The diagnosis of gallbladder mucocele（GM）in dogs has became incresingly frequent. However, the pathogenesis of GM remains unclear. Hydrophobic bile acids are suspected to play a role in the development of GM because of their cytotoxic effects. Several reports have indicated that determination of serum bile acid compositional ratio can aid in estimating the compositional ratio of gallbladder bile acid. In this study, we examined the associations of serum bile acid composition with GM and biliary sludge（BS）. The percentage composition of 16 serum bile acids were calculated in 20 dogs with GM, 32 with BS, and 7 control dogs. Fifteen and 12 dogs had been treated with ursodeoxycholic acid（UDCA）in the GM and BS groups,respectively. We found that the percentage of serum taurodeoxycholic acid（TDCA）, which is a hydrophobic bile acid, was significantly lower in the GM group（P＝0.0356）compared to the control group, irrespective of UDCA administration. Although the percentage of serum tauroursodeoxycholic acid（TUDCA）, which is hydrophilic, was significantly higher in the GM（P＝0.0026）and BS（P＝0.0084）groups compared to the control group, this change seemed to be attributable to UDCA treatment. No difference was observed in the percentage of other serum bile acid fractions between the control and GM or BS groups. These results suggest that the decrease, rather than increase, in serum levels of TDCA, a hydrophobic bile acid, may play a role in the pathogenesis of GM in dogs. Further studies on gallbladder bile with a larger sample size are needed to clarify the pathological roles of bile acid in GM in dogs.

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 Changes in blood glucose concentration due to exercise were reported to induce various side effects such as hypoglycemia and delayed digestion and absorption depending on timing of mealtime. Postprandial hypoglycemia has been reported in the dog during hunting, however, its mechanism is unknown. Therefore the purpose of this study was to evaluate blood biochemical parameters before and after oral glucose tolerance test（OGTT）in healthy 4 dogs. Exercise was performed after 30 minutes from the beginning of OGTT. The results suggested that exercise induce decreasing blood glucose and insulin concentrations after OGTT. As such, conditions with both hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia might have higher risk of lowering blood glucose concentratsons. Moreover, exercise in fasting state induced lipolysis.
 In the future, we should evaluate relationship between exercise and diet（include various nutrient component）, since OGTT was only performed in the present study.

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 The American Animal Hospital Association（AAHA）set forth the nutritional assessment guidelines for dogs and cats in 2010. Whereas the World Small Animal Veterinary Association proposed the body condition score（BCS）as a global standards of the nutritional assessment. The BCS and muscle condition score （MCS）were included in the screening tools. MCS is assessed by the visual examination and the palpation over following the five body areas: temporal bones, scapulae, ribs, lumbar vertebrae and pelvic bones. However, the MCS assessment has not been prevailed in the veterinary practitioners. Therefore, we aimed to develop a MCS model to allow more accurate assessment. Twenty one dogs which were bred at the university and general family were used for this study. We palpated the above mentioned five body areas that are based on the AAHA guideline. In parallel, the hardness of each body area was measured by Muscle Hardness Tester （Sato Tech. Tokyo）to digitize the palpation score. The body fat percentage was measured by Kao Healthlab Body Fat Analyzer BIF-D02 for dog（Kao, Tokyo）. The range of body fat percentage in 21 dogs was from 14％to 39％, and the range of BCS was from 2 to 4. Pearson 's correlation coefficient test was conducted between MCS value and the hardness of each palpation area. The average score of the five palpation areas showed stronger correlation than the score of individual palpation area in the MCS assessment. This result suggests that MCS value can quantify. Therefore, we will further investigate materials necessary to make a MCS model in reference to this data.

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