The medical records of 62 cats with clinical signs of central nervous system disease and accompanying inflammatory cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis were examined retrospectively to determine if signalment, clinical signs, CSF analysis and ancillary testing could accurately predict the type of central nervous system disease that was present. An inflammatory CSF was defined as one in which a total nucleated cell count was greater than 5 cells/μl or one in which the total nucleated cell count was normal but the nucleated cell differential count was abnormal. Sex, degree of CSF inflammation, neuroanatomical location and systemic signs provided little contributory information to the final diagnosis. In 63% of the cases a presumptive diagnosis could be made based on a combination of clinical signs, clinicopathological data and ancillary diagnostic tests. CSF analysis alone was useful only in the diagnosis of cats with feline infectious peritonitis, Cryptococcus species infection, lymphoma and trauma. Overall, despite extensive diagnostic evaluation, a specific diagnosis could not be made in 37% of cats. The prognosis for cats with inflammatory CSF was poor with 77% of cats surviving less than 1 year.

An epidural location for lymphoma is observed in 0.1–6.5% of all the lymphomas. Primary spinal epidural lymphoma (PSEL) is a subset of lymphomas, where there are no other recognizable sites of lymphomas at the time of diagnosis. The incidence of this subset of lymphomas is much less. It, however, is increasingly diagnosed, due to the increased use of more sensitive imaging modalities. For the electronic search, Pubmed was used to identify journals that enlisted and enumerated PSEL from 1961 to January 2011. The following combination of terms: “primary,” “spinal,” “epidural,” and “lymphoma” were used. The most significant articles and their bibliographies were analyzed by the authors. The symptoms, pathogenesis, diagnostic workup, histopathology, treatment, and outcome have been analyzed in a systematic manner

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A 6-year-old dog, a 4-year-old dog and three 7-week-old puppies were diagnosed with thiamine deficiency caused by feeding sulphite treated meat. The 6-year-old dog presented with a history of inappetence, weight loss and vomiting that rapidly progressed to signs of multifocal intracranial disease including mental dullness, paresis, seizures, spontaneous nystagmus and strabismus. Thiamine pyrophosphate effect was elevated at 58% and magnetic resonance imaging revealed bilaterally symmetrical hyperintensity of the caudate nucleus and rostral colliculi. The dog recovered with thiamine supplementation. The 4-year-old dog and three 7-week-old puppies also presented with rapidly progressive multifocal central nervous system signs including ataxia, paresis, increased muscle tone, seizures, nystagmus and exophthalmos. The 4-year-old dog made a rapid recovery with thiamine supplementation. Euthanasia and necropsy of a puppy revealed malacia of multiple brainstem nuclei and oedema of the cerebral cortex. These findings were consistent with thiamine deficiency.

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