For Referring Veterinarians

Almost daily, I encounter a radiographic study of a cat in respiratory distress and commonly, the etiology is either congestive heart failure (CHF) or chronic small airway disease such as asthma.  Congestive heart failure has a predictable set of radiographic findings as described below and easier to discern from asthmatic cases.  Asthmatic cases can be challenging to diagnose radiographically as many appear normal or have a questionable bronchial lung pattern even in the most severely…

A 9-year-old male golden retriever presented for evaluation of persistent and slowly progressive submandibular and prescapular lymphadenopathy. Peripheral blood was submitted to IDEXX for a CBC. Fine needle aspirate samples for cytology were collected from both prescapular lymph nodes and the right mandibular lymph node. An aspirate sample from the left prescapular lymph node was also placed in a lymph node aspirate transport tube for flow cytometry. Please review the test results below to come…

What is DKA in Dogs and Cats? Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) is a serious and life-threatening complication of diabetes mellitus that can occur in dogs and cats. DKA is characterized by hyperglycemia, ketonemia, +/- ketonuria, and metabolic acidosis.  Ketone bodies are formed by lipolysis (breakdown of fat) of fat and beta-oxidation when the metabolic demands of the cells are not met by the limited intracellular glucose concentrations.  This provides alternative energy sources for cells, which are…