Lung ultrasound remains a hot topic with the publication this year of another couple of great articles. Tommaso Vezzosi and colleagues look at the diagnostic accuracy of lung ultrasound (LUS) for cardiogenic pulmonary oedema and correlate findings with ACVIM consensus staging system. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jvim.14692/pdf Reassuringly they report that: B lines are rare or absent in @90% … Continue reading
Prostatic cysts are a common finding -particularly in entire male dogs. These are aetiologically distinct from para-prostatic cysts which are thought to form within remnants of the mullerian ducts adjacent to the prostate. Intra-parenchymal microcysts are almost always present when hyperplasia is pronounced. Larger fluid-filled spaces are often termed ‘retention cysts’: these generally contain prostatic … Continue reading
One of the cardinal rules of serious small animal sonography is ‘don’t forget to scan the ovaries, uterus and testicles’. At least in the UK it’s easy to forget that they’ve not always been removed!. A couple of recent examples: Firstly a young unilaterally-cryptorchid dog presented with acute abdominal pain. Impressively, the first opinion practitioner … Continue reading
Acute severe dyspnoea is a common, life-threatening condition in cats. The principal differentials being: cardiogenic pulmonary oedema asthma/allergic airway disease pleural effusion of various causes pneumothorax ruptured diaphragm Ultrasonography is a useful tool to distinguish between these and offers major advantages in that it can usually be performed quickly, without manual or chemical restraint by … Continue reading
AHDS (or HGE as it is probably more widely known) has long remained an enigmatic condition. Despite being common and serious, a definitive cause remained elusive. Cicrumstantial evidence supported the involvement of Clostridia but we lacked an explanation as to why only a few dogs develop signs when Clostridia are ubiquitous in gut flora… ….until … Continue reading
It does sometimes feel as though shunt-ology could be a discipline in its own right: they seem to occupy an enormous part of our time and just when you think you know everything there is to know about shunts there’s another layer of complexity around the corner. A fundamental and thorny issue is the matter … Continue reading
Neoplastic fever is an important differential for pyrexia. However, it’s easy to overlook the possibility and it’s also a phenomenon about which we know relatively little. An excellent summary from human medicine can be found here: http://www.clinicalcorrelations.org/?p=7966 I suspect that, as in people, hepatic masses (especially metastases) or lymphoma are the commonest culprits in dogs. … Continue reading
Pneumatosis describes the presence of gas within gut wall of presumed bacterial origin. In cats and dogs this is usually associated with acute gut wall necrosis such as haemorrhagic diarrhoea syndrome or gastric dilation-volvulus. However, it can also be seen in chronic enteropathies. This is an elderly Westie with chronic weight loss and gastrointestinal signs. … Continue reading
I’m interested in lung ultrasound. I feel it has a lot to offer, it’s quick and easy. For a while I’ve been waiting for a convincing case of pulmonary thromboembolism (PTE) to come along. It seems very likely that such cases exist amongst our workload but, since we don’t do a lot of CT angiography, … Continue reading
Chronic hepatitis is a big issue in Springers in our part of the world: Vet Rec. 2011 Oct 15;169(16):415. doi: 10.1136/vr.d4665. Epub 2011 Aug 18. Chronic hepatitis in the English springer spaniel: clinical presentation, histological description and outcome. Bexfield NH1, Andres-Abdo C, Scase TJ, Constantino-Casas F, Watson PJ. ..and it’s frequently a frustrating and difficult … Continue reading
