There’s a certain amount of pressure as a peripatetic clinician to achieve a diagnostic outcome. The present patient is a classic of the ‘not easy’ genre. An elderly dog with recent onset inappetence-progressing-to-anorexia but lack of other specific signs. After routine anamnesis, physical examination, haematology and routine biochemistry we have: -weight loss, inappetence -no … Continue reading
The expansion of veterinary knowledge continues apace. It sometimes feels a challenge just to keep up to date with the state of play even one small area like portosystemic shunts. The excellent and seminal 2008 edition of ‘Atlas of Small Animal Ultrasonography’ unequivocally states that a portal vein:aorta ratio >0.8 rules out a congenital extrahepatic … Continue reading
This is just an excuse for some nice images. The patient is a 3 year old Lhasa apso with signs and bile acids consistent with a portosystemic shunt. Longitudinal plane images from the right side behind the last rib looking at the area of the great vessels and porta hepatis. The vena cava is clearly … Continue reading
I’ve written before about the possible link between ureteral calculi and renal infarction in cats. The more of these cats we see the more I suspect that calculi are very common and also that most of them pass through undiagnosed. My hypothesis is that this might explain the number of cats we see with renal … Continue reading
A previously-healthy, three-year-old, indoor DSH was presented with a 2 day history of cough and deteriorating respiratory distress. These are the thoracic radiographs: Looks pretty suspicious for a right sided pneumothorax. This is cat who has definitely no contact with motor vehicles. But….spontaneous pneumothorax is certainly a possibility: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24697868 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22344603 It’s not common and, as … Continue reading
This is my own dog -I’m feeling able to write this now that he’s recovered fully. As previously discussed anaphylaxis is a phenomenon which can be difficult to document definitively. However, like the last case which I wrote up a few weeks back this involved a previously 100% healthy dog with a wasp/bee chasing habit … Continue reading
I should be doing my accounts but this is really a lot more interesting. A few weeks back I posted a case with gas in the portal circulation. Today’s cat has the other potential cause of gas densities in the liver: aerobilia. This is also not common. He is a quite poorly little cat with … Continue reading
Ever spent a long time hunting ureteral jets? This is how they should be: This dog likely has myoglobinuria. The bladder contains heavily pigmented urine -which appears to have fine echotexture in this image. At the time of scanning she had been on intravenous fluids for a few hours. I suspect that the urine now … Continue reading
Our understanding of shunt anatomy in cats and dogs has moved forward recently with advances in imaging technology: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26563977 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23888909 In cats, shunts through the right gastric vein appear not to have reported; whereas in dogs they are quite common. Broadly-speaking, feline congenital extrahepatic shunts may originate at 1) splenic vein 2) mesenteric vein or … Continue reading
Anaphylaxis is familiar in human medicine and as a general concept the idea of a systemic, immediate hypersensitivity reaction is straightforward enough. However, strict defining criteria for a diagnosis of anaphylactic episodes have proved more difficult. The phenomenon is much less commonly documented in domestic pets than in people. This case relates to a young, … Continue reading
