Multiple Pulmonary Abscesses in a Greyhound Dog

Abstract

Pulmonary abscesses are rare in dogs. A 4-year old female Greyhound, weighing 20.6 Kg, was referred to Small Animal Clinics of the university with a complaint of non-productive cough, exercise intolerance, bilateral serous nasal discharge, weight loss and dyspnea for the last 2 months. Physical examination revealed tachypnea and negative inducible cough reflex along with crackles on both sides of chest on auscultation. Hematological findings revealed absolute neutrophilia (88%) and increased PCV. Biochemical tests demonstrated hyper globulinemia and hyper fibrinogenemia. Hypoxemia and hypercapnia were the main alterations noticed on blood gas analysis. Chest radiographs showed severe nodular interstitial pattern in all the lung lobes. Trans-tracheal wash (TTW) and Transthoracic fine needle aspiration cytology of the patient demonstrated markedly increased cellularity with most of foci showing preponderance of neutrophils and very few macrophages confirming the presence of largely suppurative inflammation suggestive of pulmonary abscessation. Due to multiple pulmonary abscessation and resistance to commonly used antibiotics, dog did not respond and died within 3 days of treatment before CST results. To the author's knowledge, multiple pulmonary abscessation is the first report of its kind in dogs in India.