Differential diagnosis of reasons for the accumulation of abdominal fluid is a significant clinical problem. The examination and analysis of ascites fluid is a practical method which may provide a lot of useful information enabling the diagnosis of ascites fluid etiology. The aim of the study was to evaluate the usefulness of examining abdominal fluid and laboratory parameters in differential diagnosis of ascites in dogs and to examine ascites etiology. The study was conducted on 72 dogs with ascites. On the basis of the obtained results, the dogs were divided into 5 groups: 1. 38 dogs with ascites resulting from circulatory insufficiency, 2. 23 dogs with ascites resulting from a neoplastic disease, 3. 7 dogs with ascites resulting from a liver disease, 4. 2 dogs with ascites associated with septic peritonitis, 5. 2 dogs with ascites associated with intestinal diseases. The examinations were conducted according to the following pattern: anamnesis and clinical examination, USG, ECG, morphological and biochemical examination of selected blood parameters, abdominocentesis and peritoneal fluid examination. The fluid collected from the peritoneal cavity was evaluated according to Light’s criteria modified by the author (colour, translucency, special gravity, pH, total protein concentration, glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol, amylase activity, lactic dehydrogenase, leukocyte count, microbiological and cytological examination of the fluid). Based on the results of biochemical blood and ascites fluid examinations, the serum-ascites protein gradient and serum-ascites albumin gradient were calculated. The conducted research led to the following conclusions: the most frequent cause of ascites in dogs is a chronic heart failure, the fluid composition depends on the location and the character of the disease process resulting in ascites, the determination of the leucocyte count in the peritoneal fluid is a significant criterion enabling differentiation of ascites caused by a neoplastic disease, the determination of amylase activity, lactic dehydrogenase and glucose concentration in the peritoneal fluid enables differentiation of ascites of neoplastic etiology, the determination of triglycerides and cholesterol concentration in the peritoneal fluid enables differentiation of ascites caused by liver diseases.
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