Background Few studies have assessed predictors of outcome in dogs with thyroid tumors undergoing thyroidectomy. Objective To estimate the survival and identify prognostic factors in dogs with thyroid tumors treated by thyroidectomy. Animals A total of 144 client‐owned dogs with thyroid neoplasia that underwent thyroidectomy. Methods Retrospective study. Data for analysis included hospital attended and year of surgery, signalment, thyroxine concentration, thyroid tumor features (lobe involvement, size, invasiveness, histopathological type), thrombosis, metastasis, additional surgery and therapy, administration of adjuvant chemotherapy. The association of predictors with survival (time from surgery to death) were assessed by calculating cause‐specific hazard ratios (HR cs ) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Causes of death were classified as thyroid‐related or because of other cause. Results Overall median survival time was 802 days (CI95% = 723‐1015 days); 89 dogs (77.4%) survived >500 days. Metastases were identified at admission in 12 (8.3%) dogs and were associated with higher thyroid cancer‐related fatality (HR = 5.83, CI95% = 1.56‐21.78; P = .009). Thrombosis occurred in 40 dogs and was associated with increased risk of death because of other cause (HR = 2.73, CI95% = 1.18‐6.35; P = .019). Nonfollicular carcinoma (HR = 4.17, CI95% = 1.27‐13.69; P = .018) and administration of chemotherapy (HR = 3.45, CI95% = 1.35‐8.82; P = .01) were associated with higher risk of thyroid cancer‐related death. Conclusions and Clinical Importance Dogs with thyroid tumors undergoing thyroidectomy have a long life expectancy. Despite the rare presence of nonfollicular carcinoma and metastases, thyroidectomy should still be considered in some of these dogs.

Feline parvovirus (FPV) causes severe gastroenteritis and leukopenia in cats; the outcome is poor. Information regarding specific treatments is lacking. Class A CpG oligodeoxynucleotides (CpG-A) are short single-stranded DNAs, stimulating type I interferon production. In cats, CpG-A induced an antiviral response in vivo and inhibited FPV replication in vitro. The aim was to prospectively investigate the effects of CpG-A on survival, clinical score, hematological findings, antiviral response (cytokines), viremia, and fecal shedding (real-time qPCR) in cats naturally infected with FPV. Forty-two FPV-infected cats were randomized to receive 100 µg/kg of CpG-A (n = 22) or placebo (n = 20) subcutaneously, on admission and after 48 h. Blood and fecal samples were collected on admission, after 1, 3, and 7 days. All 22 cats showed short duration pain during CpG-A injections. The survival rate, clinical score, leukocyte and erythrocyte counts, viremia, and fecal shedding at any time-point did not differ between cats treated with CpG-A (50%) and placebo (40%). Antiviral myxovirus resistance (Mx) gene transcription increased in both groups from day 1 to 3 (p = 0.005). Antibodies against FPV on admission were associated with survival in cats (p = 0.002). In conclusion, CpG-A treatment did not improve the outcome in cats with FPV infection. FPV infection produced an antiviral response.

Background Feline panleukopenia virus (FPV) is very resistant and highly contagious and infects domestic cats and other felids. FPV is particularly widespread among sheltered cats, and is associated with high morbidity and mortality, causing severe gastroenteritis characterized by anorexia, lethargy, fever, dehydration, hemorrhagic diarrhea, and vomiting. There is currently no data on the ultrasonographic features of cats affected with FPV. This case series describes abdominal ultrasonographic findings in shelter cats with naturally-occurring FPV, and assesses whether are associated with clinical and laboratory findings. Cats affected by FPV were enrolled in the study if an abdominal ultrasound was performed within 12 hours of diagnosis. Clinical, laboratory and survival data were collected from medical records. Ultrasonographic examinations were reviewed for gastrointestinal abnormalities and their associations with the above data were explored. Results Twenty-one cats were included. Nine cats (42.9%) died and 12 (57.1%) recovered. Based on ultrasonography, the duodenum and jejunum showed thinning of the mucosal layer in 70.6% and 66.6% of cats, thickening of the muscular layer in 52.9% and 57.1% of cats, and hyperechogenicity of the mucosa in 41.2% and 33.3%. Jejunal hyperechoic mucosal band paralleling the submucosa and irregular luminal surface were both observed in 33.3% of the cats. Survival was positively associated with increased jejunal mucosal echogenicity (P = 0.003) and hyperechoic mucosal band (P = 0.003). Peritoneal free fluid was positively associated with vomiting (P = 0.002). Conclusions This study provides ultrasonographic features of naturally-occurring FPV in cats, which, as expected, are compatible with gastroenteropathy. The most frequent findings were diffuse small intestine mucosal layer thinning, muscular layer thickening and mucosal hyperechogenicity, jejunal hyperechoic mucosal band and irregular luminal surface. Ultrasonographic features may be useful to complete the clinical picture and assess the severity of the gastroenteropathy in FPV cats. Prospective studies are needed to confirm ultrasonographic prognostic factors.

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This article discusses a 2018 theatrical production of Hamlet with Romanian teenage arts students, directed by one of the article’s authors, actress and academic Dana Trifan Enache. As an artist, she believes that the art of theatre spectacle depends pre-eminently on the actors’ enactment, and hones her students’ acting skills and technique accordingly. The other voice in the article comes from an academic in a cognate discipline within the broad field of arts and humanities. As a feminist and medievalist, the latter has investigated the political underside of representations of the body in religious drama, amongst others. The analytic duo reflects as much the authors’ different professional formation and academic interests as their asymmetrical positioning vis-à-vis the show as respectively the play’s director and one of its spectators. Their shared occupational investment, teaching to form and hone highly specialized professional skills, and shared object of professional interest (broadly conceived), text interpretation, account nevertheless for the possibility of fruitful interdisciplinary reflection on the 2018 Hamlet. This in-depth analysis of the circumstances of the performance and technical solutions it sought challenges stereotyped dismissals of a students’ Hamlet as superannuated, flimsy or gratuitously provocative. Furthermore, a gender-aware examination of the adaptation’s original handling of characters and scenes indicates unexpected cross-cultural and diachronic commonalities between the dramatic world of the 2018 Romanian production of Hamlet and socio-cultural developments emergent in pre-Shakespearean England.