Snail drama!
In these days of Angiostrongylosis (in the UK anyway) we know all about the threat posed by snails to our pets’ health….
This case concerns an acutely dyspnoeic 1 y.o. domestic short-haired cat one Sunday afternoon. His thoracic radiographs are interesting.
Place your bets….name that tracheal foreign body!
I guess I blew it with the title. The snail is wedged at the carina. I’m just amazed that this cat survived because he has absolutely minimal space around the edges for airflow. Removing the offending mollusc also seemed an intimidating prospect: it was easy to imagine it falling out of the grabbers halfway up the trachea and completely occluding the airway or fragmenting. Also there was no way it was going to fit though the endotracheal tube which was competely filled with bronchoscope. In fact the scope working channel was anyway too small to accommodate a tool which would adequately grasp the shell.
bronchoscopic view of the snail in situ: not much to grab hold of
In the end we opted to pass an endoscopic retrieval basket through the glottis first, followed by the ET tube alongside it. The bronchoscope could then be passed through the tube to visualise the capture of the shell with the basket. The scope, ET tube and retrieval device were then withdrawn simultaneously.
phew!
The carina minus snail
Happily there were no lasting ill effects: the patient recovering uneventfully.
