Interesting cases from this week, happily doing well at present. The first, a cat with acute vomiting and profound malaise: The first two seconds of the examination. Don’t want to jump to any conclusions but a stomach dilated to that extent raises the prospect of mechanical or functional GI obstruction. And there’s some ‘stuff’ in … Continue reading
Infective endocarditis is a challenge both diagnostically and therapeutically. Because the heart valves are not readily accessible for sampling and clinical signs/clinical pathology are highly variable, many of the cases which form the published literature on the subject were confirmed post mortem. Many of those reported in the largest case series by Sykes et al. … Continue reading
In my experience these can be outwardly quite deceptive. The degree of abdominal distention may not be pronounced. This patient presented as an ‘acute abdomen’ with haematemesis. On ultrasonography, the stomach was mildly dilated with fluid but normally-positioned and not gas-filled. Whereas dogs with small intestinal obstruction due to foreign bodies, for example, the stomach … Continue reading
Gallbladder mucocoeles are often a decision-making dilemma. Frequently they are incidental findings. Very occasionally they are secondary to hypothyroidism -in which case resolution with medical treatment is reported: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18518811 Otherwise, it’s a matter of surgery or wait and hope for the best. Personally I usually advise surgery if there are compatible clinical signs. If the … Continue reading
Since the first published description of feline ureteral calculi in 1991 we’ve reached the point where it has been described as the commonest cause of azotaemia in cats. If you prospectively scan a lot of azotaemic or non-specifically poorly cats a significant proportion will have ureteral calculi. Typical acute cases are poorly cats with abdominal … Continue reading
Hepatocutaneous syndrome is quite a complex subject -these are just a couple of images from this poor chap with severe footpad fissuring and crusting plus characteristic liver changes on ultrasonography… Continue reading
Advanced warning that this article includes one of the most amazing ultrasound images I’ve seen in some time. The patient is an 8 y.o. entire female Labrador presenting with acute malaise and pyrexa 40.5C. I’m a firm believer in the maxim that any dog with a rectal temperature >39.5C deserves survey ultrasonography of chest and … Continue reading
This is an 11 year-old female DSH with a history of progressive vague malaise, inappetence, weight loss and muscle weakness. On physical examination, striking features were profound muscle weakness, skin tenting and non-palpable femoral pulses. She was not bradycardic. Blood biochemistry: urea 13.9 mmol/l (ref 3-10) creatinine 210 umol/l (ref <180) total calcium 3.17 (ref … Continue reading
Ultrasonography is surprisingly good as a rapid, readily available imaging modality for screening potential pneumothorax patients. Since cardiogenic pulmonary oedema, pulmonary thromboemboli, pneumonia, pleural effusions and intrathoracic neoplasia can also be detected it’s a powerful tool. The technique can be mastered by anyone with a few minutes to spare. Apply a micro-convex probe to the … Continue reading
Further to my last post re ureters, this is just a little video clip of an ectopic ureter running within the bladder wall at the level of the bladder neck. The patient is a young female Labrador… Continue reading
