Stories
from our CT

A sixteen-year-old cat was being treated for an overactive thyroid gland. Despite this, she was losing a lot of weight and had been vomiting blood for a long time. The vet needed to know what was happening throughout her body and therefore recommended a CT scan from head to tail.

In the neck, the CT found an enlarged right lobe of the thyroid gland, a mass about four centimetres long that was not growing into the surrounding tissue. However, it also showed things that an examination of the thyroid alone would not have revealed: a thickened stomach wall, enlarged lymph nodes in several places, lesions in the spleen, tiny nodules in the liver, nodules in the left kidney and a little fluid in the abdomen. The right kidney was small, which is consistent with a long-standing disease.

An eleven-year-old male cat had had a firm lump on his neck for about two months. His neck and head were so itchy that he was injuring himself. The vet recommended a whole-body CT scan to see where the lump was coming from and whether the problem was limited to the neck.

The lump turned out to be enlarged salivary glands below the right side of the lower jaw and near the ear, together with enlarged lymph nodes in the neck. However, the CT also found lesions in both lungs (small and large nodules and changes in the lung tissue) and an intussusception in the stomach, a condition in which one part of the stomach slides into another, like the sections of a telescope.

A ten-year-old male cat had a lump next to his breastbone. The vet needed to know how big it was, what it involved and whether it had spread anywhere, and therefore recommended a CT scan of the chest, abdomen and pelvis.

The mass was about five centimetres in size. It lay under the skin next to the first three segments of the breastbone and was very probably already growing into the chest muscle. It did not extend into the chest cavity or reach the lungs. Alongside this, the CT picked up a small, irregular right kidney, a widened left ureter and signs that both ureters open in an unusual place, into the urethra instead of the bladder.

A thirteen-year-old dog had raised liver values on blood tests, and a liver tumour was suspected. To find out whether there was a lesion in the liver and whether anything had spread in the body, the vet recommended a whole-body CT scan.

The liver was evenly and mildly enlarged, with no well-defined lesion, and the lymph nodes next to the liver were enlarged. The lungs were clear, and the CT found nothing significant in the other organs.

A six-year-old female patient was lethargic and had low blood sugar. The vet suspected an insulinoma, a tumour of the pancreas that releases too much insulin. She came for a CT scan to find out whether there was a visible lesion in the pancreas or elsewhere in the abdomen.

The CT found no lesion in the pancreas or in the other abdominal organs. Minor changes in the lungs may be related to the anaesthetic. An incidental finding was a mild narrowing, on the left, of the opening through which a nerve passes between the last lumbar vertebra and the sacrum.

A fourteen-year-old dog had abdominal pain, was lethargic and weak in his hind legs, and had raised kidney values and enlarged lymph nodes. The vet recommended a CT scan of the chest, abdomen and pelvis to see how these problems were connected.

The CT showed enlarged lymph nodes in both the chest and the abdomen, an enlarged liver, both kidneys enlarged and interspersed with nodules, a thickened right ureter that was not draining the contrast agent, and tiny nodules in the lungs. It also found changes in the gallbladder, a little fluid in the abdomen with signs of inflammation of the abdominal lining, and an enlarged heart.

An eleven-year-old female German Shepherd came in with breathlessness, lethargy and anaemia. To find out what was behind this and how far the disease extended, the vet recommended a CT scan of her neck, chest, abdomen and pelvis.

The CT showed enlarged lymph nodes in several parts of the body, an enlarged liver and spleen, a small amount of fluid in the abdomen and changes in the lungs that were most consistent with pneumonia. Incidental findings were degenerative changes in the hip joints and the spine.