In recent years I’ve seen a series of cats with a striking syndrome of acute, severe diarrhoea of unknown cause. The more I see of these; the more I’m suspicious it’s a disease entity which isn’t fully described in the published literature. The three recent cases described below are typical representatives of the phenomenon. All … Continue reading
Just a snippet of information -but something I’ve always struggled to find published confirmation of in the past: that both cats and dogs with portosystemic shunts may have normal range pre- and post-prandial bile acids. I note that in the recent JVIM paper: J Vet Intern Med. 2019 Nov 19. doi: 10.1111/jvim.15649. [Epub ahead … Continue reading
This is an interesting snippet of recently-published information from Utrecht which I hadn’t seen until today: https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/362993 ‘Postligation seizure syndrome (PLS) is described in 5-18% of the dogs postoperative to ligating the extrahepatic shunt and is mostly seen within 72 hours after surgery(1). Scientific literature claims a preventative effect of a preoperative treatment with levetiracetam, … Continue reading
Surprisingly, considering the wealth of information on conventional bacterial pneumonia, there is little published on the features of pulmonary TB in people. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018 Oct; 15(10): 2235. Potential Diagnostic Properties of Chest Ultrasound in Thoracic Tuberculosis—A Systematic Review Francesco Di Gennaro,1,2,† Luigi Pisani,3,4,† Nicola Veronese,5 Damiano Pizzol,6,* Valeria Lippolis,4 Annalisa … Continue reading
I reckon lung ultrasound must be one of the most profound developments in veterinary medicine during my career. The facility to diagnose rapidly, and with high degree of confidence, pneumonia, pulmonary oedema, contusions, pneumothorax and neoplasia is a phenomenal advance. Having arrived in our tool-kit in the last 10 years, this is still an evolving field. In this … Continue reading
I’ve been uneasy for a while about the drugs we often use in acute vomiting/diarrhoea dogs. Metronidazole being high on the list. Recent evidence supports the contention that metronidazole isn’t necessary. And that’s not taking into account any possible longer-term adverse effects on gut microbiota. Front. Vet. Sci., 04 June 2019 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2019.00163 A Randomized … Continue reading
Renal infarcts in cats are common and, in my experience, usually associated with a history of ureteral obstruction. Renal infarcts in dogs are altogether less common. This is the left kidney of a Cocker Spaniel with a history of severe IMHA one year previous: Now, this is a more acute presentation: … Continue reading
There’s a nice recent article on the subject of ultrasound findings in dogs with lepto: Vet Radiol Ultrasound. 2018 Jan;59(1):98-106. doi: 10.1111/vru.12571. Epub 2017 Nov 1. Prospective evaluation of abdominal ultrasonographic findings in 35 dogs with leptospirosis. Sonet J1, Barthélemy A2, Goy-Thollot I2, Pouzot-Nevoret C2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29094440 by ….but that was in France and, now, … Continue reading
I guess we know that hypoadrenocorticism (both ‘typical’ and ‘atypical’) is associated with gastrointestinal signs including ulceration. I’ve not managed to find a completely convincing pathophysiological explanation of the mechanism for this. However, I just wanted to share a couple of sonographic images of the stomach wall in addisonian dogs. They can be really striking. … Continue reading
Gabepentin is an enormously useful drug to facilitate ultrasonography in cats. I’m sure most of you are aware of this by now but it’s worth publicising a little more because, to get best effect, the use of gabapentin needs to be planned in advance of the day of scanning. J Am Vet Med Assoc. … Continue reading
