessary preventive measures to; control the diseases among dogs and cats, control of zoonotic diseases, guide disease diagnostic and preventative programs.

Results
For over ve years (2014-2019), a total of 2397 cases of different clinical conditions were recorded in six private veterinary hospitals of Douala city in Cameroon, among them dogs and cats were 2222 (92.7%) and 175 (7.3%), respectively. Out of this number, 1448 animals were diseased, and 949 animals were apparently healthy representing 60.40% and 39.60%, respectively. In dogs, diseases cases were more represented with a frequency of 1384 (62.28%) as compare to surgical cases (36, 1.62%), vaccinations and health checkups (802, 36.09%). On the contrary, the clinical conditions most uncounted in cats were vaccinations and health checkups (89, 50.85%) as compare to diseases cases (64, 36.57%) and surgical cases (22, 12.57%).

Discussion
To the best of our knowledge, the present study had given an overall idea about the prevalence of the most common occurred disease conditions and associated clinical signs amongst dogs and cats, which were registered in private veterinary clinics in Doula city, Cameroon, during 5 years period from 2014 to 2019. It is the rst systematic assessment on quantitative estimates of clinical diseases and conditions in pet dogs and cats in Cameroon.
Among the 2397 clinical cases diagnosed in this study, 92.7% were from dogs and 7.3% from cats, which disagree the results found elsewhere characterized by a more presence of cat disease cases [3,[18][19][20]. This can be explained as there was a magni cent difference in geographical distribution and the period of the studies. In addition, there is a tendency of population to own dogs as guard because of the level of insecurity in Douala city. Dog disease cases were found largely more represented than surgical cases, vaccinations and health checkups, which is consistent with earlier reports [3,18]. Digestive disorders (anorexia, diarrhea, vomiting, abdominal bloating, hypersalivation and abdominal pain) and skin disorders (pruritis and ectoparasites) were found to be the highest clinical disorders in both dogs and cats with the frequency of 58% and 13.5%, respectively. Similar ndings were reported in a study in Egypt, and the recorded prevalence in dogs were 56.5% and 27.86% for digestive problems and dermatological problems, respectively [21]. Dermatological disorders accounted for 18.8% and 15.2%, respectively of all the dogs and cats examined in University of Montreal, Quebec [22]. In contrast, results found in Mekelle City, Ethiopia, showed that 38.5% of the dogs were affected by skin problem and gastrointestinal related cases were the second major health problems with a frequency of 33.0% [15]. The high frequency of anorexia (21.5%) in this study can be explained as anorexia is actually the most common presented complaint for a myriad of disease processes with wide variety of etiology and pathogenesis [23].
Amongst the 2397 clinical records examined in various private veterinary clinics, a total of 46 types of clinical diseases were diagnosed in both dogs and cats. Infectious diseases were found to be a major cause of illness in dogs with a high prevalence of 33.6%, which were also the case in the reports on dog diseases in some States in Nigeria, and young dog diseases in Grand Tunis, Tunisia [24][25][26]. Overall prevalence shows that parvovirosis occupied highest prevalence in dogs (16%), followed by helminthoses (8.2%), gastroenteritis (7.8%), poisoning (7.8%), dermatitis (2.8%) and babesiosis (1.2%), which corroborate the results nd elsewhere [24,26,27]. Parvoviral exposure appeared to be ubiquitous within the dog and cat populations [28].
In the present study a signi cant effect (p = 0.009) of sex on the occurrence of the clinical disease conditions was found and this nding was in agreement with another studies, as male dogs were rendered at high risk for developing common canine digestive problems [21], canine toxicosis [41], ectoparasitic and endoparasitic infections [42], infectious diseases [26], common young dog diseases [25] and some other disease conditions [3,6,24].
However, some studies have reported a high prevalence of female diseases as compared to male [36,[43][44][45], while other was suggesting no effect of the sex on speci c canine illnesses [46]. Most of the pet owners reared male pets rather than females due to pet owners unaware about the reproductive physiology of female dogs and cats. Dog owners do provides better veterinary care for males than the females, probably due to their use as guard dogs. Male dogs were found to be more affected with aural haematoma, dermatitis, eczema, gastroenteritis, orchitis, poisoning and wounds. Similar nding was reported for aural haematoma, orchitis and poisoning [24]. Orchitis is a clinical condition of male dogs. The predisposing factors in male dogs poisoning may be related to their use as guard dogs and presenting protector behaviors, which risk them as targets to criminal poisoning.
In the present work, breed had a signi cant effect (p < 0.0001) on the distribution of clinical diseases in pets. Of the dog breeds, Cross breed (31.7%), local breed (24.02%), German shepherd (13.1%), Toy breeds (8.7%), Rottweiler (5.3%), Cane corso (3.2%) and Great Dane (2.2%) were mostly affected. This result agrees with other ndings reported elsewhere [6,26,31,43,47]. Mixed dog breeds were signi cant (p < 0.05) for gastroenteritis, poisoning, helminthoses, ectoparasitism, kennel cough and parvovirosis. This corroborates the nding of Shima et al. [41], who also reported a higher incidence of poisoning in mixed breeds (29%), Alsatian (25%), Rottweiler (16%) compare with the others. Nonetheless, Shima et al. [24] were reporting a signi cantly high prevalence of helminthoses, septicemia and ectoparasites in Alsatian. In general, the occurrence of ectoparasitism, parvovirosis, and helminthoses might relate to management issues such as keeping dogs on free range, insu cient housing, inadequate deworming practices, inadequate vaccination program and inadequate ectoparasites control practices. Prevalence of clinical diseases in cats revealed that local cats were more prone to diseases than were with exotic cats and this result agree with Parvez et al. [3]. However Sarker et al. [18], found the same prevalence in both local and exotic cat breeds.
In agreement with the ndings of other workers, the age of pets in uenced their chances of developing particular disease condition. Age-wise prevalence of the dog presented with various clinical conditions shows that 68.7% were puppies, followed by adult (21.1%) and juvenile (10.2%), which is in accordance with several studies [6,24,26,29,41]. puppies and adult dogs apparently received better veterinary care or had a higher incidence of diseases compared with the juvenile probably due to their age and immune status. For instance, parvovirosis (14.4%), poisoning (5.4%), gastroenteritis (7%) and dermatitis (1.8%) were found affecting signi cantly (P < 0.05), the puppies compared to the other age groups. Similar results were reported for parvovirosis and gastroenteritis [15, 24, 29-32, 46, 48], and poisoning [41]. The most likely reason that dogs younger than six months are at the greatest risk of parvovirosis is very high a nity of canine parvovirus for tissues with high mitotic activity. This may also be as a result of the fact that puppies don't have a well-developed immune status (maternally derived antibodies) which eventually begins to wane down at about 12 weeks of age thus opening a window for many clinical conditions to occur in them [49]. On the other hand, higher incidence on poisoning in younger dogs could be possible because they tend to be more active, and could be easily poisoned by lower doses of toxicants due to immature neutralizing enzyme systems [41]. Prevalence of clinical condition were high in young cats (75.5%) and adult cats (13.7%), but lowest in old cats (10.9%), which agree with nding reported by Sarker et al. [18].

