CASE REPORT Successful treatment of mitral valve endocarditis in a dog associated with ‘Actinomyces canis-like’ infection N. Balakrishnan, M.S., PhD a , K. Alexander, DVM a , B. Keene, DVM a , S. Kolluru, B.S a , M.L. Fauls, B.S b , I. Rawdon, DVM a , E.B. Breitschwerdt, DVM a, * a Department of Clinical Sciences and the Intracellular Pathogens Research Laboratory, Center for Comparative Medicine and Translational Research, North Carolina State University, 1060 William Moore Dr., Raleigh, NC 27607, USA b Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, 1060 William Moore Dr., Raleigh, NC 27607, USA Received 28 October 2015; received in revised form 28 March 2016; accepted 13 April 2016 KEYWORDS Bacterial endocarditis; Blood culture; 16s rDNA PCR; Actinomycosis Abstract Infective endocarditis, an inflammation of the endocardial surface due to invasion by an infectious agent, is more common in middle sized to large breed dogs. We herein report a case of mitral valve endocarditis in a 9-year-old male- castrated Weimaraner caused by an Actinomyces canis-like bacterium, not pre- viously reported in association with infection in dogs. ª 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Case description On February 2015, a 9-year-old male-castrated Weimaraner (33.5 kg), was referred to the North Carolina State University, College of Veterinary Medicine, Veterinary Hospital (NCSU-CVM-VH) for evaluation of lethargy and hyporexia of 5 days duration. Two other household dogs remained healthy. Historically, the dog had access to a wooded area with tall grass that had resulted in tick attachments. Vaccination status was current and the dog received heartworm and flea and tick preventive products. When initially examined by the referring veter- inarian two days before NCSU-CVM-VH admission, * Corresponding author. E-mail address: ed_breitschwerdt@ncsu.edu (E.B. Breitschwerdt). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvc.2016.04.005 1760-2734/ª 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Please cite this article in press as: Balakrishnan N, et al., Successful treatment of mitral valve endocarditis in a dog associated with ‘Actinomyces canis-like’ infection, Journal of Veterinary Cardiology (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvc.2016.04.005 Journal of Veterinary Cardiology (2016) - , - e - www.elsevier.com/locate/jvc