Stories
from our CT

Real cases from our archive: what the patient came in with, why their vet recommended CT and what the scan showed. Explained so that anyone can follow, and without names.

Oncology, Abdomen, Head and neck

She was losing weight and vomiting blood. CT showed the problem was not just the thyroid

Patient
cat, domestic shorthair, spayed female, 16 years
Examination
Whole-body CT, pre- and post-contrast
Date
March 2026
3D CT reconstruction

3D reconstruction of the chest and abdomen, seen from the left. Behind the ribs is the enlarged left kidney (gold), in which the CT found nodules; further forward, in the chest, is the heart.

  • bone
  • strongest contrast uptake: blood vessels, heart, kidneys
  • organs and tissues with weaker contrast uptake, including tumours
  • skin and fat

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.

Transverse CT slice at the level of the finding

Cross-section through the neck: next to the windpipe is a non-uniform mass, the enlarged right lobe of the thyroid gland.

Longitudinal CT slice through the neck

Longitudinal slice through the neck, seen from above: the oval mass in the centre is the enlarged right lobe of the thyroid gland.

Maximum intensity projection of the whole scan

The whole scan in a single image: the skeleton, and the kidneys highlighted by the contrast agent.

Head and neck, Chest and lungs, Abdomen

An itchy lump on the neck, and everything the CT showed

Patient
cat, British Shorthair, neutered male, 11 years
Examination
Whole-body CT, pre- and post-contrast
Date
March 2026
3D CT reconstruction

3D reconstruction of the head and neck, seen from the right. Below the skull, behind the lower jaw, is the area of enlarged salivary glands and lymph nodes (red-orange); blood vessels containing contrast agent run through the neck (gold). The white tube along the front leg is the cannula through which the contrast agent is given.

  • bone
  • strongest contrast uptake: blood vessels, heart, kidneys
  • organs and tissues with weaker contrast uptake, including tumours
  • skin and fat

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.

Transverse CT slice at the level of the finding

Cross-section through the upper part of the neck at the level of the abnormal salivary glands on the right.

Maximum intensity projection of the whole scan

The whole scan in a single image: the skeleton, and the kidneys highlighted by the contrast agent.

Neurology, Head and neck

Seizures and walking in circles. CT found a lesion in the brain

Patient
dog, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, male, 11 years
Examination
CT of the head, pre- and post-contrast
Date
August 2026

For the past month, an eleven-year-old dog had been having epilepsy-like seizures and turning in circles to the right. The vet recommended a CT scan of the head to look for the cause in the brain and skull.

In the right hemisphere of the brain, the CT found a lesion about two centimetres in size that was pressing on its surroundings: the falx, the natural dividing wall between the hemispheres, was pushed slightly to the left. On the right, the thin bone that separates the brain from the nasal cavity was damaged, but the change had not grown into the nose. The CT also picked up breakdown of the necks of two teeth in the right upper jaw, with bone loss around one of them.