👀 Look What Was in this Dog's Chest...

A 6 year old MN Pit Bull rescue presented to the ER for increased respiratory rate.

On presentation, he was dull mentally and febrile. He also was noted to have joint effusion. Chest radiographs were done, and he had pleural effusion (strange combo of clinical signs!). The pleural effusion was then tapped and submitted for cytology. This is what I saw: 

The fluid is sooo inflamed, with a predominance of degenerate neutrophils and lesser numbers of macs. And holy moly, BACTERIA. Septic pyothorax like woah.

At that point, the dog was taken to surgery, and there was no clear cause of the infection found (no foreign body, grass awn, etc). And sadly, despite everyone’s best efforts, he arrested and died during surgery.

Post-mortem joint aspirates were taken (remember, he had joint effusion too), and interestingly, his joints were filled with bacteria as well.

A strange case with interesting cytologic findings!