Respiratory distress associated with lungworm infection in a kitten

Abstract

Case summaryA 5-month-old feral kitten developed worsening respiratory signs, including tachypnea, coughing and wheezing after standard anthelmintic treatment with fenbendazole at a local shelter. The kitten was referred to the University of California, Davis, William R Pritchard Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital for further evaluation. Thoracic radiographs revealed a severe diffuse bronchointerstitial pattern with bronchial cuffing, ill-defined nodules and lymphadenomegaly. Differentials included infectious etiologies such as toxoplasmosis, feline infectious peritonitis and cryptococcosis. Parasitic infection was considered less likely, owing to previous anthelmintic treatment. Bronchoalveolar lavage revealed marked neutrophilic and eosinophilic inflammation, and parasitic larvae were observed in a swab of trachea mucus. PCR confirmed the larvae as Aelurostrongylus abstrusus. The kitten recovered with two more rounds of anthelmintic treatment.Relevance and novel informationParasitic pneumonia should be considered as a cause of respiratory distress in kittens and cats. Lungworm infections have been more commonly reported in free-roaming young and adult cats, but cannot be excluded as a differential diagnosis in cats from varied environments and in kittens. Kittens appear to be especially sensitive to lungworm infections, manifested by the development of more severe clinical signs; thus lungworm infection should always be considered when presented with a kitten in respiratory distress. In the absence of cytologic confirmation of infection via bronchoalveolar lavage or oropharyngeal swab, PCR provides a valuable means for identification of lungworms, such as A abstrusus and Troglostrongylus brevior.

Clinical Toxoplasmosis in Dogs and Cats: An Update

“…Reports of clinical protozoal infections resembling toxoplasmosis have been published, including cutaneous neosporosis in a dog (81); a cutaneous infection by a T. gondii -like parasite in a dog and a cat (42, 82, 83); congenital infections in dogs by S. neurona (84) and N. caninum (85); generalized disease showing pneumonia in dogs by Sarcocystis spp. (86), N. caninum (85), and lungworms (87); hepatitis in dogs by Sarcocystis spp. (88), S. canis (77), Sarcocystis caninum, Sarcocystis svanai (89), and N. caninum (79); myocarditis in dogs by the West Nile Virus (90) and N. caninum (91); and skeletal muscle myositis in dogs by S. caninum and S. svanai (89, 92).…”

Cat Respiratory Nematodes: Current Knowledge, Novel Data and Warranted Studies on Clinical Features, Treatment and Control

“…The resolution of the alveolar pattern coincides with the emergence of an interstitial pattern which then becomes predominant and is either nodular or diffuse and unstructured ( Figure 1 ), the latter being the most common radiographic feature of clinical aelurostrongylosis [ 26 , 47 , 49 ]. The presence of a bronchial pattern is also fairly frequent in both experimental and field studies and can be associated with alveolar, interstitial (either nodular or unstructured) and/or vascular patterns [ 22 , 32 , 47 , 50 , 56 , 58 ] ( Figure 2 ). An enlargement of the cardiac silhouette due to reversible [ 32 ] or irreversible [ 29 ] PH (see Section 2.1 and Section 2.3 ) has also been reported.…”

“…A partial utility may emerge when these methods are applied to cats with clinical signs in the absence of a respiratory parasitosis suspicion. In fact, some findings (e.g., bronchiectasis) are more frequent in cats infected by A. abstrusus , and the detection of hypercellularity with an eosinophilic inflammation suggests potential parasitic infection, though this latter finding is inconsistent and occasional [ 58 , 68 , 88 ]. In these latter cases, in the absence of larvae at the BAL, further methods (e.g., fecal examinations and/or PCR) are necessary to confirm or exclude a respiratory parasitosis.…”

“…The abovementioned molecular tools proved to be powerful in a number of studies, to confirm copromicroscopic diagnoses in clinical cases [ 29 , 41 , 42 , 58 , 60 ], in postmortem evaluations [ 60 , 92 ], in epizootiological and biological surveys [ 2 , 14 , 15 , 20 , 40 , 93 , 94 , 95 , 96 ] and in the clinical evaluations of anthelmintics [ 97 ].…”

Clinical and Epidemiological Study on Aelurostrongylus Abstrusus Infection in Cats, Romania; Preliminary Data

“…Aelurostrongylus abstrusus (Nematoda: Angiostrongylidae) is a gastropod-borne parasite of domestic and wild felids with a worldwide distribution; it is regarded as the most common feline lungworm infecting domestic cats, indifferent of their habitat, breed, gender or lifestyle (Pennisi et al, 2015;Hawley et. al., 2016).…”