Conclusion
The objective of the current survey was to deliver fundamental information on the prevalence of clinical diseases and other clinical conditions of dogs and cats in Doula city, Cameroon. Most of the clinical diseases presented to the veterinary clinics were avoidable cases. It was concluded that digestive problems considered as the major health problem among owned dogs and cats. Sex, breed and age had a signi cant effect on the distribution of pet clinical diseases. This study revealed that males were more affected than females. Cross dog breeds were mostly affected, while highest clinical diseases were found in the local cat breed. Puppies and young cats were more prone to diseases. It is suggested that the pets should be given appropriate attention for their vaccination, deworming, ectoparasites control measures and other health precautions as an attempts to prevent and eradicate zoonotic diseases. Edi cation of dog owners on preventive measures will help in alleviating some of these health issues. Government have his role to play by formulating policies that will encourage pet owners to vaccinate and adequately care for their pets as well as patronized competent veterinarian. The present data allow the veterinarians in Cameroon to ascertain their needs for diagnostic utensils and medication that are require at any pet clinic.

Material And Methods
Study Design: A retrospective study over a period of 5 years was carried out to assess the major health problems of dogs and cats, and to determine the risk factors associated with the disease conditions of pets that are brought to the clinic.
Study area: The study was conducted from 2014 to 2019 in Doula city, the largest city in Cameroon and its economic capital. As from 2018, the city and its surrounding area had an estimated population of 2,768,400. Douala typically features warm and humid conditions with an average annual temperature of 27.0 °C and an average humidity of 83%. Douala sees plentiful rainfall during the course of the year, experiencing on average roughly 3,600 millimeters of precipitation per year. The city sits on the estuary of Wouri River at 009° 41′E and 04°03′N latitude, and an altitude of 13 m above sea level. The area has substantial population of dogs, which are used as pets, for security and means of livelihood.
Clinical evaluation/Data collection: Data of diagnosed clinical cases/conditions of dogs and cats presented at the various veterinary clinics were collected in Douala city. The selection criteria of each clinic were based on consistent records kept for the studied period. Diagnosis was based on complaint of the pet owners, complete medical history, physical examination, clinical symptoms, and sometimes post-mortem ndings. Detailed clinical examination was performed using visual examination, rectal temperature, pulse, respiration rates, and examination of different organs and systems using palpation, percussion, and auscultation when needed [50]. When necessary, some disease cases were con rmed in the laboratory by blood and fecal examination. The diagnosis made for each animal was classi ed into one of the following categories; bacterial/fungal diseases, non-infectious diseases, parasitic diseases, nonspeci c diseases (multicausal diseases), protozoan diseases and viral diseases. Data collected for each dog and cat examined during data collection periods included clinic-speci c patient identi er, species, birth date, breed, sex and assigned diagnostic.
Data Analysis: All the data obtained from clinics were loaded, organized, structure and stored on the Microsoft excel spreadsheet in which descriptive statistics (in percentages) were conducted. Statistical tests were conducted using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 26. Chi-square test was used to examine whether the pets' sex, age and breed were associated with any of the disease cases. For all statistical analysis, a signi cant level (pvalue) of less than 0.05 was considered as statistically signi cant.

Declarations
Ethics approval and consent to participate: Not applicable.
Consent for publication: Not applicable.
Availability of data and materials: The datasets generated and/or used during the current study can be requested via email from the corresponding author; Dr. Kana Dongmo Alain Gildas (kanadongmo1@gmail.com) Competing interests: The authors declare that there is no existent competing of interest.
Funding: No funding was received for the completion of the current study. Breed distribution for 175 cats and 2222 dogs examined at private veterinary practices