Pathology Rounds, Anyone?
Dr. Bildfell (pathologist here at the vet school) sent an email this week announcing his obtainment of a deceased cat. The idea was that some students could take an inside look at the small mammal and identify the lesions, if any were present.
I thought - Hey, that'd be interesting. But I didn't necessarily know if I wanted to take the time, and thought other people would probably want to do it anyway. I didn't follow up on the email, until we received a second stating that the cat would be discarded if no one pounced on the opportunity. I impulsively sent an email of interest, and this morning did the honors.
(If you are not familiar with some of the following anatomy terms, you can take a look at this page.)
It was a pretty neat and very classic renal failure case. A set of radiographs indicated enlarged kidneys, and the blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine were high (both of those are indicators of renal failure).
The cat was VERY LARGE, with a chunk of lard behind the rib cage and fat partially surrounding the kidneys. The right kidney had an enlarged renal pelvis (hydronephrosis), which may have been due to decreased blood supply to the renal papillae (which can result from excessive administration of drugs like ibuprofen). The left kidney was more interesting -- it had been largely taken over by a lymphoma (tumor of lymphocytes). We didn't find any macroscopic evidence of metastasis, but I would not have been surprised to find tumor cells in the local lymph nodes.
I ran into one of my old teachers from first year, and was telling her about the neat necropsy I got to do today. Her view of it was different, because she has seen the effects of lymphoma on peoples' pets. To me, it was primarily an interesting medical thing; to her, it killed someone's companion. I expect my view of it will become more like hers, once I have seen more of the human side of the veterinary profession.
I thought - Hey, that'd be interesting. But I didn't necessarily know if I wanted to take the time, and thought other people would probably want to do it anyway. I didn't follow up on the email, until we received a second stating that the cat would be discarded if no one pounced on the opportunity. I impulsively sent an email of interest, and this morning did the honors.
(If you are not familiar with some of the following anatomy terms, you can take a look at this page.)
It was a pretty neat and very classic renal failure case. A set of radiographs indicated enlarged kidneys, and the blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine were high (both of those are indicators of renal failure).
The cat was VERY LARGE, with a chunk of lard behind the rib cage and fat partially surrounding the kidneys. The right kidney had an enlarged renal pelvis (hydronephrosis), which may have been due to decreased blood supply to the renal papillae (which can result from excessive administration of drugs like ibuprofen). The left kidney was more interesting -- it had been largely taken over by a lymphoma (tumor of lymphocytes). We didn't find any macroscopic evidence of metastasis, but I would not have been surprised to find tumor cells in the local lymph nodes.
I ran into one of my old teachers from first year, and was telling her about the neat necropsy I got to do today. Her view of it was different, because she has seen the effects of lymphoma on peoples' pets. To me, it was primarily an interesting medical thing; to her, it killed someone's companion. I expect my view of it will become more like hers, once I have seen more of the human side of the veterinary profession.
posted by Claire at 14:21
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