I want to thank you for responding to my plea for help.  Whether it was
with a suggestion or just to let us know Socks was in your thoughts and
prayers, that means a lot.  Here's the findings:
 
Socks has the vet totally stumped.  His lungs are 90% full of 3 different
types of bacteria, he has islands of large cells in his blood, but no sign
of lymphoma at this moment.  The cultures will be complete in a week.
He's now on Clavamox 2x a day.  His blood count is all right, he's slightly
anemic.  Here's what they did today, and what has transpired.  To say that
Dr. Thompson is stumped would be putting it mildly.
 
(The following is direct from the reports we received today)
Socks was presented to PUVTH on 10/20 for a transtracheal wash.  His chest
xrays yesterday revealed an opacity in his lungs suggestive of inflammation
or possibly metastatic spread of tumor.  We placed Socks under general
anesthesia and successfully retrieved sampels (they did this 2x-second
time he turned a bit blue) from his lungs for cytology and culture.  Our
initial interpretation of the cytology revealed large amounts of bacteria
with inflammation.  There was no evidence of any neoplastic process.
They'll notify me of the results of the culture as soon as the results
are available.  I'm to give him 1/4ml of Clavamox 2x a day and they may
need to change the antiobiotic pending the results of his culture.
 
We have to observe him for any difficulty in breathing, watch for
discoloration of his gums, increase in his chest movements, excitability
or breathing through his mouth.
 
Diagnostic finding: Chest radiographs revealed a diffuse opacity to the
lungs.  Cardiac silhoutte was difficult to visualize.  Blood glucose was
low at 62 mg/dl.  There was evidence of of anemai and hyperglobulinemia.
Heart sounds were not easily auscultable on physical examination.  All else
was WNL.  Treatment/Procedures/Follow-up care: Transtracheal was performed
under general anesthesia using Sevoflurane.  Cytology & Culture were
submitted for evaluation.
 
Description/interpretation:
Transtracheal wash-minimal neutrophilic inflammation with marked mixed
bacterial contamination (probable oral cavity:
1. Poor diagnostic quality;
2) low total nucleated cell count;
3) mixture of epthelial cells (squamous and respiratory) and mixed
   inflammatory cell types (primarily mature nondegenerate neutrophils);
4) many extracellular mixed bacterial forms (motly rod shaped bacteria)'
5) no obvious intracellular organisms; 6)no obvious malignant neoplstic
   cell population (this is all from the Vet Clin Pathology Lab at Purdue).
 
I'll keep you posted on what the cultures tell us this coming week.  Thanks
for being there for us!
 
Rebecca
[Posted in FML issue 3212]